Maya & Marty

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!"

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?

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!

Bottom line: Not that entertaining or funny.

It's just like Saturday Night Live, hit and miss, but with less of the firepower behind the "hit" (smaller cast and writing staff, I think - either way, it's shorter, so two unfunny skits is like 1/3rd of the show).

Personally, Rudolph was perfect on stage, but Short was a little too old school hokey for me (I like him in SNL skits, movies, etc., but on stage, he overdoes it, like he wants to make sure the senior citizens get the jokes).

There were five skits, and two musical numbers. I only thought one skit out of everything was funny (Short doing his Jiminy Glick character with Larry David, which I always really like). I had ZERO interest in Miley Cyrus's song and the second musical number: tap dancing!

I think Networks are going to have to do some serious belt tightening. Now, with streaming so pervasive, and only growing, consumers have the option to watch EXACTLY what they want. They no longer have to put up with shows, skits, or music they don't like just to get to the stuff they do like, which is exactly what "Maya and Marty" is.

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.