Wall Street Week

In a parody of the public-television business program, Louis Rukeyser (Jon Lovitz) opens with an overextended roller-coaster metaphor for Black Monday, credited to his first panelist, the operator of a real coaster. A brokerage partner insists everything is fine while visibly unravelling, an analyst calmly urges viewers to empty their bank accounts and stockpile survival supplies before collapsing into terror, and a ruined Wall Street prodigy explains in elaborate euphemisms how he has stayed drunk all week. The special guest, a silver-suited visitor from the year 2013, reveals his flawless trading method but refuses to give tips, even as the desperate host begs for help and the evening takes a grim turn.

Aired five days after the Black Monday stock market crash of October 19, 1987. The opening card dates the show to Friday, October 23, the evening the real Wall Street Week aired its own post-crash episode.