Who knew Jimmy Fallon had such extensive experience with soap operas?
The Tonight Show host and Martin Short unveiled their short-lived '90s soap opera, Tensions, Thursday, and it had many of the staple qualities of your favorite daytime TV shows. Tension? Obviously. An affair? Check. Violence? You bet.
Fallon and Short played husband and wife Maxwell and Lillian Vanderbilt, respectively.
"There were no women in Hollywood at that time," Short explained, referencing his casting as a female.
According to the two comedians, the director wanted the show to be "as tense as possible," but he took it too far. "It was too tense for no reason," Fallon said. Luckily for the viewers, Fallon managed to unearth three clips from the "cages" of 30 Rock.
The first clip showed Fallon as Maxwell enjoying a turkey sandwich, which didn't sit well with his fictional wife. She interrogated him about the sandwich's ingredients, but Maxwell's list didn't suffice, which made for a tense situation. Feeling betrayed by her husband, Lillian (Short) slapped him and threw a drink in his face.
Fallon was right—it was too tense for no reason.
The next clip showed Lillian taking exception to her husband's blinking. "I need answers and I don't need lies," she said while asking him why he was opening and closing his eyes.
"It's a natural human process," he assured her. But she didn't take too well to the sass, so not only slapped him and threw water at him (again), she also cracked a vase over his head.
In the third and final clip, Lillian was put in the hot seat. Maxwell accused her of having an affair with a man who has shown up "every day for the past six months," but she denied it vehemently. Cue the perfectly timed arrival of Steve Martin, the mailman.
When Maxwell asked what Martin was doing there, his response was priceless. Watch the video to find out why the Roxanne star showed up on the scene.
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Check out what Steve Martin and Martin Short had to say right before Steve's roast.