ABSTRACT
Wayne's World was the 1992 hit comedy film based on an NBC Saturday Night Live TV skit about two heavy-metal dudes, Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar, who broadcast their own public-access cable talk show from the basement of their parents' suburban Chicago home, and the wacky consequences that ensue when that show is picked up by sleazy commercial producers who want to use them as a vehicle to promote a video-game parlor. Lome Michaels, Saturday Night Live's guiding spirit, produced the film for Paramount Studios. Penelope Spheeris, "rockumentarian" and MTV commentator, directed Mike Myers (Wayne's creator) and Dana Carvey, two mainstays of the Saturday Night Live cast. Myers wrote the script with his partners, Bonnie and Terry Turner. Even if you've never seen the film or TV sketch, you know that Wayne's World was responsible for the currency of that post-expressionist locution— "... NOT!"—during the 1992 presidential campaign. The film did extremely well at the box office, taking in more than $200 million. It spawned an MTV video renaissance of the English rock band Queen, a hit soundtrack, a best-seller, T-shirts, baseball caps, and, courtesy of Mattell Inc., a line of games, including a 3-D card game and a VCR board game with an interactive videocassette that features footage of Wayne and Garth "talking" to game players and instructing them on how to play. At various intervals, the characters reappear to challenge players to get to "Party Central." 1 This last detail seems to me particularly savory: a performance about home cable TV that originated on live TV completed its first circle of mediation as a home interactive video game. The inevitable sequel, Wayne's World II, appeared with diminishing returns in 1993.
