From: Number Six (dzien@nic.com)
Subject: Review of 1-31-1998 show (some spoilers) 
Newsgroups: alt.tv.mad-tv
Date: 1998/02/01 


The Kenneth Starr: mildly funny. Good to see Mad TV doing political
humor again.

The Great American Spice Girl Hunt: Very funny. I was waiting all
season for Mad TV to parody the Spice Girls. I only wish the
play-by-play guy [Chris Hogan] would have been shot accidently.

The Eracists: Good to see these characters back. White supremacists
are involved in a standoff with federal law enforcement agents, who
send in the Eracists to talk them into surrendering. The Eracists
succeed in their mission, and the white supremacists leave the
compound to surrender, only to be shot by authorities. A new twist on
these characters is that they now sometimes make racist comments, and
then they say "Kidding!" to negate the racist comment (much like the
Wayne's World not: e.g. Debbie [Nicole Sullivan] says something about
how she would never date the black guy, and then says "Kidding!"). The
outcome was predictable, but there were several good moments here.

The Coffee Guy: I always liked this character, so I'm glad they
brought him back. The new sketch was something of a letdown,
especially from the last sketch featuring this character (in which the
Coffee Guy [Stan, played by Pat Kilbane] had been coffee-free for
three weeks, but fell off the wagon when he went on a tour of a coffee
plant). In this sketch, he is forced to take a drug test at his place
of employment (a coffee company, of course). At first they think he is
taking illegal drugs, but when they discover his urine is pure coffee,
not only do they keep him on, but they decide to market coffee made
from his urine. Funny, but not as good as it could have been.

Claylien: Extremely funny! An Alien-Greatest Story Ever Told crossover
done in claymation. The claymation segments never disappoint.

Catwoman: Catwoman [Debra Wilson] holds her neighbor's [Phil LaMarr]
rake for ransom, but he easily defeats her henchmen and takes back her
rake. Mildly funny.

Career Day: Some guy called Savante (sic?) shows up at Career Day in a
second-grade class and sings some dirty songs. The accountant guy
[Chris Hogan] that was featured in some sketches early on this season
was back, but he didn't have much to do.

Antonia: Antonia [Nicole Sullivan] works on the anti-suicide hotline,
and handles it in typical Antonia fashion. I always found this
character funny, and this was no exception.

Drama Club Girls: Two Hispanic girls [Nicole Sullivan, Debra Wilson]
work in a convenience store, and are held up by Chris Hogan. This was
one of the funnier sketches of the program.

Mexican Wrestlers Theater: Never found these characters very funny;
don't understand why they keep bringing them back. Basically a rehash
of the Miracle on 34th Street sketch from the Christmas special, only
this time they do To Kill a Mockingbird.

On the whole, I would say that this week's show was a bit of a
let-down in that most of it consisted of recurring characters, which
invites unfavorable comparisons with earlier sketches which featured
these characters. Nonetheless, the Spice Girls parody was good, and
there were other good moments.