 |
| Nicole Sullivan on Talk Soup. |
The concept behind Talk Soup, which premiered on E! in 1991,
was relatively simple. Let's show highlights from the day's TV talk shows,
accompanied with some droll comments by the show's host. And
Talk Soup prospered, a testament the golden age of daytime talk shows
in the early and mid 1990's (admittedly, the golden age of daytime talk shows
may have been the nadir of American culture, but that's not the point) as well
as a testament to Greg Kinnear's comedic ability. The show was popular
enough to help E! establish itself as a cable channel - when Talk
Soup first aired, E! was not available on most cable systems, but
by the mid-1990's, it was. Then the long, downward spiral began: Greg
Kinnear left; the talk show boom of the early and mid 1990's petered
out (once you've reached the bottom of the cultural and moral abyss, how
much lower can you go?), and eventually even Oprah Winfrey, who made
millions off of the genre, decided to take the high road. Ratings for
Talk Soup declined, leading to its cancellation in 2002.
Nicole Sullivan on Talk Soup.
The period of time in which Nicole Sullivan occassionally guest hosted Talk Soup (she hosted the show six times between June 2000 and January 2001) was a weird transition period for the show. Hal Sparks, the third host, had left the show, but the powers that be at E! apparently chose not to replace him immediately, opting instead for a revolving door of recurring guest hosts (they eventually hired Aisha Tyler as a permanent host, and she remained the host until the show's cancellation). Nicole Sullivan appeared on the show six times; there were many other guest hosts, including several fellow cast members from Mad TV. When I rescreened the July 17, 2000 episode of Talk Soup, I reflected on what a shame it is that this show is no longer around, since it provided a good medium for many comedians. Nicole Sullivan's adroit handling of her hosting duties proved that she was no exception. She may not have lifted the viewers out of the cesspool that is daytime television, but she made the stay somewhat more enjoyable, and the stench somewhat more bearable.
The format of Talk Soup is pretty straightforward: the host introduces a clip from a show (such as Divorce Court or The Jerry Springer Show) and follows it up with a brief quip regarding the clip. In the Aisha Tyler era, the show got a bit more elaborate to include brief sketches; there was nothing like this during Nicole Sullivan's guest appearances. Still, most of her comments were funny, and she even managed to slip in a reference to Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis at one point. By 2000, even though trash television wasn't quite what it had been a few years earlier, the universe of daytime television was still interesting enough to provide comedic fodder. A good example was a clip from an episode of Divorce Court in which the husband argued that his wife had "pimped" him because she bought him a sweatshirt. The wife retorted that her husband was foolish if he thought the sweatshirt was anything but a gift. Commenting on the proceedings, Sullivan pondered whether a sweatshirt and a lime green sportsjacket would constitute a sufficient quid pro quo for her husband's services. Or how about a clip from Change Of Heart in which a white trash male with a shaved head ponders over whether to dump his old girlfriend or not: Ms. Sullivan, noting the man's resemblence to a certain tennis player, dryly remarks that she thought Andre Agassi would be able to attract a higher class of women.
Also notable about this episode is that Nicole Sullivan is wearing a cast (unable to resist the opportunity to milk her misfortune for laughs, she jokes that "that cop had a stronger jaw than I thought"), the result of a Fourth of July mishap (making this her second television appearance since the accident). Even though it's only her second stint as guest host on the show, she's already becoming at ease at the helm (she notes that she already has mastered the thousand-yard stare). All things considered, this episode is not "must see TV" - I don't think any episode of Talk Soup ever was - but it's worth watching if you're a die-hard Nicole Sullivan fan.
Video clips (in QuickTime 4.0
format):