Review of 4-29-2000 episode (MD-522; some spoilers)

And the train keeps a-rolling, all night long...

This review can also be found at:

        http://www.nic0lesullivan.org/md522.txt

By now, you've probably heard that "Talk to Me" has been pulled from
ABC's schedule. It doesn't come as much of a surprise, since ratings
for the last two shows were weak (both finished third on a night in
which ABC is dominant). Since the replacement for "Sports Night" was
actually pulling in lower ratings, it made sense to the network execs
to give "Sports Night" a second chance, which it will on May 9th and
again on May 16th. Thus ends Nicole Sullivan's first regular sitcom
role. Yet while the show ultimately failed she was generally recognized
as the best thing the show had going for it (at least by those critics
who actually watched the show before reviewing it). Also, this probably
means that barring anything unforseen, she will be back for another season.

What would have happenned if the show had been renewed for the fall season
(which is now very unlikely) is an interesting issue on which to speculate
and impossible to answer. It would seem to be very difficult to do two
different TV shows filming on opposite coasts if each were slated to film
a full season's worth of episodes, yet it would also seem very unlikely
that she would leave "Mad" for good unless the future of her new show
were more or less assured. Now, the poor ratings for "Talk to Me" has
rendered such speculation moot.

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Opening Segment: The "new El Asso Wipo," David Arquette, opens the show,
with his fellow Mexican wrestlers El Diablo Negro (Aries Spears) and
Senor Bag of Crap (Will Sasso). They vow to beat the crap out of American
wrestlers. Then, to the tune of Metallica's "Seek and Destroy," Sting
enters, and promptly pummels the Mexican wrestlers. This was about as
lame as when they turned El Asso Wipo into a recurring character, which
is to say, pretty lame. The presence of Sting didn't help much, either;
the Bret Hart segments weren't the best ones in the show's history, but
at least Hart was a wrestler of the old school (who retired because he
was concerned that the WWF is getting increasingly tasteless). This was
one of the worst opening segments of the season, in my opinion.

Family Feud: The Benedict family (Debra Wilson and others) take on the
Sopranos (Mo Collins, Will Sasso and others). Louie Anderson has been
replaced by one of the Sopranos (Michael McDonald). Of course, they
cheat to win, and Mrs. Soprano (Mo Collins) is ungrateful when she
learns she has only won $10,000. In retrospect, it's too bad they didn't
have Nicole Sullivan back as Carmela Soprano (from the first parody) since
it was probably the best of the impressions. They try to derive humor
here from the answers the mobsters give (e.g. "Q: Something you do on
your anniversary A: Bang your mistress"), but it didn't really work for
me. Overall in my opinion a rather weak segment.

Mickey: They have brought back yet another rather lame Michael McDonald
recurring character - at least that was my initial reaction when this
sketch started. Unfortunately, there was little in the middle or end
of the sketch to change my opinion of it. He's at the doctor's office,
and when the old woman (Alex Borstein) in the waiting room has a heart
attack and dies - the result of an apoplexy suffered after talking to
Mickey (McDonald) - it provides some of the sketch's funniest moments.
But even this does not really make the sketch that worthwhile.

Melina and Lida: One of the problems with Nicole Sullivan's leave of
absence from "Mad TV" is that some of the show's most popular and best
recurring characters - e.g. the Vancome Lady, Antonia, and Melina and
Lida - have been rendered moribund. So it's good to see the return of
the two bodega girls for the first time in over two months; they are
rollerblading in a park when they encounter a group of muscleheads
lifting weights. They think some of these guys are really cute;
unfortunately (for them), they are also gay. Funniest part: when Melina
grabs Lida's "tatas," Lida calls her a "lesbiana" even though she would
have fallen otherwise. This was easily the best segment of the show. Also
funny: "I dropped a weight because I am so sweet and...venerial" [instead
of "vulnerable" - evidently Lida is the dumber of the two in this Beavis
and Butthead-esque duo].

Stuart: Stuart (Michael McDonald) is back, and once again Nicole Sullivan
is the person who must put up with him. Actually, Stuart's day care center
received a bomb threat and Mrs. Larkin (Mo Collins) had to take him to
work with her and her co-worker (Sullivan) ends up bearing the brunt of
his obnoxious behavior. Eventually her boss (Will Sasso) fires her for
having the audacity to spank the boy (nonetheless, being fired is probably
a small price to pay for never having to see Stuart again). This was not
bad for a Stuart sketch; the funniest part was when she gave Stuart the
candy and he spits it out onto her desk. 

Good Morning, Boulder: This is a good example of the shorter segments
they used to do so well in the early days of the show and which they
rarely do nowadays because with budget cuts they try to stretch out
every segment. This is a parody of "Good Morning America" only with
John and Patsey Ramsey (Michael McDonald, Alex Borstein) as the hosts.
People call up the show and call them murderers; guests are intimidated
by the rather creepy stares of John Ramsey (who also does something that
Al Roker has hitherto been unable to do: silence people outside the
studio with his stares). Although they don't really
add anything to the parody here this is pretty funny and in any case it's
not that long.

The Power Friends: The Power Friends (David Arquette, Pat Kilbane, Will
Sasso) are personal trainers selling gym memberships at a church under
the pretense of saving the churchgoers' souls. They break bats over each
others' heads, and when one parishoner (Aries Spears) notes that they
are charlatans, they use physical force to silence him. This was not the
strongest material for a sketch, although Arquette and company go through
the motions gamely. [It would have been funnier if the guy who had his
arm ripped off was gushing blood; if you're going to rip off limbs, you
might as well make it look like a Sam Peckinpah film.] 

The Goo Goo Dolls: The Goo Goo Dolls perform their latest single off
the triple platinum album "Dizzy Up the Girl," "Broadway." This
band fascinates me; it's not that I particularly like their music;
it's just that I saw their VH-1 special and I'm intrigued that a band
that essentially started out as a punk rock ensemble and could barely
play their instruments has refined their craft to the point where they
can turn out such melodic pop anthems such as "Long Way Down," "Slide,"
and of course "Broadway." There performance here is creditable, and of
course its amazing that the show is able to get musical guests as popular
as the ones they've had on the last few weeks. But if I had to choose
a band from Buffalo to be on the show, I would choose - TALAS! It was
pretty amazing that they reunited once for that concert in 1997 - if
the producers of Mad were able to pull off a second reunion, it would
secure their place in music history. You'll "Never See Me Cry" if such
an endeavor were achieved. So how about it? Bet it'll never happen, though.

Closing Segment: A lean and mean Will Sasso introduces his parents. Although
they're not as interesting as Andy Kaufman's parents, this was OK.
==========================================================================

What initially seemed to be a pretty disappointing show actually picked up
after the first 15 minutes or so. Still, without the Melina and Lida
sketch and the Goo Goo Dolls, this would have easily been the weakest
show of the season. Nicole Sullivan is back for the last few episodes of
the season but Phil LaMarr is still gone, possibly for good. Having a
musical guest almost every week might actually be the best idea they've
had this season; although it makes the show more SNL-ish, often the material
is so weak that the musical guest turns out to be one of the main highlights
of the show [As was the case here.] "Mad TV" was also lucky this week since
the main competitor, SNL, was running a rerun with the "Simmer Down Now"
lady (essentially a poor man's Vancome Lady), a parody of "The Crocodile
Hunter" which may or may not have been inspired by Corky Quackenbush's
claymation segments, and a pretty lame Weekend Update as well - although
the Tootsie Roll parody was pretty funny. [5/10]


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