This review will not be posted to my website until certain technical
problems are resolved.

Review of 10-7-2000 episode (MD-601; some spoilers)

This has been an interesting summer. The Fox Network has eliminated
some programs that have been mainstays of its lineup for years ("Beverly
Hills 90210," "Party of Five") and, having eschewed reality-based
programming after the "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire" debacle,
it has put its money mainly on one hour dramas ("Dark Angel" comes to
mind). But if this strategy fails to pay off, look for more upheaval at
The House That Rupert Built. In the middle of this is "Mad TV," the
show that they forgot to cancel, still steadily closing the gap with
"Saturday Night Live" and possibly a show which provides a lesson to
trigger-happy network execs: you can't always expect to build an audience
overnight. Another good example is "Everybody Loves Raymond" on CBS, a show
which was barely on the radar when it first aired, but which had creeped into
the top ten by last season.
I also read recently that "Loveline" was cancelled by MTV. [The radio
version, however, will continue as it has for almost fifteen years, and
the producers of the TV version are shopping it around to other cable
channels.] This is ironic because last October, when members of the
cast of "Mad TV" appeared on the show, Adam Carolla mentioned that
every time they have cast members of "Mad TV" on the show, he expects it
to be the last time since he always expected the show to be cancelled. [I
am paraphrasing.] "Mad TV" has now outlasted "Loveline," "Party of Five,"
and more than a few of the shows it has parodied.
It might be just me, but the year 2000 might go down in history as the year
that everything old became new again. Iron Maiden releases an album with
Bruce Dickenson for the first time in eight years. I have also been watching
a lot of TV, and it's good to see that the USA Network finally had the
decency to air reruns of Chris Elliot's opus magnum, "Get a Life." In
college, our Sunday night TV viewing was dominated by "Get a Life,"
"Married with Children" (on Fox) and "Blackadder" (on PBS). And while
Al Bundy and Edmund Blackadder live on in reruns, until recently "Get
a Life" was all but forgotten. And from a commercial standpoint it's
easy to see why: the show did not do very well in the ratings, and was
cancelled after only two season (the second season consisting of only
thirteen episodes). But the show quickly gained a cult following; I
even read somewhere that bootleg copies of the episodes were selling on
the black market for as much as $300. Now you can relive those thrilling
days of yesteryear on USA at 1:30 on weekdays, or see what you've been
missing if you never saw it before.

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The first thing that I noticed in this season which might very well end with
Al "V-Chip" Gore occupying the Oval Office, "Mad TV" appears to have earned
a TV-MA rating. Since I'm not sure what you have to do to earn a TV-MA
rating (it's the same rating given to "South Park"), I cannot comment further
on this change.
Opening Segment: Nicole Sullivan plays both Britney Spears and her
alleged boyfriend Justin from En Sync (he's in love with her; he just
doesn't know it) in this segment. We get to see Justin's doll collection,
Britney applying lip liner to Justin, and Justin and Britney working
on a duet. What is funny is that Justin comes off as even more effeminate
than Britney Spears (and even more effeminate than the average boy
band member - I'm used to referring to the Backstreet Boys as the
Backdoor Boys, but showing Justin lying on a bed with stuffed animals and
collecting dolls, you are taking the concept to extremes). This is
certainly an A-plus performance by Sullivan (both times); the material
here is not devastatingly funny but gets the job done.

Sisqo Parody: Aries Spears pays Sisqo in this parody of "Thong Song" in
which really obese women parade around in bikinis. The characterization
of Sisqo is good - he's got the look down, at least - but the video
parody gets tedious after a while. There was a funny moment, though,
when one of the fat women sits on two shapely bikini babes. Most of the
time I was thinking about Sir Mix a Lot's "Baby's Got Back" out of
boredom.

The Vagina Monologues: Ex-first ladies Betty Ford (Alex Borstein),
Nancy Reagan (Nicole Sullivan) and Barbara Bush (Mo Collins) - Lady
Bird Johnson and Rosalyn Carter are not represented here - perform excerpts
from the contraversial play The Vagina Monologues. I'm
not quite sure where the writers got the idea for this one; I have to
assume it was from the fact that NYC mayor Rudy Guiliani's (soon to be
ex-) wife had performed in this play, generating a small amount of
controversy. If the prospect of three women, none of whom have probably
had a period since Michael Schenker was still in the Scorpions, isn't
funny enough, then you'll have to watch the segment, which turned out
to be quite funny. There's an especially good moment here with Collins
as Barbara Bush sighing, saying something to Nancy Reagan, then standing
up to deliver her part, haltingly.

Will's Little Sister: Will (Will Sasso) is having a party while his
parents are away, but his annoying little sister (Alex Borstein) won't
stay in her room. Predictably, he knocks her down, giving everyone
a good scare, but quickly recovers; in this sketch, she also drinks
some beer and pukes green vomit. Although this recurring segment is not
one of my favorites, there was some good physical humor here. Especially
funny was the appearance of "Britney Sock," (apparently a mastabatory aid)
which Will's Little Sister waves tauntingly in front of Will's friends
while chanting "hit me baby, one more time," and which she eventually
throws at two girls (Mo Collins, Debra Wilson) he invited over, much to
the chagrin of the girls. Some of the elements, like Will pushing over
his little sister - the signature element of the sketch - seemed a little
forced, but even so, this was a good sketch.

