The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley

This has to be the single funniest Saturday morning cartoon ever. It should have run in prime-time. The Show follows Martin Shorts genius character through some of the craziest adventures ever. In one episode he goes into outerspace to cook a Tuna Casserole for some aliens who are going to destroy the earth if they don't get a good Casserole. It is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

This show was released when I was junior in high school,and by that age,Saturday Morning 'toons and shows(with maybe the exception of "Pee Wee's Playhouse",a show I personally wasn't all that keen on)were something you didn't frequent anymore(assuming you ever did)and if you did(actually found myself watching "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future" somewhat regularly back then),you didn't really admit to. But my familiarity with Martin Short(at that time almost entirely based on his short stint on SNL and his movie career to that point)was what lured me back into unabashed Saturday morning viewing and,I must say(!!)it was quite a treat!

Fusing Short's Ed Grimley character--a guy who is absolutely WAY too intensely emotional about pretty much everything--with some other staples of SCTV(where the character originated) such as "Count Floyd's Scary Stories" and some inspired Hanna Barbera animation,this show was enough eye candy and silliness for younger kids(read:ages 5 thru 10) and scattered with enough adult humor to amuse older "kids". The added contributions of SCTV mates Joe Flaherty,Catherine O'Hara,Andrea Martin and Dave Thomas as well as comedic Hall-of-Famer Jonathan Winters made this about as well-rounded a show as possible. Alas,NBC didn't see the response to the show it wanted to see and thus quietly escorted this show off the air after one season. Here's rooting for a DVD release of this show to be forthcoming.

Network executives made a huge error by putting this on the Saturday morning roster because the humor was so fresh, biting, witty, and sharp that it was WAY over kids' heads. And THAT is the reason it disappeared after only one season. This was a phenomenally clever show and if it ever comes out on DVD I will be one of the first to grab it, immediately.

The wit and zingers are fast and furious here and along with Ren and Stimpy and, on many occasions, the Simpsons, this should be counted as the best use of animation in a series for TV. But definitely, as mentioned, not for kiddies. I mean, let's face it. There was actually a total BABE in this show whose beautiful chest was definitely noticeable. Is THAT a kid's cartoon show character??? I think not.

I was sad to see this go, just as I was sad to see Ren and Stimpy go, and also another show, not animated, Get A Life with Chris Elliot which, luckily, WAS released on DVD--at least eight of the episodes anyway. Zany TV shows that poke fun at social conventions don't last. That's really too bad. It's too bad the majority of the public wants safe pablum to swallow like so much warm mush which they just dribble all over themselves. The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley was one of those shows that, rather than being warm bland tasteless mush, had some real kick, zing, and bite.

It's sorely missed.

What is the ultimate compliment to a comedian's comic genius and creativity (I mean, besides the marketing deals and royalty checks?) Getting your own series, of course.

And boy, was Martin Short ever complimented by getting a Saturday morning cartoon show like "The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley". I was always a big fan of Martin and when I saw this I immediately thought, "this is some kind of a joke!" But when I saw it, I never realized how funny a joke it actually was!

As indicated by the title, Short supplies the voice for his most famous creation, the hyper-kinetic Ed Grimley - a man whose every action is a convulsion, every word an exhaustive gasp and every rudimentary thought treated like a brainstorm. He was a living cartoon anyway, so why not just take that next logical step?

In this show, Ed lives in a apartment building next door to the beautiful Ms. Malone who is voiced by Catherine O'Hara as a cross between Marilyn Monroe and a heavy breather. He, of course, would do anything for her, which served as a catalyst for many of the series' episodes, as his simple actions would have nearly catastrophic results.

But, of course, every episode had Ed desperate to catch his favorite TV show - "The Count Floyd Show", starring SCTV's own Count Floyd (Joe Flaherty) in live action segments that proved Murphy's Law time and again.

This, of course, was even more popular with grown-ups than kids, especially fans of Short and SCTV, of which I am both. But since we are an elite group, no wonder the series didn't last very long. Oh well, there's always video....

Ten stars for "The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley"; a most excellent television show, I must say....