Review of Season Five (1999-2000)
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It's the end of the TV season; the winners and losers have been
declared and next season's fall schedules have been announced,
which can only mean one thing: it's time for the annual colloquy
I call "a review of the past season." Per usual, I will divide this
review into two parts: in the first part, I will discuss ratings;
in the second part, I will undertake a more qualitative look at the
show.
I don't have ratings for the individual shows this year because "Ultimate
TV" stopped posting them, but according to Variety, ratings for "Mad TV"
are up about 6 percent this year, with an average audience of 5.4 million
viewers a week. In other words, the ratings didn't enjoy the dramatic
improvement they did last year, and the show apparently never beat SNL,
but the steady improvement in ratings was enough to make this season the
most successful season yet. In the past, "Mad TV" could always get good
ratings with popular guests (e.g. the show hosted by Jerry Springer got
the highest rating for the show that season, and the final appearance of
Bret Hart also got the show a high rating), but now the show is getting
high ratings much more consistently. This success was obviously a factor
in Fox's decision to renew the show for a sixth season.
But as far as I was concerned, renewal was a no-brainer since late October
1999. By then, many of Fox's new shows were already faltering (e.g.
"Ryan Caulfield: Year One," "Action," "Time of Your Life"), and
the veteran shows weren't faring so well, either (e.g. "Party of Five"
and "The Simpsons"). By then, network execs were making the fateful
decision to emphasize reality-based programming, and axing "Mad TV"
probably didn't seem like such a good idea. The show isn't costing
them much money, and with the rest of the Fox schedule going down
like a sinking ship, it wouldn't make much sense to cancel "Mad" as
long as it stays competitive. The network's commitment to the show
does not seem that great, though. I haven't observed many promos for
the show during Fox's other programs, while programs like "That 70's
Show" seem to get MFP (Most Favored Program) treatment (this in spite
of the fact that the latter only averaged a 5.8 rating for the
1999-2000 season, not that much higher than the average for "Mad TV;"
moreover, "That 70's Show" does not have the disadvantage of competing
against a 25-year old franchise).
The long-term future of the show is still uncertain. "Mad TV" has had
a tempestuous history, one which included a cancellation scare in the
first season (the show was pulled briefly in favor of the "Saturday
Night Special" in April 1996, only to return a few weeks later).
Cancellation was also a distinct possibility in January 1999, when
a rumor surfaced that Fox was considering replacing the show with
wrestling (before TV Guide included "Intensity" in its "50 Funniest
Moments" issue and before the ratings surge). This is the first time
in recent memory in which renewal seemed certain; whether or not the
show stays on the air depends upon many factors, including how well
the Fox Network does overall, and how patient the network is in
building up this franchise. Certainly the show doesn't seem to have
many fans amongst the higher echelons at the network, but now that
they have a hit on their hands, they seem to be willing enough to take
credit for it.

