Maya & Marty

This 62 year old white male liked this show. I thought the writing was creative and far superior to most of the SNL shows from the previous calendar year.

Not every joke hits. That's a given. It's Martin Short and Maya Rudolph (Minnie Riperton). But there were some very creative bits that have never been done before.

And the guest stars they got was unimaginable. Steve Martin, Emma Stone, Nathan Lane, Tom Hanks, etc.

Sean Hayes as the 1940's gay detective, filmed in B/W was great.

The days where America sits down to watch a 60 minute show together are gone. But there was some brilliant comedy in this 360 minute series.

I don't know if they could make it last in a second season. But I truly enjoyed it. Thank you Mikey, Maya, Martin, and Kenan.

I ask everyone, what if SNL had these guest stars and cast every week?

Open Letter to Don Kaplan of the New York Daily News:

I am not going to write a sophisticated verbiage to counter your remarks reviewing the Maya and Marty show. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and that is really all it is, an opinion. When I saw that Maya and Marty was going to be produced by Loren Michaels, then I knew it was going to be funny. Yes, this is a variety show. I am so sick of sitcoms that are not funny. This show IS funny. I laughed out loud several times, more than twice. I remember those variety shows of yesteryear. They were funny, too. The writers for Maya and Marty are excellent and intelligent. They are not writing for 14 year old boys. I miss a good quality variety show. The musical guests are spot on and used for some of the comedy skits. The show gives a stage to showcase Maya's musical gifts and Marty's sharp whit. I highly recommend the Maya and Marty show. Please give this show a chance! One last word for Don Kaplan and all those cynical critics out there, "Kiss my Grits!"

I'm a big fan of Maya Rudolph, but I didn't particularly enjoy her first attempt at doing a variety show ("The Maya Rudolph Show"), but Martin Short brings a unique freshness within the collaboration. I'm a millennial so I have heard of Martin Short before, but never really knew who he was, but I absolutely fell in love with him (particularly his character Jiminy Glick). The comedy is definitely modern and seems like it's for a niche market (hence the split in reviews).

I really hope NBC renews this show for a couple more seasons. The ratings seem to be on par with SNL so I don't know why they wouldn't?

I can't get enough of Jiminy Glick!

SNL alumni Maya Rudolph and Martin Short host a prime time variety show produced by Lorne Michaels. It's hour long episodes. There are six of them. It's a summer replacement show. They have big name guests with many from SNL. The question is whether this genre can return. The short answer is no. This has a few issues. The biggest is that Maya and Marty are not really connected performers other than their stints on SNL. Quite frankly, Marty was a short term hired gun while Maya was part of a major female wave that signified an era. They don't have much in common. It's nothing like Marty and Steve Martin. Another issue is the song and dance aspect. I appreciate the old school variety but it's not that fun. The skits are hit and miss. One thing that could energize it would be to do it live although that would be SNL. It seems that live performances of musicals, and old TV shows hold more potential. Those feel like Events while this feels old.

Maya Rudolph and Martin Short are both very talented performers. They are also very unique - they need writers who understand their strengths, and their limitations, and can write for their unique talents.

The writers of this show have apparently never seen either Rudolph or Short before....they also apparently have never ever seen a variety Show before - because they have no clue how to do their jobs.

This muddled mess ends up being just painfully bad - despite the best efforts of Short and Rudolph. Martin Short is particularly at a disadvantage with these writers.

NBC should be ashamed of wasting the talents of these folks with such incredibly awful writing.