Review of 10-3-1998 episode (many spoilers) =================================== ========================================================== Opening Segment: This time with Mark McGuire (Will Sasso) and Sammy Sosa (Phil LaMarr). OK, the idea of two self-effacing baseball players slow-dancing is kind of funny, but was it too much to expect some jokes here? Beverly Hills H90210: Luke Perry returns to the lineup as a knife-wielding maniac. This shows flashes of brilliance, especially since it reminds me of the kind of tasteless humor with which Mad Magazine is especially well-versed. The one-dimensional nature of this sketch, however, which pretty much consists only of Dylan going around stabbing everyone, keeps it from being a great sketch. Still, the performers adequately carry out their roles: Mo Collins as Jennie Garth, Alex Borstein as Tori Spelling, and I think that's Andrew Bowen as Luke Perry. He Got Gay: A parody of the Spike Lee movie "He Got Game," only in this one the father (Aries Spears) is gay. We get a good moment here where they play the "He Got Game" theme music (which sounds like a bastardized version of "For What It's Worth") and as Spears walks down the street, a bunch of effeminate-looking dancers (don't remember the exact lineup, but Phil LaMarr and Pat Kilbane were there) sing the "He Got Gay theme song. This is almost worthy of the old Mad TV, although in the old days the humor would have been more cerebral, not just visual. Sketch About A Kid Kicking His Father in the Nuts: That's the gist of this sketch. Sort of funny, but not brilliant; still, it's ironic the way the mother basically blames the father although the little kid seems to be the instigator. Donny and Marie: The skewering of Howard Stern continues in this week's show. This time we have Donny (Andrew Bowen?) and Marie (Alex Borstein) doing a new late-night show with lots of farts. Somewhat funny, but I would take "Gus" over "Donny and Marie" any day of the week (anyone who saw last year's season opener knows what I'm talking about). Come to Canada: At first we think we're seeing a parody of those douche commercials, but then we end up with mother and daughter (Mo Collins, Alex Borstein) in bed together, with a message "Come to Canada: Anything Goes." Although not a terribly original idea, the segment works pretty well. Sir, Please!: A businessman (Will Sasso) and a hotel desk clerk (Pat Kilbane) get into an argument. This gets a little inane towards the end, but is still quite good. Again, not a very original idea (the line "Sir, please!" kind of reminds me of "Hey, Sir!" off of the most recent Jerky Boys CD), but the sketch is well done. Donny and Marie II: Donny and Marie make fun of retarded (or is that mentally challenged) people. Better than the first segment, but still not as good as "Gus." Judge Johnson: Magic Johnson as a TV judge. Tommy Davison (Phil LaMarr) is the guest baliff and does some pretty bad impressions. In the end, the verdict is that Magic's show should be cancelled. This was pretty funny, although I didn't burst out laughing; the humor was a bit more subtle than that. Cosby Zone: A family faces disintegration - a crisis of both financial and spriritual proportions - because of pudding. Then Bill Cosby (Aries Spears) comes out at the end and makes some asinine comments about pudding. This is the first time during the show that I laughed spontaneously. In the first season they did a sketch called "Octoroon" about a man who blames all his problems on the fact that he is one-eighth black; this is in a similar vein, although in this case the scapegoat is pudding. This was a very funny segment, especially when the father (Phil LaMarr) tries to kill himself by putting a plastic bag over his head. I might have ended this one a little differently, but still quite good! Donny and Marie III: Still screwing around, after all these years! Not bad. South Parknuts: On October 3, 1998, we learned that a segment need not haved aired in the first two seasons to qualify as a Mad TV Classic! This animated segment first aired in May 1998, and is a pretty good South Park/Peanuts crossover, but I would rather have seen a new Corky Quackenbush animated segment! I wonder if there will be new ones... Spy vs. Spy: The black spy gets lobotomized by the white spy. Pretty good, but I think this one, too, is an old one. ========================================================================== ===================== On the whole, I think this show was about as good as last week's show: that is, not the almost-complete disaster we saw the first week, but still not up to the relatively high standard most hardcore fans have come to expect based on the quality of the show over the last three seasons (especially the first two). There are times when the Mad TV team engineers success (witness "Cosby Zone"), but most of the segments looked as if they were good ideas that fell short in their execution. For example, the idea of Luke Perry as a homicidal maniac is funny, but you need something more than him just going around stabbing people to pull it off! Still, the show has improved somewhat and if Nicole Sullivan returns (as Alex Borstein suggested would be the case), then the show could conceivably improve even more. Moreover with Kiss making a guest appearance in four weeks time (October 31), Mad TV stands poised to achieve a ratings coup against its late-night competition. So overall, the situation is not as bad as I might have thought three weeks ago, but I still think the show's future is in doubt (ratings for the first three episodes average to 4.0 versus a 4.7 average for season three - one could thus speculate that the absence of Nicole Sullivan from the lineup has cost the show at least half a million viewers a week!). (5/10) ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