In Defense of: “The Dana Carvey Show”
In early 1996, the American people were ready for many things; a new Alanis Morissette single, a Deep Blue vs. Garry Kasparov chess rematch and another four years of Bill Clinton. One thing they weren’t ready for was “The Dana Carvey Show.”
The ill-fated prime-time sketch comedy show only lasted 7 episodes before it was cancelled. Perhaps it was the poorly planned lead-in; the family based “Home Improvement” didn’t appreciate the first-ever sketch which involved Bill Clinton lactating and nursing puppies. Maybe it was the show’s poor attempts at shoving classic Dana Carvey characters into an unfamiliar format; the Church Lady voice pops up far too often where it doesn’t belong.
But it certainly wasn’t a lack of talent that doomed “The Dana Carvey Show.” The show featured the acting and writing talents of pre-fame Steve Carrell, Steven Colbert, Robert Smigel, Louis C.K., Dino Stamatopulos and Charlie Kaufman. Yes, that Charlie Kaufman, of “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation” fame.
But it wasn’t just green talent that couldn’t bring the funny. This show was hilarious. It debuted Ace and Gary, “The Ambiguously Gay Duo,” and featured the classic Tom Brokaw pre-taping Gerald Ford’s death announcement sketch that SNL took word for word when Dana Carvey hosted later that year.
They have a lot of great material that you haven’t seen like Skinheads from Maine or Germans Who Say Nice Things (imagine Steve Carrell shouting, “Mr. Holland’s Opus was the feel good movie of the year!” in a German accent. Hilarious.)
It’s too bad the show existed before cable was a viable moneymaker because this was a brilliant precursor to “Chappelle’s Show” and probably would have been just as successful in a friendly market. The humor is a bit too topical and relies on Carvey’s impression skills to often, but it holds up.
Check out the whole show for free on Netflix.com (if you are a customer) or on hulu.com (free for everyone).
Popularity: 1% [?]
Related Posts
Print This Post