The Dana Carvey Show

Dana Carvey tries his hand at network primetime. He's able to use some of his SNL material despite being on a different network. This has the notable appearance of Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert as two of the main players. Along with Robert Smigel, this also has writing from Louis C.K., Bob Odenkirk, and Charlie Kaufman along with others. The best recurring bit is probably Carvey and Carell as stupid pranksters. The most notorious bit has to be its opening bit which can be considered as the bit that shut down the show. It's President Clinton feeding a baby, a dog, and a cat with his rows of tits. It's completely tasteless, shocking, ill-fitting for its place, and ahead of its time. That's the show. It's airing in the wrong place. Some of it is beyond the pale like beheading Princess Di. The First Lady of Dogs is a nothing sketch and can be taken in a really bad way. This pushed the envelope and the envelope pushed back.

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

This is one of the funniest shows of the 1990s. Its a travesty ABC canceled it after six episodes. I can't think of a comedy program better suited for release on DVD. This was the first TV showcase for the brilliant talents like Stephen Colbert (The Daily Show), Steve Carell (Bruce Almighty), Robert Smigel (Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog) and Heather Morgan. Along with "The Ben Stiller Show" and "Freaks and Geeks," its the funniest '90s show canceled during its first season. We want it on DVD!

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.

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."