Review of 9-26-98 episode (some spoilers) I did not post this last week because I missed about 10 minutes of it when I left the room and I didn't have time to watch the tape until this weekend. But here it is! ==================================================================== ======================== Opening Segment: Jesse Jackson (Aries Spears) and President Clinton (Will Sasso) do improv. Odd this, a whole segment on a comedy show that is not funny at all. Steven Segal's America: Will Sasso reprises his Steven Segal impression; this time he goes to a restaurant run by Millie (Alex Borstein); then he attacks all the patrons. This was funny at first but gets old pretty quickly, and I'm starting to believe what some of the veteran fans are saying about how in the early days of Mad TV, it was all about subtlety, and now it has degenerated to physical humor. Virtual Hills: This is about a bunch of old people with virtual reality helmets. Kind of reminds me of "Serenity Acres" from season two. A pretty decent little segment. UBS Guy: The UBS Guy (Phil LaMarr) is back! And he's - guess what - hitting on a woman (Alex Borstein)! This time he succeeds, and the sexual innuendo is actually pretty funny. Maybe it's just the nostalgia factor working in this character's favor, but I thought this sketch was pretty good. Yard Sale: The purchase of a box of tacks at a yard sale turns into a federal case thanks to a rather obnoxious woman. This sketch essentially had no jokes but still made me laugh. They could do a whole series of sketches just by having people drone on and on about mundane things. I'm waiting for them to do a sketch about corrugated cardboard boxes. Dick Van Dyke: The old classic is updated for the 1990's with Chris Rock (Phil LaMarr). Rob (Pat Kilbane) and his co-workers are in danger of losing their jobs because Chris Rock doesn't like any of their material (and in all fairness, it is pretty lame). Not being a fan of the Dick Van Dyke Show I didn't really fully appreciate the segment; still, this was pretty funny. LaMarr as Rock gets in one really good line: "I haven't seen this many white people since the Jackson family reunion." The rest is somehat uneven but still on the whole quite good; making the female co-worker into a lesbian was a nice touch, as was having Rob's wife turn out to be a stripper, even though I still think Mary Scheer does a better Mary Tyler Moore impression than Mo Collins did. Not a "Mad TV Classic" but still good. Omni Bowl: It's a pasta bowl and a cereal bowl - it's the Omni Bowl! And you can buy it for only $400! An excellent parody of those cheesy commercials you see, especially on late night TV. Yard Sale II: The obnoxious woman is back, and this time she scares away a prospective buyer. I liked it. Stewart: Stewart doesn't wet his bed, but he does act like a total wuss. Not bad, but kind of reminds me of those sketches that Bryan Callen did with Mary Scheer as his mother. Might develop into a pretty good character if they decide to spin it off into a recurring character. Dentist in a Box: A "Mad TV Classic" that acknowledges the fact that the show's best days are probably in the past. This time it's an "Incredible Findings" segment with Tony Bright (Bryan Callen) and Mike Lawson (Dave Herman). Last week's "Classic" also featured these two. An excellent spoof of cheesy infomercials, complete with an incredulous audience (are these people who couldn't get tickets to Jeopardy or something?). Bright's dental kit takes care of Lawson's impacted wisdom teeth, although Lawson seems to be in a bad way by the end of the segment. Box of Tacks II: The obnoxious lady is back, although it's late at night and the guy who was running the yard sale went inside. Not bad. Spy vs. Spy: At first I thought this was a new one, but I vaguely remember it (one of the spies tries to get into the embassy of the other spy and steal some secret plans). Can anyone confirm this? ================================== ======================================================== On the whole, an adequate show. It could get better with time, and some of the new cast members look promising, but it feels like it's not running on all eight cylinders without Nicole. Still, the return of the UBS Guy was a welcome development. I haven't totally given up on the show yet. ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