Review of 11-4-1999 episode (MD-313; OAD 1-10-1999)

==========================================================================
Needy Evie: Needy Evie is the doll that really needs you. This parody
originally aired in January 1998, and I suppose to a large extent the
writers are trying to make fun of "interactive" dolls - e.g. interactive
Barney, etc. And even though this isn't the funniest commercial parody
I've ever seen, for the most part it works; Lisa Kushell and Mary Scheer
play their roles convincingly.

Opening Monologue: "Hey Beavis, she likes older men." Nicole Sullivan
delivers her Steve Young monologue. This is similar to her remarks on
the Tonight Show on this subject, and I liked it, even though I still
don't see what all the fuss is about: most major religions frown upon
drinking, smoking and premarital sex (well, at least premarital sex
anyway). With perhaps one or two exceptions, this is the most ambitious
opening segment in season three, and it's a throwback to the old days
when the producers used to let the cast members do their own monologues.
(Nicole Sullivan herself did three excellent monologues in the first
season, mostly about guys.)

News at Six: Diane Lawyer Trabajo (Nicole Sullivan), Miguel O'Reilly
(Chris Hogan), Chance Cumulus (Phil LaMarr) and Sue Napiersville (Alex
Borstein) are back, and this time they're covering "Epidemic '98," a flu
epidemic affecting 2-3 people. It's similar to "Windstorm '97," only
they substituted a flu epidemic for the windstorm. That having been said,
it's pretty much sketch comedy by numbers - as expected, the killer bees
are mentioned, Rosa Marticorena (Debra Wilson) makes an appearance, and
Sue Napiersville delivers her annoying "Diane, Diane - can you hear me
Diane?" Of course, even this formulatic approach is better than the
attempts in season four to revive this segment: one featured Aries Spears
in a thong bikini (like I needed to see that), and the other one, while
good (Michael McDonald did a competent job replacing Chris Hogan), dragged
on far too long.

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: The real LaToya Jackson appears on The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno (Pat Kilbane), and the other Jacksons (Phil
LaMarr, Debra Wilson, Aries Spears) gang up on Leno to exact revenge for
jokes that Leno in previous monologues at the Jacksons' expense. Kilbane's
impression of Leno is good: he doesn't really physically resemble Leno,
but the makeup people do a decent job here; he's got the voice down more
or less, and he even does that silly little Leno laugh (it sounds like
Mike Tyson laughing; I don't even know if Leno does it that much, but
it's been attributed to him so much that if you're trying to do an
impression of him, you might as well do the laugh). Per usual, the
makeup people did an excellent job on LaMarr to transform him into the
King of Pop. The impressions of Janet Jackson and Tito were competent as
well. There isn't much of a premise here on which to build a segment;
it's basically about four minutes of Leno getting the crap kicked out of
him by members of the Jackson family. But it still had it's moments,
and the idea of members of the feuding Jackson clan exhibiting a sense
of unity to attack Leno has potential which was partly fulfilled here.
Still, I'd group this in the middle rank of Mad TV material: it had its
moments, but it still borders on the prosaic. Good makeup, though.

Surprise: Here's a sketch that steals a page from the Mad Magazine
play book. At the beginning of the sketch, we see a house; a husband
and wife approach the house, involved in a heated argument. The wife wants
a divorce; the husband says that's fine; I'll see you in hell. Then they
turn the lights on in the house and it turns out it's their anniversary
and their family threw a surprise party (in itself, a good reason NOT
to throw surprise parties). Then, as the guests file out, the sketch is
over: it couldn't have lasted more than a minute, and it didn't have to,
because the sketch made its point. This is the type of little vignette
that Mad TV used to excel in before the show's budget was cut and the
sketches' running times were extended (SNL could've learned a lesson
from this). I give it a solid thumbs up.

Lowered Expectations - Needy Evie: The doll that really needs you is
back for a Lowered Expectations segment. She threatens to kill herself
(again) and then says "call me" over and over again. (BTW, when this
segment first aired, some speculated that the Needy Evie doll was based
on Nicole Sullivan, but I don't see the similarity, other than the fact
that both have blonde hair and blue eyes). This was OK, although I would
rather see Lowered Expectations segments with original characters rather
than just characters from other sketches and segments.

Farrah vs. Farrakhan: The former Charlie's Angel (Lisa Kushell) and the
Black Muslim leader (Phil LaMarr) square off in a "CNN Great American
Debate." Farrakhan complains that the American ideal of beauty is racist;
Farrah Fawcett, rather than debating the issue with her opponent, babbles
incoherently. LaMarr's impression of Farrakhan here was more or less
consistent with his season one portrayal of Farrakhan: he talks about
the "white devil" (probably accurate) and he's heavily into numerology
(not sure on this one; I haven't heard enough of Farrakhan's speeches to
know if he does this a lot). Kushell's Farrah Fawcett is good - apparently,
somewhere along the line, Farrah Fawcett decided she wanted to revert back
to being a dumb blonde, and I suppose that's what she's parodying here.
Overall, a worthwhile segment.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner '98: A young woman (Nicole Sullivan) returns
home with her new fiancee - Chris Rock (Phil LaMarr) - who proceeds
to deliver material from his act, much to the annoyance of the young
woman's parents (Will Sasso, Lisa Kushell). It should be said, first of
all, that this doesn't really look like a movie parody - they only use
one set here, the living room. Still, the concept works pretty well; just
the idea of substituting the obnoxious-sounding Rock in place of the
congenial Sidney Poitier is funny in itself. I found it funny, if not
overwhelmingly so.