Live with Regis and Cassidy and Cody: What is funnier - the fact that
ratings for "Live with Regis" have been up since Kathie Lee Gifford
retired as co-host, or the idea of Cassidy and Cody taking over as
co-hosts? The answer to this question will have to be left to the individual
viewer. But this segment, in which Regis Philbin (Alex Borstein) is
teamed up with Cassidy and Cody while Kathie Lee (Nicole Sullivan, reprising
a role which she originally played in season two) shouts instructions
from the studio audience or offstage (or onstage), is fairly humorous.
Of the various impressions, Alex Borstein does a rather accurate
Philbin impression (funny is when she has trouble getting down from
the chair, since there is so much talk about Philbin's diminuitive stature);
Sullivan's Gifford doesn't look as accurate as her original impression,
although I think they were trying to make her look more like present-day
Kathie Lee rather than Kathie Lee in 1996. And we would have to give
an incomplete to Christian Duguay's Frank Gifford; he only says one
line here.

Marvin Tivkah Nude: Marvin (Michael McDonald) goes to the doctor (Mo Collins)
to find out why he's been suffering from blackouts; eventually he disrobes,
causing the doctor to flee the examination room and likely inducing
nausea in much of the viewing audience. He's wearing a body suit that
alone may have justified the show's new TV-MA rating and even heads
out towards the studio audience. I never really liked this character
very much and still don't, but if they were trying to keep us from getting
bored, they succeeded.

Say What Karaoke: Melina and Lida (Debra Wilson, Nicole Sullivan) appear
as contestants on the MTV karaoke show. They perform Christina Aguilera's
"What a Girl Wants," but get poor ratings from Big Snoop Dogg. The
one-liners aren't as sharp as they usually are in Melina and Lida sketches,
but there were some good moments here, especially with Aries Spears as
MC Hammer [whose album "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em" was number one
on the Billboard charts exactly ten years ago today]. He even wears
the big pants like he did when he was famous. 

Sluts and the City: HBO's hit series "Sex and the City" is the subject
of this parody which suggests "Sex" is little more than softcore porn.
[Perhaps later they'll do an "Oz" parody which suggests that "Oz" is
gay softcore porn.] Nicole Sullivan appears as - who else - Samantha Jones
[the physical resemblance between Sullivan and Kim Cattrall has often been
noted]. These women not only talk about sex openly, but do it in public
[Carrie Bradshaw does it in a bank.] This was a pretty good parody; it
didn't have much to say other than the women in the show are sluts but
it did it pretty well. The phrase "four smart women taking charge of
their lives" is repeated like a mantra, as if we'll believe it if they
say it enough times. Moreover, in spite of the lack of location filming,
the production values for the segment were pretty good.

No Doubt: I'm not much of a fan of the new wave/ska revival, but you
have to give No Doubt credit. Having seen their debut album sink quickly
in an era in which grunge ruled the airwaves, they simply outwaited
the flannel shirt crowd; by 1996, No Doubt's blend of melodic pop, new
wave and third-generation ska became mainstream and No Doubt was here
to stay. Musically, they are reminiscient of such bands as Madness
(you may or may not remember their hit "Our House"), The Specials
and Dexy's Midnight Runners. This performance was one of the more
eclectic I've seen on a TV show of this type, and in this "live"
performance Gwen Stefani seems more than ever to evoke the mannerisms
of a younger Blondie without giving up her own unique style.

Closing Segment: Nicole Sullivan introduces the three new cast members
(Nelson Ascencio, Christian Duguay, and Jeff Richards). This was OK.
==========================================================================
Being a cynic, I was prepared to be disappointed by this year's season
opener. Nonetheless, the sixth season opener turned out to be as good as
last year's season opener. There are still twenty-four more episodes to
go, but a good season premiere is usually a better sign than a bad one.
Gone from the cast are veterans Phil LaMarr (no surprise, since he was
essentially gone since the middle of season five) and Pat Kilbane (after
three seasons, none of his recurring characters really caught on, so
he was the most obvious candidate to get the chop when the producers
decided they needed fresh blood). Added to the cast are Nelson Ascencio
(a recurring guest last season), Christian Duguay (former Groundling),
and Jeff Richards (don't know anything about him). [8/10]

I also watched most of the SNL season premiere (one of the benefits
of the baseball playoffs is that, at least on the East Coast, SNL
started right after the end of "Mad TV"), and I have to say that they
scored a knockout punch with a parody of the Presidential debate. Bush
(Will Ferrell) is depicted as dimwitted when it comes to foreign policy
issues, while Gore (Hammond) interrupts Bush and exceeds the time allotted
to him and generally disregards the rules. SNL is still superior when
it comes to political humor of this sort. But Weekend Update was
horrible; in Jimmy Fallon they seem to have found an anchor even worse
than Colin Quinn (who in turn was worse than Norm McDonald, who was
probably their second-best anchor behind Dennis Miller). Tim Meadows
almost singlehandedly saved this segment from being a disaster by reprising
his Ladies' Man character.




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