How Good Was the Show?
========================
About two-thirds of the way through season four, I started ranking
each episode on a scale of 0 to 10. This season, I did something which
I hadn't done previously: I ranked each segment on a scale of 0 to
10, and took an average of these rankings (rounded to the nearest
whole number) to arrive at a ranking for each individual episode. The
general idea was to make the rankings more "scientific" and less vague;
also with this system I would be less prone to be overly influenced
by any one segment, no matter how good or bad it was. I did not
include musical segments in my formula, unless it was a particularly
good one (The Goo Goo Dolls, for example, were so good in my opinion
that I increased the ranking for that episode a full point). If a
segment was particularly short or long, I would take that into account
in the averaging, but overall I did not rigidly consider the length
of the segment in the formula - a three-minute sketch, for example,
would count the same as one that lasted five minutes. The results
were less than perfect, but (hopefully) more useful than previous
seasons.
Averaging together the rankings for the twenty-five episodes of season
five, I came up with an average ranking of 5.7/10. While this may
not seem like a ringing endorsement for the season, it represents a
season that is decidedly better than season four. Moreover, since I'm
probably more critical of the show than most fans, any ranking which
is above average is probably a good sign. The show is still weaker
than it was during its salad days in 1995-97 (many people will not
be happy to hear this). Moreover, the weaknesses are not confined to
one aspect of the show. The current cast is not (in my opinion) as
good as the original cast, and the writing is not as solid as it once
was. Even the new-found popularity of the show has worked to further
degrade the show's quality, and the show has resorted to such tactics
as having the WWF's "Sting" on the show. In the past, the show's
cult-ish following forced it to seek out non-A list guests who nonetheless
had a certain hip-ness. What other show would be cool enough to allow
Kevin McDonald (formerly of "Kids in the Hall") on as a guest host?
[Not to mention Ryan Stiles.] I don't know exactly what the future
holds, but I forsee a long procession of pro wrestlers.
The show further distanced itself from its namesake, Mad Magazine. Alfred
E. Neuman is nowhere to be seen on the set or opening credits. After
a few appearances at the beginning of the season, "Spy vs. Spy" was dropped
as well. Now, virtually the only common element between the two is the
name.
While some elements which were regular features of the show were gone
(e.g., Lowered Expectations and the animated segments [there were only
two claymations this year]), new ones were added. One element which is
sure to continue to spark debate has been the appearance of musical
guests. In the second half of the season, these were quite frequent, and
some of the artists were pretty popular, too (e.g. Creed, The Goo Goo Dolls,
The Cure, Marc Anthony). While I would rather see an hour of wall-to-wall
comedy, having a musical guest was better than airing a "Mad TV Classic,"
and some of the musical acts were actually quite good (I singled out
the Goo Goo Dolls for commendation). Detractors will assert that with
musical guests make the show seem more SNL-ish, but of all the ploys the
producers have used to try to draw ratings, this is the device that
compromises the integrity of the show to the least extent, at least in
my opinion. [They might also try to boost ratings with better sketches,
but yearning for such things might cause me to be pigeonholed as a pie
in the sky idealist.]

The Cast
========================
The cast was the same as the season four cast, minus Andrew Bowen, whose
contract apparently was not renewed for season five. Thus for the first
time since season two, no new cast members were added. And just as in
season two [when Pablo Francisco and Tim Conlon made appearances], the
show resorted to having featured players on the show to fill the gap
left by Phil LaMarr, who was pretty much absent from the show during
the second half of the season, and Nicole Sullivan, who was in New York
during January and February.

I hadn't really paid that much attention to the "guest cast" members
(Nelson Ascencio and Brooke Totman) so I don't really have much to say
about them, although Totman put in a fairly impressive performance as
Jennifer Love Hewitt in the "Time of Your Life" parody ("Mistake of Your
Life"). 

It will be interesting to see what impact Phil LaMarr's (apparently) leaving
the show has on "Mad TV." As one of the original cast members, he was
one of the reasons I started watching in the first place, and he engineered
such memorable characters as the UBS Guy (a staple of the show since
MD-102), Savante (sic?), Desperation Lee, Rick (I still remember that
sketch where he hits on Queen Latifah), the foil for Antonia, Wacko Jacko,
Bernard Shaw, Louis Farahkhan, and many more. He was essentially always
an underrated talent (in his first monologue, he refers to himself as
the "other black guy"), but his contributions to the show over the
years were important. His absence (again, I am assuming he is gone
although no official announcement was made) will be a great loss to the
show.

Since LaMarr was (again, in my opinion) the best of the remaining male
cast members, the distribution of talent is more than ever lopsided in
favor of the women. In fact, I will not even elaborate further on the
male cast members since there is little worth mentioning. I suppose
Will Sasso is the funniest of the remaining male cast members; he has
proven that he can be funny even though he is no longer fat; he has been
gradually moving away from physical humor for the most part (the label
Chris Farley wannabe does not apply) and his characters show a surprising
range. As for the others...Aries Spears, after getting off to a good
start in season three, has turned out to be essentially a disappointment;
he is a poor substitute for Orlando Jones, whom I suppose he was meant
to replace. Michael McDonald is as about as multi-dimensional as a vector,
which is to say, not at all. Nevertheless, with the popularity of Stuart,
he seems to be guaranteed a spot on the cast for the time being. The same
cannot be said of Pat Kilbane; although he has carved out a niche playing
"straight man" roles, he seems to be one of the least indispensible
cast members; he doesn't have any popular recurring characters, either.

The female cast, however, is worthy of further elaboration:
ALEX BORSTEIN: She wasn't as prominent this season as she was last
season, but the Swan character was kept alive through a series of
interrelated sketches; also, Allison (the singing woman) was recurred;
she made another appearance as Monica Lewinsky and let's not forget
her as Patsey Ramsey. She also did one of the voices for "The Family
Guy," which is not on Fox's fall schedule but which has been picked up
by the WB. She's also doing a dramatic series for the WB. [Riddle: When
is an hour 40 minutes? When it's an hour-long series on the WB.]

