Review of 4-18-1998 episode (rerun of 10-11-1997 episode) It's a rerun from six months ago, but it's a memorable one - one of the better episodes of the season, and also Dave Herman's last episode. I was going to start this review with a Dave Herman haiku, but to commemorate Nicole Sullivan's birthday (April 21), here's a Nicole Sullivan haiku: Revelations Nicole Sullivan, a Northwestern graduate, is on Mad TV. Now, on with the review: ========================================== =============================== News At Six: The first-ever News At Six segment. Diane Lawyer-Trabajo (Nicole Sullivan) and Miguel O'Reilly (Chris Hogan) ignore a stock market crash and a presidential assassination to cover "Windstorm '97," in which residents of the south land must cope with winds as high as 15 mph. I thought this was rather silly, but I must admit, I nevertheless found it funny, especially Diane Lawyer-Trabajo's speculations on the possibility of an attack by killer bees, which would become a recurring theme in these sketches. Opening Monologue: This Chris Hogan guy is starting to annoy me. Why they let him do the opening monologue (it's not a monologue, unless you count anything mildly funny as a monologue) is a mystery to me. Sling Blade Parody: The President of the United States (Craig Anton) sends Sling Blade (Pat Kilbane) to deal with aliens led by Jennifer Aniston (Nicole Sullivan). John Ritter (Dave Herman) also appears as his deputy. The whole idea is that this is what Sling Blade would look like if it had the budget of a James Cameron movie. This was a pretty good concept, and I especially liked Dave Herman (too bad he's gone). Ms. Swan: Ms. Swan (Alex Borstein) in the sketch that started it all. Ms. Swan's nail salon is held up, and she doesn't do a very good job of describing the assailant to a police officer (Chris Hogan). I never really liked this character that much, but this is a good sketch, especially when the officer goes berserk, shoots a bunch of people, and Diane Lawyer-Trabajo arrives to report (it seems she would be a bit out of her element here, though, since she would be reporting on something newsworthy). Real Stories of U.S. Customs: U.S. Customs agent (Phil LaMarr) and his underling (Will Sasso) deal with two miscreants (Craig Anton, Pat Kilbane) who like to stick foreign objects and themselves up their butts. Humor based on body cavity searches is not new, but this was a pretty good twist on it, so I give it a thumbs up. Antonia: Antonia (Nicole Sullivan) sees a psychiatrist (Phil LaMarr - who else?), and keeps repeating the word "rainbow". Attempts to delve into her subconscious mind fail because she is extremely dense. This one works because Sullivan's performance is not forced; also, the character itself remains a mystery - is she retarded (not very PC - should say mentally challenged) or just slow-witted? Spishak Cola: In three separate segments, the Spishak Cola spokesman (Craig Anton) has to go to great lengths to get people to say positive things about Spishak Cola, even though they like The Other Cola better. The one where he and Phil LaMarr get into a rather protracted argument over whether the spokeman's hypotheticals are plausible (e.g. "Would you drink Spishak Cola if there was no water?") was very good, as was the third one, where the spokesman punches a woman (Alex Borstein) who has discovered that the taste test was a scam. I laughed and laughed. Jennifer Love Hewitt/Will Sasso: Like Carmen Electra/Will Sasso, only with Jennifer Love Hewitt. Pretty good. Lean Bulime: This one's a play on words; instead of Lean Cusine, it's Lean Bulime, dinner entrees that you barf up as soon as you eat them. Daisy Fuentes makes a special appearance endorsing the product (which in itself is funny, because the tall slender Fuentes almost looks bulimic). It's the type of thing I probably could have thought of and that's probably why I like it so much. I think this segment was also used in a later show. UBS Guy: The real story of how the UBS Guy (Phil LaMarr) ended the UBS strike. Will Sasso is good as a paunchy UBS executive, but for some reason I can't imagine Pat Kilbane as a union representative. This was a good enough sketch, but not the best UBS sketch I've seen (at the time, the last UBS sketch was the one where he confronts a homeless guy [#219], and that one was much funnier, in my opinion). Funky Walker, Dirty Talker: Desperation Lee (Phil LaMarr) interviews Jennifer Love Hewitt. This one is pretty funny because Hewitt does not do a very good job of talking dirty, so it works in the same way that the later segment with Gilbert Gottfried worked. Good performance by LaMarr, too ("They should call your show 'Party of Funk'!"). =================================== ======================================= In conclusion, in my opinion this is one of the strongest episodes of Mad TV this season (so far: by my count, we still have at least one more show, and a new show is slated for 4-25-1998), if not the best episode. None of the segments bombed, and most of them were of above average quality. I would still have to re-screen some of the episodes from late October/early November before I made a final decision on which was the best one, but this is very good. They make good use of Craig Anton, which makes me wonder why he isn't on the show more often (I particularly liked those monologues where he would come out in a towel and talk about things that he hates). ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