The Dana Carvey Show
| The Dana Carvey Show | |
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| Genre | Sketch comedy |
| Created by | |
| Written by | |
| Starring |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 8 (1 unaired) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Running time | 30 minutes (with commercials) |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | March 12 – April 30, 1996 |
The Dana Carvey Show is an American
The show's cast consists heavily of Saturday Night Live and Second City alumni including Carvey, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Bill Chott, Elon Gold, Chris McKinney, Heather Morgan, Peggy Shay, Robert Smigel, and James Stephens III. The writing team also included Louis C.K., Charlie Kaufman, Jon Glaser, Dino Stamatopoulos, Spike Feresten, and Robert Carlock. In addition, Carvey and Smigel's former Saturday Night Live colleague Greg Daniels contributed material for the premiere episode.
The Dana Carvey Show aired only seven of its planned ten episodes. While the program was short-lived and featured controversial material, it has since been considered ahead of its time. The show is also recognized for providing early exposure to Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert, two comedians who would go on to have success years later. In addition, The Dana Carvey Show served as a launchpad for Smigel's series of TV Funhouse cartoons.[1]
Development
"We kind of did reductionist bits where we'd just get away from beginning-middle-end, where the wacky character would walk into a scene and frustrate a straight man for six minutes. Instead, we just said 'And now, here are skinheads from Maine,' and then we just did 10 jokes."
—Robert Smigel[1]
Robert Smigel turned down an offer to rejoin SNL as a producer, favoring the challenge of working with Carvey in prime time. Smigel and Carvey were given SNL's audition tapes which led them to hire Bill Chott and Jon Glaser. They were also joined by Louis C.K. who worked with Smigel on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Steve Carell was hired through Smigel and Carvey's auditions in which Smigel recalls seeing future SNL alumni Tracy Morgan, Jimmy Fallon and Ana Gasteyer; however, The Dana Carvey Show had but a small cast to fill. Smigel himself cast Stephen Colbert, whom he had met years prior, and had tried to use on Late Night. Colbert sent them a homemade audition tape in which he used his newborn daughter as a puppet. He later noted, "I was completely desperate."[2]
The writing staff for The Dana Carvey Show included, Louis C.K. (head writer), Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Robert Smigel, Charlie Kaufman, Bob Odenkirk, Robert Carlock, Greg Daniels, and Dino Stamatopoulos.
Carvey also saw the new show as an opportunity to move his family away from Los Angeles and raise his two young sons in New York. His family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, however, causing Carvey to commute several hours to the studio during a brutal winter.[3] He regarded Smigel as the true writer and "creative force" behind the show while Carvey considered himself "kind of a zombie." This was due to his tiring schedule of balancing work and fatherhood which he later considered a mistake.
During the show's development, Smigel and Carvey focused on being different from SNL. The sketches would often be "reductionist bits" in an attempt to feel more "presentational" like Monty Python. This would sometimes frustrate writers whose ideas, while creative, were sometimes rejected because they did not fit the show's approach. Smigel has expressed satisfaction, however, in the outcome of working under such restrictions and believes the show would have found a greater balance had it been given more time on the air. This experimental approach also allowed the show to include short films and cartoons, starting with The Ambiguously Gay Duo. Smigel later considered the cartoons his favorite aspect of the program and noted, "My whole career came out of the impulse to do cartoons on The Dana Carvey Show." In the summer following the show's cancellation, Smigel continued to develop more cartoon ideas which would be used on SNL's TV Funhouse.
Smigel noted that the show had many options in terms of networks. Carvey says that his "first instinct" was to produce the show for HBO,[4] while CBS would have guaranteed several more episodes than the series eventually received. However, the duo was "overly tempted" by the reigning profile of ABC and its prime time offer. The network originally planned on airing ten episodes[5] and did not interfere with the show's creativity, simply wanting a good lead-in to NYPD Blue.
The Dana Carvey Show also attempted to put The Onion on television with Stephen Colbert reporting as an anchor in deadpan style. This material long predated his time on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. However, the sketches went unaired and have since been subject to rights issues.[1]
Format
The show's humor varied between crude and sophisticated. It debuted on Tuesday, March 12, 1996 at 9:30 ET. On its premiere, following the family-friendly Home Improvement, the notorious first sketch featured Carvey as President Bill Clinton, demonstrating his compassion by having a human baby (which was a doll), several puppies (real ones) and a kitten (also real) suckle milk from his multiple prosthetic nipples. Years later, Carvey claimed that "having that right out of the box sent the wrong message about the show. The show got really panned because of that, and we were in trouble from that point forwards."[3]
Carvey also recreated some of the characters he developed on Saturday Night Live, including his signature
Additional post-produced bumper material was often featured between sketches. One such example,
An animated sketch that first appeared on the show, The Ambiguously Gay Duo, featuring the voices of Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell, became well known on SNL after Carvey's show was canceled. Additionally, a sketch used in the unaired eighth episode about Tom Brokaw prerecording the announcement of Gerald Ford's death was used verbatim when Carvey hosted Saturday Night Live on October 26, 1996.