MO COLLINS: More than anyone else, she has stepped in to fill the
gap left by Nicole Sullivan's absence in the second half of season two.
She took over Sullivan's role on "Reading Caboose" (albeit as "Ms. Janis,"
not "Ms. Lucy," the Sullivan character), also she did a Celine Dion
impression - another Sullivan character. She also reprised her role as
Stuart's mother and as Lorraine. It has also been observed that she has
taken over many of the "hottie" roles: e.g. she was Pamela Anderson in
a parody of "V.I.P." (rechristened "[T]actical [I]ntelligence [T]eam).
Oh yes, and don't forget her appearances as that skanky slut Rosa.

DEBRA WILSON: She is doing more recurring roles these days (e.g.
Bunifah and Ms. Sylvia). Possibly her best role is as half of the
Hispanic duo Melina and Lida. But much of her best work was in one-off
appearances. She's probably the most underrated cast member of this season.

NICOLE SULLIVAN: The Diva of Late Night Television continues her reign!
1999-2000 promised to be a banner year for Nicole Sullivan fans. She
was already the most popular cast member and, as the only cast member
to have appeared on Letterman, Leno, and Craig Kilborn, she is essentially
the show's unofficial spokesperson. She kicked off the season with her
pivotal role as Britney Spears in the MTV "Making of the Video" parody;
she also provided the voice of Tundra Woman in a September 1999 episode
of "Pepper Ann." In November, she hosted "Later" for a week (the show
got its highest ratings for the season so far that week), and in the
winter began taping her new show "Talk To Me." By April, she was all
over the tube: she still had her regular gig on "Mad TV" but could
also be seen on "Talk to Me" on Tuesdays; she made an appearance on
The Late Show on April 26, and two days later appeared on "Law and Order:
Special Victims Unit" as if just to prove that she can still do dramatic
roles (given the sorry state of sitcoms, this might not be a bad idea).

But by May, it became clear that full-fledged sitcom stardom still eluded
her. "Talk To Me" was pulled from the schedule after only three episodes,
and the show, like all of the other shows rolled out by ABC as mid-season
replacements in March-April, was essentially a ratings failure. But
she still had the advantage of having risked little by appearing in the
show. She is unlikely to be blamed for the show's failure; on the contrary,
she was recognized by many critics as the best thing the show had going
for it. It looks like she'll still be on the show for the forseeable future,
although this seems to be a mixed blessing at best. "Mad TV" is her bread
and butter and it's good to see that she hasn't given up sketch comedy
to pursue these side projects. However, she deserves a career that is
both financially and artistically rewarding, and she is achieve either on
the "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire" Network. It's true that
"Talk to Me" was essentially panned by the critics, but the challenges
she faced on that show were basically the same as those she faces on "Mad":
trying to get a laugh out of mediocre or simply bad material, and helping
make those whom appear in scenes with her seem funny. Hopefully, one day
she'll have the privilege of working with writers who can write comedy
as well as she can perform it.

End of Season Awards:
========================
Most Valuable Player: Mo Collins, who was probably in more sketches this
year than anyone else.

Most Improved Cast Member: Will Sasso

Third Annual Chris Hogan Award for Most Annoying Cast Member: Michael
McDonald

Cast Member I'd Like to See More of on the Show: Nicole Sullivan

Most Overused Recurring Character/Segment: Actually, this year they did a pretty
good job of not overutilizing recurring characters. No particular
character comes to mind for this category, although "Reading Caboose"
was used a lot.

The Al Gore Straight Man Award: Pat Kilbane

Most Underrated Cast Member: Debra Wilson. Runner-up: Phil Lamarr.
========================

That's all I have to say for now. It's going to be a long summer, and in
addition to watching "Mad TV" reruns, I'll probably revert to watching
"Kids in the Hall" reruns on Comedy Central; I also saw "The Best of Adam
Sandler" SNL special so maybe I'll watch some Sandler period SNL especially
since it will bring back memories of college. I picked up "Get a Life
Volume 1" (with Chris Elliot) and I'm looking forward to watching that
although I will miss the classic "Spewie" episode. And I'll try to track
down video highlights of "Beyond the Fringe" if that's even possible.

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