If you’re a bit young to remember the glory and the horror that was the Dana Carvey Show, you really, seriously need to go experience it. And man, oh MAN is it as horrible/great as I remember. Seeing some of the cameos – by Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Robert Smigel, etc. – was just amazing. How this show had so much talent (it was also written by some of Conan’s original writers, Louis C.K. and Dino Stamatopolous) and could be so hit-and-miss is beyond me. But man, when it was good, it was really, really good. Some of my favorite bits were:
Episode 2: The Ambiguously Gay Duo’s first appearance, Leftover Beatle Memories with Colbert as George Harrison
Episode 3: The Gentle News
Episode 4: Stephen Colbert as Geraldo Rivera
Episode 5: Waiters who are Nauseated by Food (and Steve Carell as Fabio – HA!)
Episode 6: Skinheads from Maine
Episode 7: Living a Nightmare (another newsman piece from Colbert)
Episode 8 (Season Finale): Not much of Stephen, a little bit more vomit than I’d like, but a great bit about Germans.
(h/t gina24 for the vids, hosted by Veoh.com)
ah… hulu.com cool…. but, is everyone getting paid?
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I remember the controversy this show caused when it premiered in 1996. I can’t remember over what, exactly, but I know it was a big part (aside from the fact it was rather hit-or-miss and no one watched) as to why it got cancelled.
Joost.com has The Dana Carvey Show, as well, but it’s an invitation-only service. The shows also are ad-supported (though in a different way than with other services).
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at least with this show you get a good even dosage of Stephen…he does a lot of the voiceover work…and Robert Smigel as The King of Jordan enjoying a bubble bath is enough to really kill you:)
Btw, isn’t all sketch comedy hit-or-miss? And with the group of writers involved, it would be hard for them to NOT be controversial or envelope-pushing in their satirical material.
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“Sorry! The video you requested is not available for viewing in your country.”
Well, isn’t that just f#@king great!!!
*huff*
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@Laura L
I remember that when it first started a lot of the press was about the whole construct of it being The “Taco Bell/Mug Root Beer” Dana Carvey show. What I don’t remember is whether the sponsorship was real?
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@dustdevil
I looked this up in Time’s incredibly comprehensive online archive, and found an article entitled “Your Show of Shills”:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,984344,00.html
It was paying homage to those shows of the 1950s that had the sponsor in the title, though Taco Bell pulled out of its namesake episode due to some sketch that involved President Clinton breastfeeding.
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Possibly my favorite ever late-night talkshow moment occurred when Dana Carvey appeared on Later with Bob Costas.
Carvey was discussing his standup comedy start in strip clubs, before the “main acts.” No one in the club was there to see *him* so, as Carvey explained, the humor would involve sex jokes and voice-mimicking famous people having sex.
Carvey riffed one or two mild examples, and Costas himself quickly joined in — among them, he did an astounding hilarious impression of Howard Cosell “in-the-act.” Bob Costas was already a major sports announcer, so his bawdy irreverent caricature of the legendary Cosell was enough to crack up both himself and Carvey.
At the time I thought Dana Carvey was the funniest comedian in the business. As evidenced by Costas, Carvey could get anyone to tap into their own comedic fool. I still use Carvey’s description (of his kids) as a general affirmative:
(spoken in robotic tone) “_______ too cute. Must…sit…down.”
Glad to know Carvey is enjoying renewed props!
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Colbert as Oliver Stone was great! I hardly recognized him. It’s interesting to see entire episodes with their “on and off” quality, prior to that I’d only seen highlight clips on youtube. It probably would have done better with a strong director’s hand editing the show.
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I thought Stephen as Oliver Stone was great, too. It reminded me a bit of the VH1 Random Play sketch he did as an avant garde music video producer. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHCmxeTd0KI)
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I know how you feel Tracey!, hopefully they will appear on Youtube :-)
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By the way, it’s now on iTunes.
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