The Dana Carvey Show

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

The Dana carvey show....a tear comes to my eye when i think about what it could have been. I'm 20 yrs. old and remember my father telling me about this show and the controversy after the first episode. This is when i started to watch it and every episode was a treat,to get sappy like my grandmothers apple pie. The show was something to look forward to throughout the week and finally get a dose...like a drug. The skits ranged from skinheads of Maine to grandma the clown, from maddone to the wizard of oz missing scene, to hell, the Chinese restaurant being the main sponsor of the show! I want a second dose...but i think it cant be picked up and done again, mainly because after seeing the master of disguise and like most comedians after children they loose their art form and just get plain stupid and uncreative...like Elton john coming out of the closet. PLEASE RELEASE ON DVD...BETA? ill take it on beta for god sake. and I'm not a fanatic, but drew Carey will never be looked at the same way, after he filled in for the best comedy skit show ever. All in the family will make the best sitcom.

I saw THE DANA CARVEY SHOW during its initial run, in a great time slot after ROSEANNE, and I said to myself: "it'll never last -- it's just too damned funny, and prime time TV won't permit that."

And it was, indeed, screamingly funny.

Sadly, I was right.

Its ratings were never the disappointment they claimed in order to justify their canceling it (and replacing it with yet another lame, safe sitcom).

One wonders what ABC thought THE DANA CARVEY SHOW would be.

Some people look at it today and wonder where the "controversy" in the show was. But it's not even that or the topicality.

It was just too funny. And that uniqueness is what got it noticed -- and then canned.

I just recently discovered this show and I really like it.It is a bit dated though.It's full of current event and political references that were before my time but I just google the people they talk about and then the jokes are hilarious.It's really weird to see Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert twenty years ago.Colbert looks especially strange.For reasons I don't understand the first five episodes of this show have a different title that includes a sponsors name.Even stranger is that they seem to make fun of each sponsor.In the Mt. Dew episode Dana tries to get a guy to say it looks like pee.I assume that's why the last two had no sponsor and probably why it was canceled.I have to say that this show proves that Dana Carvey is funnier and edgier than I could have ever imagined from watching his terrible movies.If you can find this, you should watch it.

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."