johnritter4ever Having been a huge fan of Dana Carvey's multi-talents on SNL, I was so excited that he would have his own network TV skit comedy show. When this innovative show premiered, I was blown away by the brilliance of the humor and the level of creativeness, not just by my idol Mr. Carvey, but by the cast as a whole and the quality of the writing across the board. However, I knew the show was doomed from the start because there was an uproar over the opening skit of the first episode; Dana as Pres. Clinton in the Oval Office who ends up opening his shirt, revealing MULTIPLE (as in 6 or 7) nipples on his chest, and nursing puppies! The producers and writers, after the fact and the big brew-ha-ha, admitting that might not have been the wisest choice of skits toned things down a bit, but ABC had it in for the show from that point on. "The Dana Carvey Show" was hilarious and did push the envelope, and one of the major problems was that it aired on network TV before 10pm at night! This show would have been perfectly fine on cable or if ABC had aired it in late night opposite SNL or "MAD TV" or in the old "Fridays" time slot, but ABC was not smart enough or brave enough to program this truly ingenious show properly."The Dana Carvey Show" not only showcased it's star, but was the springboard for Steve Carell & Stephen Colbert - my 2 favorite "Daily Show" correspondents of all time! Also, this show provided the great Robert Smigel with more face time than any other project he had worked on (writing, producing, doing voices). These 3 uber-talented men were cast members AND writers and contributed to many memorable moments in this short lived series that Dana Carvey unselfishly shared with his comically gifted friends.One of my favorite sketches of all was an unbelievably right-on-the-money spoof of The Bealtes "Anthology" that had aired on ABC a few months prior. Dana did his best rambling Paul McCartney, Stephen Colbert turned on the scouse to do George Harrison, and if I remember correctly, Steve Carell was Ringo and Robert Smigel was the ghost of John Lennon! It was a masterpiece - being a life-long Beatles fan I was so amazed with their impressions and the imitation of the exact documentary style used in "Anthology".Lastly, I was lucky enough to attend a taping of the show in NYC, but it was one of the episodes that never made air. "The Dana Carvey Show" should DEFINITELY be released on DVD for all to discover this sparkling gem that never really saw the light of day.

cody darling If anyone else remembers the show, then you might remember that Dana made fun of the sponsors for the first 10 minutes of every show (at least that's my memory) Don't you remeber when, right after a mountain dew commercial, he made 3 minutes of mountain-dew-looks-like-p**s jokes? And as we all know from his movie Wayne's World, you don't make fun of the sponsors and get away with it. He had new sponsors every week, and pretty soon nobody would touch his show. Gee, what do you think happens next? Sponsors pay for the show. nobody pays to air the show, the show DOESN"T AIR. don't say that ABC is afraid of letting too much funny out, it's ABC. they needed funny (and they still do) more than [some clever analogy here]. This show is off the air because Dana Carvey expected it, wanted it, and wanted to have fun with it before it got pulled. He wouldn't have messed with the sponsors so much if he didn't want the show to be yanked, he did it anyways because it was insanely funny. That is comedic genius. Not "master of disguise."

Shylock-6 This is one of the funniest shows of the 1990s. Its a travesty ABC canceled it after six episodes. I can't think of a comedy program better suited for release on DVD. This was the first TV showcase for the brilliant talents like Stephen Colbert (The Daily Show), Steve Carell (Bruce Almighty), Robert Smigel (Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog) and Heather Morgan. Along with "The Ben Stiller Show" and "Freaks and Geeks," its the funniest '90s show canceled during its first season. We want it on DVD!

Zoamel Throughout time ever since the early 1970s, there have been numerous incredibly funny sketch comedy shows. Shows like Monty Python's Flying Circus, Kids in the Hall, SCTV, and Saturday Night Live were the pinnacle of comedy. Out of those shows that were mentioned above, only one of them is still on the air, and that is a sad state of affairs. Then, in 1996, a new show came out from former SNL favorite Dana Carvey. This was a wake up call from other, completely not funny shows that were on at the time. This show could have been a revitalization of comedy that was a change from a sitcom starring Jerry Seinfeld. Things didn't quite go as planned.At first, the show was supported by many major corporations due to Dana Carvey's credentials. The first show changed that. It featured sketches that were incredibly funny, but they were a bit offensive. From this, numerous sponsors backed down from the show.In the second episode, they toned down the sketches a little bit, but still people were still not satisfied with how funny the show was. I guess too many people felt threatened by this show. Having a show that is actually funny to be on primetime was too much of a shock after hit shows like Mad About You and Friends.The third episode was pretty much the same style of humour, still incredibly funny, too funny to be on TV. By this time, people who liked shows that were not funny were too taken aback by this that they said "This has to stop!"Why am I talking about each episode individually? Because that's it! That's as long as the show lasted! That's it! Throughout this decade they have tried to take funny shows off the air, and while they didn't succeed with Mystery Science Theater 3000, and they won't succeed again this time, they did succeed with the Dana Carvey show. This could have been the sketch comedy show of the future, but no, people would rather watch an unintelligibly unfunny show like Mad TV.-Z. Merritt