The Weird Al Show

The Weird Al show was a children's show that ran in 1997. Shout Factory was generous to release the full season (only season) of the parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic. This show is great for his fans and parents with children for something good to watch. People who dislike Al or never heard of him will probably not want to watch this; haters is going to hate.

CBS wanted Al to make it a children's show or keep it clean that Al have to abide to. Al did a great job abiding to the children's theme, but he probably wanted more creative control.

As for the show, it has great educational pointers for situation adhering to the children's demographic. With great guests including his mother and his friends like Judy Tenuta and music guest like Barenaked Ladies and Hanson. But the show was okay, but not to Al standards. Have you been to his concerts? He is over the top. There are some good shows, my favorite is Talent Show (with a funny Flintstone's skit). And there are some watered down episodes that just dragged like the last episode "Al gets robbed." What a sad way to end a show, bet Al was happy when it did.

With being said I bet if it had controlled by Al himself I give it a 7, 8 or 9-10. But I respectfully hand out a 6 of 10, which is fair grade. And I am a fan of Al, and I understand what he had to go through make the Weird Al show.

Why this show was cancelled so quick is beyond me. Oh yeah... the ratings. Well it's not the show's fault, it was the time slot (it was on at 8:30am on Saturdays where I live). This show was great nontheless with its take on the kid show genre in general. I still love the Bill Nye parody where everyone is singing "The Grass is Green" (you have to see it to understand) and the 80% Chance of Rain (a spoof on disaster movies). I hope they release these on tape sometime soon.

The Weird Al Show was a kids' show hosted by Weird Al Yankovic, a famous musician who is known for his huge list of songs that are parodies of popular songs. Basically made as an attempt to call back the spirit of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, The Weird Al Show had a premise: At the start of each episode, the narrator, voiced by Billy West, would tell kids the moral of the episode, sometimes yelling the words at them, then it proceeds to the actual episode, where Al himself gets into some situation where he learns such a moral.

And yes, it only lasted 13 episodes. At the time this premiered, CBS had rebranded their CBS Kidshow block into Think CBS Kids, which was an all-E/I block made due to the FCC enacting the Children's Television Act, which required networks air three hours of educational programming per week or face a fine. With this came behind-the-scenes drama where Weird Al had to fight with network censors over stuff that was declared "I.B" (a name given to actions that the censors believed kids could imitate). This, and the fact that the show has been given random time slots that were hard to follow, got it cancelled. In fact, the Shout Factory DVD release has the commentary tracks talk about this.

But moving on, the show did do its best at being entertaining. Pee-Wee's Playhouse was known for its cast of characters, and while the Weird Al Show lacked puppets (it did, however, have Harvey The Wonder Hamster), it had its fair share of wacky neighbors like Bobby The Inquisitive Boy, Hooded Avenger, Cousin Corky, and Judy The Psychic. Also, there are many celebrity appearances and even musical groups like Barenaked Ladies, Hansen, and Al-4-One. The Weird Al Show is a rare gem that never took off due to network meddling, and it is worth a watch.

"The Weird Al Show" only lasted for 13 episodes. I think the biggest reason for this is that the audience for such a show was probably rather small to begin with and the network's moving the show around didn't help any. Now I like Weird Al--and even went to his concert a few months back. BUT, his weird and surreal humor just isn't the sort of thing that will appeal to most adults. And, as far as kids go, it would appeal to the strange kids out there (like me when I was young) but just couldn't compete with corporate programming. It was was too different and filled with bizarre skits and unusual guest stars--much of which would have gone over the heads of many kids.

My feeling is that before you try watching the show, get copy of Al's "UHF". It's somewhat like the show but with more polish and the skits are far less hit or miss. Then, once you know whether or not you like this sort of strange humor, find the DVDs and watch away. Overall a very good show but a definite niche show.

Why'd they take this show off the air. It was the'90's version of "Pee-wee's Playhouse". I am a very big "Weird Al" fan, and I was very disappointed when they took it off the air. I got the new "Weird Al" CD, and I get kind of upset when I listen to the show's theme song on the CD. They should put "The 'Weird Al' Show" back on TV.