Review of 5-1-1999 episode (MD-422; some spoilers)

What happened to SNL? I was expecting that by May they would have some new
shows, but instead last night we got a rerun from last December. I wonder
if it's true that SNL ran over budget this year and consequently there
will be fewer episodes.

Also, our local paper ran a story about Mad TV and how it's gaining
popularity in spite of its declining budget. I don't know if it was
carried in other newspapers but I suspect it was since our local paper
is just a crappy Gannett-owned publication. Interesting is that Nicole
Sullivan was quoted saying that Mad TV is essentially the bastard child
of the Fox Network, etc.

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Opening Segment: With Jerry Springer and Ms. Swan (Alex Borstein), who is
apparently sleeping with Springer. For Springer embarassing revelations
like this are nothing new; he admitted to having sex with a prostitute
in the 1970's and resigned from his position on the Cincinnati city council
as a result, but later successfully ran for mayor - thereby predating
Bill Clinton by almost two decades by not letting his personal life get
in the way of political success. By the way, this segment was OK.

Estrella Viaje: It's a parody of Star Trek, only in Spanish. Will Sasso
is Kirk again, and Pat Kilbane is Mr. Spock, but Phil LaMarr is Bones this
time (last time, I think it was Tim Conlon). I don't get this one - for
that matter, I don't understand any of these Spanish parodies. Tres Companeros
was so bad that some speculated on why it was allowed to air; this isn't
as bad but still not very funny. Maybe it's one of those things, like the
Kenny Rogers parody, that the writers may find funny but much of the audience
does not: this probably plays well in southern California where there is
a large Spanish-speaking community, but I live near NYC where there is
also a lot of Spanish-speaking people and I still don't get it, and I
really tried: I watched it twice; it wasn't even that funny when he
stomped on the Tribbles.

Behind The Music - The Eracists (What the Hell Happened): SNL did a
"Behind the Music" parody a few months ago (the story of Fat Albert), and
so the writers may have gotten this idea from SNL. But still this segment
was quite funny. Essentially it purports to tell the story of how
Steve (Phil LaMarr) left the Eracists and was replaced by the more
obsequious Reggie (Aries Spears). Debbie (Nicole Sullivan) is portrayed
as a tyrant who won't let anyone else have any creative input. In the
Eracists, she says, everyone is equal in their own way: Steve is an
African-American, and she writes all the songs. Also the parody makes fun
of the "pluralism" of the Eracists: when Reggie explains how he fantasizes
about him and Steve being together, Ann (Alex Borstein) says that it would
be silly to have more than one black in the band, suggesting that including
a black in the Eracists is nothing more than tokenism. A brilliant parody,
and well done by the cast.

The Rosie Show: Finally, Alex Borstein's excellent parody of Rosie O'Donnell
gets another run. This time, is a commercial for an upcoming show in
which Howard Stern (Pat Kilbane) is the guest star. Of course it would
have helped if they still had Chris Hogan - he did a good job as the
piano player - but this is still very good, with Stern unleashing a
barrage of fat jokes and insinuating that O'Donnell is a lesbian (something
which has always figured prominently into most of these segments). The
best is when Rosie keeps on insisting that she loves Tom Cruise as a
stripper (Mo Collins) dances behind her desk.

Jerry Springer: Melina (Debra Wilson) and Lida (Nicole Sullivan) go on
Jerry Springer to tell everyone how that skanky slut Rosa stole Lida's
boyfriend. We finally get to see Rosa (an extra), whom Springer predictably
brings out towards the end of the segment. In the end it's Springer - not
Lida - who physically assaults Rosa (because they told Springer that Rosa
made insulting comments about Springer) and must be restrained by two
bouncers. At the end Springer gets a Lida and Melina (or is that Melina
and Lida? I think from now on I'll just refer to them as the bodega girls)
makeover for his "Final Thought." This segment was pretty good; I liked the
irony of Lida's boyfriend leaving her because of hearsay (Rosa spread the
word that Lida said that she was breaking it off with her boyfriend), and
then the bodega girls use hearsay to get revenge against Rosa. Also
it was a good way to work the guest star into the show.

Bunifa and Jerry Springer: Bunifa (Debra Wilson) is writing out a parking
ticket for Jerry Springer, even though Springer gave her his autograph
and 39 tickets for her friends - but then Springer tricks her by telling her
Oprah Winfrey is on the other side of the parking lot. This was pretty good;
interesting is that Bunifa plays with her hair as she says "I SAID" which
I didn't notice before this sketch.

Cagney and Lacey: Cagney and Lacey (Mo Collins, Alex Borstein) reunite
for a made-for-TV movie; they are now so obese they can barely fit in the
police car, but nonetheless they dress up as hookers in an attempt to
catch an axe murderer (Pat Kilbane). They are so unwieldy that the killer
almost escapes even though he runs down a dead-end alley. Finally they
nail him with an old crueller. This was OK, but here the show's limited
budget begins to tell: they only use one set for the entire segment.

Spishak Sudsy Soap: The Spishak spokesperson (Pat Kilbane) goes to some
guy's house to ask him (Michael McDonald) what he thinks of Spishak
Sudsy Soap; when the man tells him he doesn't like it (mainly because it
contains pesto, which makes it rather noisome), the spokesperson tells him
9 out of 10 people who tried the Spishak detergent liked it, etc.; he won't
leave the guy alone and finally the guy pushes him away from the door and
slams it shut. This reminds me of the Spishak Cola series from MD-304
where Craig Anton was trying to get people to admit that they liked Spishak
Cola. This was similarly funny, but it didn't really have a singularly
funny moment like when Anton punched Alex Borstein in the previous segment.
Still it was pretty funny.

Shaunda: Shaunda (Alex Borstein) is back, only this time she's not
performing in a restroom; instead she's performing in the Las Vegas city
jail. Michael McDonald appears as a man arrested for soliticiting a
prostitute (a transvestite), Pat Kilbane is a wino, and Will Sasso appears
as Wayne Newton, who then sings a song with Shaunda. And Phil LaMarr,
often good in supporting roles, is excellent as the pianist. Overall
the sketch is a trip out of the norm that reminds one of some of the
better sketches from days past; probably not "Best of Mad" material but
still very good.

Croak-a-Cola: This is a parody of those Coke commercials which show
polar bears drinking soda. In this one, the polar bears, apparently
having killed a group of people, are drinking soda from their cooler;
after they finish off the soda, they knock off the people's heads and
start drinking their blood. Then one of the polar bears knocks off the
other polar bear's heads and drinks his blood. This was the best animated
segment in some time, in my opinion, and the parody, if memory serves,
was dead-on.

Spy vs. Spy: White spy gets black spy to swallow a receiver which he
then uses to make it seem as if the black spy is spouting obscenities
at one of his superiors, who promptly has the black spy shot. This was
good, but as with all Spy vs. Spy segments its an oldie. [Have they done
ANY new ones since season one?]
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This episode was not the strongest but it was still a solid show,
especially the Eracist segment. In spite of the show's declining budget -
a recent newspaper article stated that the per-episode budget has been
slashed to $700,000 - in this show it didn't really show that much
(I guess mainly because they didn't do any movie parodies), but overall
I thought the deficiency in production values in comparison to SNL wasn't
that obvious here. The animated segment - these have always been one of
Mad TV's fortes, successfully copied by SNL with it's Robert Smigel cartoons -
helps, especially since they haven't done that many new ones this year.
Again there were only two segments in which Nicole Sullivan appeared, in
case you weren't keeping track. Overall a good start to the May sweeps
period. (6/10)