Lowered Expectations - Parker Sisters: The repulsive Parker Sisters
(Chris Hogan, Lisa Kushell) in a "Lowered Expectations" segment. I
didn't find this characters all that funny, although at least they didn't
overuse them like many of the other recurring characters. This was OK.

The Power of Ellen: Ellen DeGeneres caused a sensation when her character
on "Ellen" became openly gay. I didn't see what the fuss was: everyone
KNEW Doctor Smith on "Lost in Space" was gay, and that was over thirty
years ago (not to mention Billy Crystal's character on "Soap"). Anyhow,
"Ellen" becomes the inspiration for this sketch about how watching "Ellen"
can make you gay. Jerry Falwell (Will Sasso) shows up to warn us about
watching "Ellen," then he watches it and becomes gay himself (one of those
leather guys, no less). This was OK; I think also maybe they were making
fun of how the show became a one-joke show after Ellen came out of the
closet (listen to the dialogue like "Ellen, you woman-loving woman"; etc.).

Roles: What was it that Dave Foley said about sketch comedy? "First
a premise is established." So here we have Nicole Sullivan (who also
wrote the sketch) and Will Sasso as an unmarried couple driving home
from an overnight trip. The twist here is that the woman is dominant
and the man is submissive. The woman is driving and threatens to hit
a driver that cut her off. Now, all we need is a conflict. The man
and the woman are fighting; the man is mad because his fiancee won't
marry him; soon he is crying. Finally, a resolution: they make up.
Essentially based on the simplest of premises, this is nonetheless
an excellent sketch; the dialogue is good in itself and the acting
brings it to life. Sullivan the writer probably knows that she's writing
for herself, so she has an advantage that a writer for the show
might not always have, but she doesn't rely only on her own portrayal
of the character; the sketch as written is good.

Cream of the Cop: In this cop show parody, a homicide detective (Phil LaMarr)
teams up with a can of creamed corn (Himself) to fight crime. Although
the concept sounds a little stupid, this actually is quite funny. Most
of the cliches of cop shows are covered here: the good cop brooding over
the death of his partner (and blaming himself); the unorthodox cop who
is tolerated because he gets results (the can of creamed corn); the
climactic shoot-out with the bad guys (which in real life, probably
rarely occurs, if at all); and the jocose tag at the end of the show.
Not only was this funny, but in all likelihood, it was probably done on
a low budget: the can of corn couldn't have cost more than a dollar, and
the shootout was probably filmed on the studio lot, outside the building.
Once again I have to give this a thumbs up (actually I don't have to, but
I am anyway).

Spy vs. Spy: The white spy uses karate to try to disarm the black spy, but
the black spy uses a fake arm to trick the white spy and then clubs him
on the head. This was good, but it's an old one - I don't think they've
aired an new "Spy vs. Spy" since the first season!

Autopsy: A coroner (Chris Hogan) and his assistant (Debra Wilson) are
conducting an autopsy; they discover things that are progressively more
morbid: e.g., forced sexual entry through the navel; the kidneys were
replaced by squeak toys; etc. Then, ironically, they leave to get something
to eat. Chris Hogan does a good job as the "been there, done that" coroner
(at least I assume he is, if he can think about eating after seeing
that). This was a good sketch, and it's short enough so that it doesn't
overstay its welcome, either.

Lowered Expectations - Harvey Lachien: Harvey the Dog (Aries Spears)
is that porn producer who shows up in sketches from time to time: he was
in that "Saving Ryan's Privates" bit in season four. This was OK,
although I though Spears' acting was a little overwrought - he doesn't
do much else than keep sniffling like a coke addict.

Route 666: This is a sketch about a woman (Debra Wilson) driving on
a Los Angeles freeway (L.A. being the city where people are so attached
to their cars that when they commit suicide, they get into their cars and
drive off an overpass). She applies makeup and drinks coffee (apparently
stopping or slowing down the car when she does so) while driving
and listening to the traffic report. Finally, when she hears that
her exit is closed (because a portal to hell has opened), she gets on her
cell phone to complain to her friend. I think the irony here is that the
same people who complain about traffic congestion are the very people who
do things that tend to cause congestion (like talking on their cell phones),
and also that motorists would be more concerned about the exit being shut
down than a fact that a gateway to hell has opened. As such, this
was a competent sketch.

==========================================================================
MD-313 is clearly one of the stronger shows of season three. By now, it
seems, the budget of the show had been cut; at least I don't see any
segments here that would have required any great expense. Nevertheless,
the material here is good enough (especially "Roles") so that the
low-budget production doesn't hurt the show as much as it should. The
show, in my opinion, is dominated by Nicole Sullivan - she does the
opening monologue and appears in many of the segments - but the other
cast members, especially Hogan, Kushell and Scheer, have their moments,
too. (8/10)