YouTube has everything: Night Stand with Dick Dietrick

In the mid-90s, a show that aired in syndication late nights for a couple of seasons, and also aired as a companion to Howard Stern’s radio show and Talk Soup on E!, was a favorite of my father’s and I.  “Night Stand with Dick Dietrick” was a show I enjoyed so much I made a fan site for it when I was in high school.

The show hooked into the growing trend at the time of trashy talk shows, with the titular character name-checking Jerry Springer now and then, as if he was his archrival (Springer ended up guesting on the show).  Lynne Marie Stewart, probably best known as Miss Yvonne on “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” was part of the cast for part of its run, always planted in the audience with some sort of hilarious question to ask at the right time.

The show played heavily on sex and sexual innuendo, which fit the over-the-top antics of shows like “The Richard Bey Show” at the time.  A recurring joke was Dietrick or a guest making a comment that doubled as sexual innuendo, and as the audience laughing the host would look puzzled, and then, getting it, shouts at the audience “Oh no! No people!”

The show hasn’t been on the air in many years, but thanks to a few enterprising people, a couple of dozen of the 96 half-hour episodes (which aired in syndication as 48 hour-long episodes) are able to be viewed.  It’s worth seeking out if this type of humor is your thing.

Additional viewing

Stack has certainly garned a following, having appeared regularly in series like “My Name is Earl” and “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.” He also found moderate success with “Son of the Beach,” a Baywatch parody produced for FX that also involved Howard Stern, who discovered Stack while they were channel mates on E! (and who too liked that style of humor).

Stack, this time as Notch Johnson, again played off innuendo, this time in a beach setting.  Lynne Marie Stewart returns, this time as a lesbian, and some actors and guests on “Beach” could also be seen in various “Night Stand” episodes.

He’s also had popular segments on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno for almost a decade doing “Pumpcast News,” playing an anchor and pranking people at gas pumps pretending to be a new anchor and then talking to them.  It’s a funny bit, and it’s nice to see Stack get some additional airtime.

One thought on “YouTube has everything: Night Stand with Dick Dietrick

  1. Awesome, took the link to your fan page of Night Stand, enjoying the collected quotes.
    Loved the show. Thanks.

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