The Dana Carvey Show (1996)

Starring: Dana Carvey, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Robert Smigel, Heather Morgan, and Bill Chott
Grade: D+

All I’ve heard in retrospective reviews was how great The Dana Carvey Show was, how it was ahead of its time, and how it got screwed because of a series of situations out of their control. Well, in all honesty, the story behind the making of the show is much more interesting to read about than what we were given here. Presented as Dana Carvey’s answer to “counterculture humor”, I was expecting big things in his show. Sure, I knew it was short-lived, but it always feels special to find a small, underrated gem of a show that got cancelled too early. After watching it all the way through, I know what the problem is…

It’s not that funny.

The Dana Carvey Show is a sketch comedy program starring one of Saturday Night Live‘s most talented comic performers to ever join the cast. Dana Carvey was funny, was easily one of the best impressionists we’ve ever seen and had an incredible talent for comedic acting. He always had untapped potential for bigger projects too. I’ll agree with one of the tombstone graphics from the opening, his movies were underrated. Giving him the opportunity to star in his own sketch comedy show was a genius idea. It’s his biggest strength! Now, think about all of the talent in front of and behind the camera that were involved in the making of this enigmatic show. Along with Carvey, there was Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and Robert Smigel. They were the main cast members but also contributed heavily with the writing. In addition, the writing staff consisted of names like legendary comedian Louis C.K., future visionary filmmaker Charlie Kaufman, and the incredibly talented Bob Odenkirk. It boggles my mind how there were this many comic geniuses and talent involved in the making of this show, but it still managed to suck as much as it did.

I like the idea of the show trying to be counterculture programming. We’ve seen regular sketch shows before. With The Dana Carvey Show, this group wanted to get weird and try different approaches to the game to make their mark. Things started hot with the infamous opening sketch involving Bill Clinton breastfeeding a baby, real puppies, and a real kitten, but this was the only sketch that felt different to a regular sketch show. After this wild opening, I didn’t feel the vibe of the “counterculture” humor the show wanted to represent. There were elements of it with the song and dance routine about whatever product was sponsoring the show, right before Carvey comes out to greet the crowd, but the joke is only funny during the Pepsi-related song in “The Pepsi Stuff Dana Carvey Show” episode because they start lying about all the positive effects of the drink. Did they really think this was going to work for every episode? I understand that the whole sponsor-heavy joke is a homage to stuff Red Skelton and other old variety shows used to do, but it stopped being funny almost immediately. Playing with the sponsors like the show does is a creative way to make money, but it isn’t nearly as funny as Carvey seems to think it is. Naming each episode after the sponsor of the show (example: “The Taco Bell Dana Carvey Show“) was a bit too much.

Is this an example of counterculture programming, a parody of old variety shows, beating this dead horse of a joke, trying to make the best out of corporate sponsorship because it’s the only thing keeping the show alive, or a combination of all of them? I think you know the answer. Regardless, the joke wears thin and shouldn’t have lasted as long as it did.

That’s saying something since there’s only eight episodes of this show that exists.

After the cold open and the song and dance shtick, Carvey comes out to open the show to questions from the audience. This felt like the biggest missed opportunity of the show. When he does this in the first episode, some guy in the crowd asks if John F. Kennedy went back in time to kill himself because he’s the antichrist. Now, this might be the most insane question I’ve ever heard. I’m not sure if the “Questions from the Audience” segment is rehearsed or not beforehand, but this outrageous question should’ve been an epiphany for this relatively uneventful opening to the show. This question is about as counterculture as it gets. Why didn’t they set up crazy questions like this every episode for Carvey to respond to? This would’ve fit with the tone of the show they wanted. Sadly, each episode continues with this opening with Carvey and the audience, and it feels like filler, never being as funny as that outrageous question from the first episode. The program never reaches the heights of irreverent humor they seemed to promise. It felt like any regular sketch show immediately after.