History
When The Dana Carvey Show first appeared, it was greeted with above average reviews and a lukewarm response from the audience. Despite the fact that ABC only aired seven episodes of the series, it has maintained a small but loyal following. The first six episodes that aired were officially titled based on the presenting sponsor of the show:
- "The Taco Bell Dana Carvey Show"
- "The Mug Root Beer Dana Carvey Show"
- "The Mountain Dew Dana Carvey Show"
- "The Diet Mug Root BeerDana Carvey Show"
- "The Pepsi Stuff Dana Carvey Show"
- "The Szechuan Dynasty Dana Carvey Show"
This was an homage to the classic television shows that Dana Carvey grew up watching in the 1950s and 1960s, wherein a variety show would have a single sponsor whose advertising and promotion were integrated with the show.
The show was videotaped at the
Each of the first five sponsors were products of PepsiCo, Inc. Shortly after the show's debut, however, PepsiCo announced that its units Taco Bell and Pizza Hut had pulled advertising which would have brought in $600,000 per episode. A spokesperson for the latter told Variety that the company did not "feel comfortable" with the show based upon the premiere episode's content. An ABC spokesperson also told Variety that some sketches in the premiere "went too far." Nevertheless, Pepsi-Cola and sister company Mug Root Beer remained sponsors.[5] The sixth sponsor was a locally popular Manhattan Chinese restaurant, while the final episode had no presenting sponsor.
Episodes
| Episode | Original air date | Sketches | Cast |
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| "The Taco Bell Dana Carvey Show" | March 12, 1996 |
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| "The Mug Root Beer Dana Carvey Show" | March 19, 1996 |
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| "The Mountain Dew Dana Carvey Show" | March 26, 1996 |
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| "The Diet Mug Root Beer Dana Carvey Show" | April 2, 1996 |
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| "The Pepsi Stuff Dana Carvey Show" | April 9, 1996 |
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| "The Szechuan Dynasty Dana Carvey Show" | April 23, 1996 |
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| "The Dana Carvey Show #7" | April 30, 1996 |
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| "The Dana Carvey Show #8" | Unaired |
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Cancellation and beyond
Due to the controversial content and declining ratings, the show was canceled after eight of its ten planned episodes were taped. Smigel and Carvey recalled wanting a parental warning for the show, but were not granted it because of advertiser concerns. However, the duo considered the program less racy by today's standards, stating, "If you take out the
Nevertheless, Carvey expressed pride in the program serving as Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert's launchpad and in its creative approach: "We did not compromise anything, literally, in a completely commercialized environment, and did exactly what we wanted - for better or for worse." Colbert has also offered credit to the show's format for developing his satirical onscreen persona, stating, "If you have an opportunity to give it right to the audience, there’s a special connection that you make by looking at the camera."[2]
Upon the program's cancellation, its writers rearranged their office in an askew fashion as a parody of destroying it in anger. They quickly corrected its appearance after angered security guards complained. Carvey returned to
More recently, The Dana Carvey Show has become available via a variety of Internet-related outlets. The series in its entirety (including an eighth episode unaired by ABC) has been available on
In addition, a two-disc
Dana Carvey would eventually host a program on ABC again 26 years later, when he served as a guest host for the July 18 and 19, 2022 episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! as part of Jimmy Kimmel's traditional summer break from the show.[7]
Critical reception and retrospect
Upon its debut,
In 2009, New York Times writer Dave Itzkoff lamented, "Comedy fans may remember it as a crucible in which many future stars were forged. But for the people who created the show, it was a stark lesson that when idiosyncratic talents are given the freedom to follow their personal muses, a mass audience does not always follow."[2]
Streaming
The series is currently available to stream on
Documentary
In October 2017, streaming service Hulu released a documentary entitled Too Funny to Fail that details the show's rise and fall.[12]
References
- ^ a b c d Heisler, Steve (June 15, 2009). "Interview - Dana Carvey and Robert Smigel". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
- ^ New York Times. Archivedfrom the original on October 26, 2017. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
- ^ New York Times. Archivedfrom the original on June 5, 2009. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
- Daily Beast. Archivedfrom the original on November 16, 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
- ^ Salon. Archived from the originalon November 25, 2006.
- ^ "Hulu Awards". Hulu.com. 2009-03-03. Archived from the original on February 28, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-03.
- ^ Elgenaidi, Deena (19 July 2022). "Dana Carvey Impersonates Joe Biden, Revives Classic SNL Characters on Kimmel". Primetimer. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
- ^ James, Caryn (March 14, 1996). "Television Review; Sendups of Forbes, Clinton and Royalty". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 26, 2015. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
- ^ Wheat, Alynda (May 6, 2009). "The Dana Carvey Show". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 12, 2009. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
- Paste Magazine. Archivedfrom the original on January 13, 2010. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
- ^ Anderson, Troy (April 29, 2009). "DVD Review: The Dana Carvey Show". CHUD.com. Archived from the original on May 2, 2009.
- ^ Lyons, Margaret (October 20, 2017). "Review: 'The Dana Carvey Show' Was Doomed. 'Too Funny to Fail' Explains Why". New York Times. Archived from the original on October 20, 2017. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
External links
- The Dana Carvey Show at IMDb
