Review of 10-21-2000 episode (MD-603; some spoilers) ========================================================================== The Fox Network should have known better. Since Fox is apparently broadcasting the World Series of baseball this year, it knew that it couldn't have guaranteed this week's episode of Mad TV airing on time. In fact, this week's episode aired well after 2 AM on WNYW (channel 5, the NYC Fox affiliate), by which time I had set the VCR on "RECORD" and had gone to bed. I didn't get a chance to actually screen this episode until this afternoon, marking the first time in two years that I missed the broadcast of a first-run episode. Although the show aired at its regular time (10 PM) on the west coast (by which time the baseball game was over), I'd venture to guess that very few people on the east coast - or the eastern half of the U.S., for that matter - saw this week's episode (even I wouldn't have counted in the ratings, since I taped it). Instead, Fox should have done what they did two years ago when they aired the World Series: air reruns of Mad TV on nights when there are games scheduled. Instead, a perfectly good first-run episode of Mad TV was essentially wasted, a tactical error of the first magnitude, and at a time when Mad TV was catching up to SNL in the ratings (the season premiere of Mad pulled 6.2 million viewers, its highest ratings since the series premiere in 1995). Undoubtedly some have noted that I have not updated by web site in some time. Due to a major screw-up by the company which hosts my site, I have not been able to upload to my site for two weeks and one day. [In fact, for the last few days they have been ignoring repeated e-mails from yours truly requesting that they fix the problem.] As a result, I have been forced to seek an alternative solution: namely, switching to another web-hosting outfit. I have also been considering other alternatives to ensuring that such a problem does not occur again, including hosting the site on my own (I have purchased a Sun workstation which I hope to use for this purpose). As soon as Network Solutions processes my request for a hosting switch, the current problem should be resolved. In the meantime, I apologize for any inconvenience caused to people who rely on my site. And just in case my current problem is not resolved before the end of this week, I note here that Nicole Sullivan will be on World's Greatest Magic V (original air date: November 1998) on October 27, 2000. The show airs from 6 PM to 8 PM EDT on Fox Family; Nicole Sullivan's appearance runs about two and a half minutes and occurs in the second hour of the show. Also, Nicole Sullivan hosted Talk Soup again on October 9, 2000; apologies to those who rely on my site for information like this and thus were unable to catch it. Anyway, on with the review: ========================================================================== I first note that this week's show got a TV-14 rating, so maybe the TV-MA rating the first week was a fluke. Coz: This is a Cosby/Oz crossover called Coz. This is not too dissimilar to "Cosby's Crib" from season two in which Bill Cosby (then played by Orlando Jones) responds to criticism that the roles he plays on TV are not "black" enough by casting himself as a crack dealer in a network sitcom. Here Cosby (Aries Spears) battles Aryans for control of the pudding distribution network within Coz. There is also a scene featuring Aries Spears' naked posterior in an apparent reference to Oz's explicit content. Mad TV generally excels in movie and TV parodies, and this was a good example; it wasn't the most original idea - besides the similarities to the "Cosby's Crib" parody it is also somewhat similar to the Seinfeld prison sketch from SNL two years ago, but in my opinion it was right on target and well-executed. A fitting opening to the show. Fox NFL Auditions: In order to counter the addition of Dennis Miller to the "Monday Night Football" broadcasting team, Fox decides to hire a comedian for its football broadcasts. Several comedians are auditioned: Louie Anderson (Christian Dugray), David Letterman (Jeff Richards), Bruce Vilyanch, and Garry Shandling, Colin Quinn and Martin Lawrence (Aries Spears). The Letterman impression was more endearing the second time around, especially the part where he asks if "we have time for this." [Think about how much success Letterman has had by doing things that would have been considered not only unfunny but also unprofessional 25-30 years ago, like asking someone if they have time for a segment over the air.] The rest of the segment runs the gamut from mildly funny to mundane; what was impressive is the willingness to stick in half a dozen celebrity impressions here for such a short amount of time, considering the fact that they had to do make-up for all these characters. On the whole it wasn't as good as the first segment but was still good. Is Money Driving Negroes Crazy?: Jane Pauley (Alex Borstein) interviews a doctor (Michael McDonald) who asserts that a chemical present in ink used to print currency can cause blacks to go crazy. Pauley, who works for a network that once strapped bombs to trucks in order to prove that they are unsafe, thus assures us that if wealthy blacks commit nefarious acts, it's not their fault. This segment might not resonate with all viewers, but for me it encapsulates perfectly the condescending attitude of big media, especially newsmagazines which often decide ahead of time what conclusions they want their viewers to draw and construct their stories in order to fit these conclusions, rather than let the facts speak for themselves. It also is a scarily accurate depiction of attitudes held by a number of liberal whites. [It was not too long