Review of 11-27-1999 episode (MD-510; some spoilers)

As always, this review can also be found at:

        http://www.nic.com/~dzien/nicolesullivan/md510.txt

I finished watching Nicole Sullivan on "Later," and I have to say that
I was impressed. The first show (with Julie Warner) was a bit formulatic,
but in subsequent shows, she loosened up and even tried to tap the guests
for cultural/political insights: e.g. trying to get "That 70's Show" star
Wilmer Valderrama's insights (from the perspective of a foreigner) on
American youth culture, and asking Daisy Fuentes about the tendency of
models to become emaciated. The shows by no means approach "Charlie Rose"
in taxing our cerebral capacities (this is still commercial television,
remember), but my overall sense is that Sullivan as interviewer is still
slightly more probing than most celebrity interviewers. 

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Opening Segment: Aries Spears says that he wants to thank the audience
for supporting the show, and to this end invites an attractive female
member of the audience to act as his arms in a sketch (the old stand-up
trick). He then has her retrieve some notes from his pocket, which of
course leads to her touching his genitals (through his pants). Alex
Borstein excoriates him for resorting to such a cheap strategem, and
Spears apologizes to the audience, but invites the female who was groping
at his scrotum back to his dressing room. Although I would rather
see them do away with this segments entirely, this was not bad - at least,
it was no worse than most of these segments, even if it wasn't as good as
the first couple of opening segments this season.

Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas: Melanie Griffith (Nicole Sullivan)
and Antonio Banderas are being interviewed by a
TV show host (Debra Wilson). Banderas doesn't answer the questions at
all; Melanie Griffith seems to answer the questions, but answers them
in an unintelligible, high-pitched, resonant whine which causes glass
to shatter and attracts dogs. Anyone who accuses Nicole Sullivan of
playing everyone as an airhead would be solidly rebuffed after seeing
this segment: she would have been entirely justified in playing Griffith
as an airhead here (in my opinion, at least), and yet here she empasizes
a more specific annoying quirk of Griffith (although to be fair, this
was probably the idea of the writers). The Banderas impression isn't
outstanding but still isn't nearly as annoying as Chris Kattan's
impression on that other Saturday night sketch comedy program. Overall
this segment holds together pretty well.

Lida and Melina: The bodega girls (Nicole Sullivan, Debra Wilson) sneak
into Ricky Martin's (Nelson Ascencio) hotel room, steal a pair of his
panties, and then cause him to fall out the window completely naked. The
girls comment on the small size of his genitals, then decide to try to sneak
into Enrique Iglesias's hotel room, but not before Lida steals his
panties. This sketch was good in that it took the
girls' obsession with Ricky Martin to its logical conclusion, and content-wise,
it also had it's share of laughs (including the part where Lida, asked
by Ricky Martin what she is doing in his hotel room, replies with:
"um, um, um, um" like a dumbass), though not nearly the funniest Lida and
Melina sketch of the season. Nevertheless, it was better than most
of the segments in this week's show.

Then we get to see ANOTHER 7-Up commercial with Orlando Jones (with
a Christmas theme), then some more commercials, then back to the show...

Martial Law: Crime drama parody which teams up Sammo Hung (Will Sasso)
and Arsenio Hall (Aries Spears). Mostly the segment consists of Hung
talking unintelligibly and doing silly martial arts moves. If they had
taped Sasso's eyes in an effort to make him look more Oriental, the
show would have really taken a lot of heat from Asian/Pacific Islanders
advocacy groups. As it was, we don't even get that level of excitement
from this segment, and this has to be the most boring, and possibly
the weakest, segment of the show. Of course, part of it has to do with
the fact that I almost never watch CBS (it's supposed to be a parody
of something on CBS); still, it had been my impression that crime dramas
have given way to lawyer dramas.

Dateline NBC: Stone Phillips (Pat Kilbane) talks about the one network's
response to allegations by civil rights organizations that there is a lack
of minority programming: the WB creates a new show called "Devon's Creek."
The only problem is it is just like teen dramas featuring mostly white
actors, only they've substituted black actors (Aries Spears, Debra
Wilson). The show even makes reference to Kenny Loggins and Olivia
Newton John (not to mention the character's names: Taylor and Hamilton)!
The producers (Mo Collins, Michael McDonald) don't even know
what Kwanza is, and all the actors' efforts to make the show more
realistic fail miserably. This was obviously an attempt at sociopolitical
parody; as such it is OK even though the premise wasn't that imaginative.
The segment runs a little long; still, there were some funny moments
here.

Gap Troll: The Gap Troll (Alex Borstein) reappears; this time, she
must train a new worker (Will Sasso). The two fall in love, but the
manager (Mo Collins) will not countenance the relationship because
fraternization between employees is not allowed - but the troll simply
places a curse on her. The makeup for the Gap Troll is quite good - here
considerable effort and time must have been expended. Of course it also
helps that the sketch was actually pretty well written, making this one
of the better segments in the show (I particularly liked the troll's
angry reaction when the trainee guesses the riddle which Michael McDonald
and his wife were supposed to guess, and the part where
the troll says that she is shunned by her people because she works retail).
There was also good execution by all four cast members involved, especially
Borstein.

Buenos Dias, San Diego: This is a parody of a Spanish variety show,
such as one might see on Telemundo or some other such channel. We
have a hottie Latina girl - with blonde hair (Mo Collins), a Hispanic male
with dark hair (Nelson Ascencio), and a fat clown (Will Sasso) who does
lame-ass tricks like giving someone a can of "jelly beans" with fake
snakes inside, and spraying the cast with silly string. Also, there are
shameless product endorsements during the show. Maybe it's just me, but 
I didn't get it (sort of like when the father of one of my friends saw the
movie "This Is Spinal Tap"). Overall, most of the Spanish parodies didn't
impress me that much, either, although I don't watch much Univision, either,
so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that at least
stylistically, it was an accurate parody. Still, I didn't find this segment
very funny, and apart from that, it also runs way too long (about six
minutes).

Hospital Scene: This is a sketch about two actors (Michael McDonald,
Phil LaMarr) doing a scene who can't seem to get it right, because the
actor playing the doctor (LaMarr) mispronounced "carotid" (as in carotid
artery) on the first take. As they continually fail to get through the
take without McDonald cracking up, the director (Nicole Sullivan) gets
increasingly flustered and pissed off. Finally, she is so apoplectic
with anger that she collapses on the floor, apparently dead. [LaMarr
says, "[d]o you think it's her carotid artery?"] This (perhaps along
with the Gap troll sketch) is worthy of the "Mad TV" of old. It seems
as if they are intentionally screwing up the scene, so they can get
on "World's Funniest" or one of those bloopers specials. Also funny
is the fact that Sullivan is wearing a cap that looks like it says
"NYU" - it would make sense that someone who is a director might have
been an NYU student - but on closer inspection the hat reads "MYU" as
if it's a parody of NYU. I was so pleased with the sketch that I almost
forgot there was no "Mad TV Classic" this week, another good sign.
==========================================================================

MD-510 was not a very good show; there are too many segments that were
mediocre or just plain bad (e.g. "Martial Law"); moreover, some of the
segments, like "Buenos Dias San Diego" ran way too long. But there were
also some good moments: "Hospital Scene" and the Gap Troll segments were
fun to watch, and there was no "Mad TV Classic." This time we got a full
hour of new material, which should count ever so slightly in the show's
favor. Overall it leaves me cautiously optimistic about the show. (5/10)

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