One Night Stand: Robin Harris

This half-hour HBO set is a snapshot of a working comedian crossing over into the mainstream. Robin Harris takes the stage and immediately launches into a string of complaints, critiquing Oprah Winfrey and his own wife with an exhausted, commanding delivery. He acts less like a performer running through a tight routine and more like the most aggravated guy at a neighborhood barbecue holding court. The broadcast peaks with his extended story about taking a woman on a date only to get stuck chaperoning her terribly behaved children, the specific routine that eventually inspired the 1992 animated film Bébé’s Kids.

Filmed for the second season of the network’s One Night Stand series, the set premiered on March 3, 1990. Harris was working constantly at the time, having recently stolen scenes as the curmudgeonly father in the movie House Party and picked up a role in Mo’ Better Blues. Tragically, the Chicago comic suffered a fatal heart attack just fifteen days after the broadcast. He left behind a brief but undeniable body of work, with this recording preserving a talent who was just starting to find his widespread audience.