ago that a certain president of Rutgers University was the subject of a heated controversy because he asserted that blacks did not have the genetic material to succeed in academics - it's not their fault, he seemed to assert, that they are genetically inferior.] This segment was right on target in my opinion; the performances were generally good as well. Pizza Party: An office worker (Christian Dugray) complains to his boss (Will Sasso) and his co-workers (Aries Spears, Nelson Ascencio, Mo Collins) that he is not getting credit for a pizza party he helped organize. This is pretty much a stock tool of sketch comedy - having someone overreact to a situation - and this sketch was not particularly exceptional; I can't imagine anyone remembering this sketch five years from now. But watching Dugray overreact makes this sketch worthwhile (and that's virtually all this sketch consists of, anyway: there was no real punchline here, and the writing wasn't that sharp, either). Bunifah Survivor Audition Video: Bunifah (Debra Wilson) records an audition video for the Australian version of "Survivor." This is not unlike the Survivor audition video sketch that aired on SNL last week (with the two idiotic working-class Irish-American teenagers). During the video, Bunifah kills a mouse, gets into a harangue with a bill collector for the electric company, and then (predictably) the lights go out. This was OK, although it generally was not as good as some of the other Bunifah sketches. Wilson's performance was dead-on, though. Sketch about Sexual Harassment: Since the mid-1980's, sexual harassment has been recognized as a grievance that can be redressed under federal law. As a result, companies hold meetings to "educate" their workers on what constitutes sexual harassment. The idea, I assume, is that not only will these meetings (hopefully) make it less likely that their employees sexually harass other employees, but if the company does get sued, it can claim that "reasonable" measures were taken to prevent sexual harassment. Here, a roomful of employees are participating in such a workshop. But one of them (Nelson Ascencio) is not submitting easily; he asks questions such as whether or not it would be OK to complement a co-worker on her looks to raise her spirits or whether or not it's OK to kiss a co-worker at a Christmas (or Kwanzaa) party. Then, after the meeting, he meets his new supervisor (Aries Spears) who makes him reach into his pocket for his keys (there are no keys) and, pretending to fall, grabs his buttocks. He then asks if he's going to the Kwanzaa party. This was not only an amusing sketch, but one in which all the elements of the sketch seemed to come together: Ascencio and Wilson were funny, the premise was funny, and the punchline completely nailed it. Literally III: The obnoxious couple (Nicole Sullivan, Michael McDonald) are back; this time, they're trashing a school dramatic production. Favorite line: "I haven't seen this many overly made-up fat kids since the Facts of Life went to Paris. Literally." [By the way, I never heard "pillow-biter" as a slang term for homosexual before.] Then not only is there no punch line at the end, but the fans are encouraged to think of their own. This was better than the second Literally sketch though not as good as the first. Backstage with the Barenaked Ladies: Nicole Sullivan chats with the Barenaked Ladies backstage. She says that she's downloaded a whole bunch of their songs, and is glad that their video worked out, even though she thinks the producer is creepy. This was OK. Barenaked Ladies: The popular post-grunge band performs "Pinch Me" off of their latest release, "Maroon." This was really not my kind of music, but the performance, as far as live band performances on sketch comedy shows go, was good. What I didn't understand was everyone screaming every time they said a lyric that was even mildly risque. Fanatic: This was a rerun of the "Fanatic" parody from last season in which Will Sasso gets to fulfill his dream of meeting Nicole Sullivan. To their credit, they did put a little logo in the corner of the screen at the beginning reading "Mad TV Encore," which at least prevents viewers from being deceived into thinking they're getting an hour's worth (well, 42 minutes worth, anyway) of first-run entertainment. But since it's a rerun, I won't include it in my evaluation of the episode. Closing Segment: Aries Spears says hello to his mom. This was OK. ========================================================================== I didn't get to screen this episode until Sunday night, and I was told by someone who already saw it that it wasn't very good. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that not only was the show better than last week's show, but that several of the sketches were quite good: e.g. Literally III and the sexual harassment sketch. Of course we also saw the resurfacing of the odious Mad TV Classic/Encore, but even that was not quite as annoying as it usually is, since I taped the show and was able to fast forward past the sketch. The fact that this was a relatively good episode merely bolsters my assertion that Fox essentially wasted a perfectly good episode by airing it so late on the east coast. I'd be surprised if this one scored much more than a 3 rating, if even. [7/10] [Due to the abovementioned technical problems with my website, this review will NOT be available at www.nic0lesullivan.org for the time being.] ========================================================================== Number Six | dzien@nic.com | http://www.nic0lesullivan.org OR | (The Unofficial Nicole Sullivan Tribute Page) info@nic0lesullivan.org | ==========================================================================