There were funny ideas here and there though. The “Stupid Pranksters”, “Germans Who Say Nice Things”, “The Ambiguously Gay Duo”, Susan Sarandon and Gregory Peck present the Foreign Language Academy Award, “Waiters Who Are Nauseated by Food“, Entertainment Headlines Looks at Filmmaker Oliver Stone, “Skinheads from Maine“, E.H. focusing on the Johnnie Cochran-like lawyers, and “Famous First Ladies as Dogs” will all be remembered fondly. This was the humor I thought the show was going to be all about. If people didn’t think this type of stuff was funny, then I would agree with the “ahead of its time” comment. Unfortunately, the sketches I listed above are pretty much the only amusing sketches throughout the entirety of the show. The good doesn’t happen nearly as much as the bad. That’s why these very few “good” sketches stand out so much to me. Look, if I only laugh at two things in the series opener, you’re in trouble.

The political stuff gets tired early, despite the impressions being solid. For some reason, these guys think Bob Dole is the funniest thing to walk the Earth because they reference him in damn near every episode. The Charles Grodin sketch was boring, the Larry King/Ross Perot thing went on way too long, and the informercial stuff (“Drow-Z-Boy Commercial”) and “Grandma the Clown” were flat-out terrible. The whole show consists of hits and horrible misses. That is why the show ended as early as it did. It was unfocused, most of the time unfunny, and it was on the wrong network. However, you can’t place the blame solely on the network. The minds behind The Dana Carvey Show needed a team leader to keep everyone on track to reach the same goal. It was obvious they didn’t have one.

“Meanwhile at Fabio’s house” was one of the funniest five-second sketches I’ve seen in a while though.

The only episode I can say was “the best” was the aforementioned “The Pepsi Stuff Dana Carvey Show“. This was the most complete episode they produced and showcased what the show could’ve been in terms of ridiculous humor, consistent writing, and original ideas. It also gave us the “Nixons” sketch where we talk about an Oliver Stone movie with several people playing Richard Nixon. It’s pretty funny, but it’s also the first time where everyone involved in the sketch does a better job with an impression than Carvey, which is a rare enough feat to mention.

One thing is for sure, Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert show out. If there was any question as to why they’re famous, you can see the early glimpse of their talent right here. All the best sketches usually have Carell in them, and Colbert’s impressions had me laughing more than anyone else on the show. I’m not necessarily a super fan of Stephen Colbert, but he was objectively the best performer out of this cast. His Oliver Stone and Geraldo Rivera impressions were hilarious. The sketches they were involved in weren’t crazy funny or anything, but his impressions were fantastic. His news anchor thing, with the head tilt at the end of sentences, showed how one can make a lasting impression even in the smallest of roles. People only know him now for The Colbert Report and The Late Show, but people should be reminded how incredible he was as a sketch comedy performer. Up until this point, I realized I never gave him the credit just because I didn’t seek a lot of his stuff out.

I don’t know much about Elon Gold either, but he had the best Howard Stern and Jeff Goldblum impressions I’ve ever seen. Heather Morgan was very good too. Sadly, she won’t get the credit the others do, but I thought she did a lot in the time given to her (which was few and far between). Despite being the only woman on the cast, she wasn’t used as much as she should’ve been. In comparison, The Ben Stiller Show did a much better job showcasing someone like Janeane Garofalo compared to how The Dana Carvey Show did with Heather Morgan. The reason I bring this up is because The Ben Stiller Show felt a lot more like what The Dana Carvey Show was trying to be in terms of being a new age, counterculture sketch comedy program. Plus, Bob Odenkirk worked on both programs, so you think this one would’ve been a lot better since Odenkirk had the experience.

Well, this wasn’t the case.

Basically, the performers were game. Very rarely did someone do a bad job with an impression or the character they were playing. The writing just didn’t meet the performers’ ability (“Leftover Beatles Memories”, “The 11 O’Clock News That’s Easy to Take”, etc.). They were always committed to the bit, but most of the sketches just weren’t that funny.

Case closed.

Blame the Bill Clinton titty opening all you want (and they do). Yes, it’s true that it was too edgy to follow Home Improvement on primetime and that was an issue for the show they wanted to make, but the real problem was that it wasn’t as good as they thought it was. Dana Carvey does his best with his incredible ability to do an impression of everyone from Regis Philbin to Tom Brokaw (the way he says “Gerald Ford” is something that sits with me to this day), but the show isn’t the generational comedic masterpiece it could’ve been considering the talent involved. They wanted to be bizarre, weird, and totally different from its counterpart in Saturday Night Live. Despite flashes of brilliance in performances and writing, it felt like another run-of-the-mill sketch comedy show. It was a disappointing experiment that should’ve been so much more.