Mad TV season 1

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Mad TV
Season 1
Mad TV season 1.png
DVD cover
No. of episodes19
Release
Original network Fox
Original releaseOctober 14, 1995 (1995-10-14) 
June 22, 1996 (1996-06-22)
Season chronology
Next 
Season 2
List of episodes

Mad TV was an American sketch comedy series, Season 1 originally aired in the United States on the Fox Network between October 1995, and June 1996.

Contents

Mad TV's first season premiered in the 1995 television season, on October 14 at 11:00 pm, thirty minutes before the time-slot of its rival, Saturday Night Live .

The original Mad TV repertory cast members were Bryan Callen, David Herman, Orlando Jones, Phil LaMarr, Artie Lange, Mary Scheer, Nicole Sullivan, and Debra Wilson, with Craig Anton as a featured player. The first season's cast was a mixture of seasoned television and film veterans like LaMarr, Herman, and Scheer, and relatively unknown newcomers like Callen, Jones, Lange, Sullivan, and Wilson.

Season one of Mad TV relied heavily on the fan base of MAD Magazine . Each episode featured the use of the MAD logo (which is still used today), Alfred E. Neuman images and puns, the Spy vs. Spy cartoons, and the catchphrase "What...me worry?" The first season also established some of the series' landmark characters like Jaq the UBS Guy (LaMarr), The Vancome Lady (Sullivan), Clorox (Anton), Mrs. Jewel Barone (Scheer) and Momma (Lange) from That's My White Momma. This season also produced several enduring celebrity parodies like Oprah Winfrey (Wilson), Tom Hanks (Herman) in Gump Fiction and Dennis Rodman (Jones) making a public service announcement.

Unlike Saturday Night Live, Mad TV had no celebrity hosts during its first season. However, the show did have special guests including Kato Kaelin, Joe Walsh and Dean Stockwell, Peter Marshall, Michael Buffer, Adam West, Gary Coleman, Jamie Farr, Ken Norton, Jr, David Faustino, Claudia Schiffer, Kim Coles, Bruce McCulloch, Tony Orlando, and Harland Williams. Musical groups such as Poison, Pharcyde, and Ice-T also made appearances on the show.

The initial Mad TV cast was very young and with the exceptions of Debra Wilson and Mary Sheeer (who were 33 and 32 respectively at the time), were all under the age of 30. By contrast, Saturday Night Live , then in its 21st season, only had three cast members under the age of 30 (Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, and Jim Breuer).

Opening montage

The title sequence begins with several fingers pointing at a bomb. The bomb explodes and several different pictures of Alfred E. Neuman appear on the screen, followed by the Mad TV logo. The theme song, performed by the hip-hop group Heavy D & the Boyz, begins. Cast members are introduced alphabetically with their names appearing in caption over live-action clips of each performer. More pictures of Alfred E. Neuman appear between the introduction of each cast member. When the last cast member is introduced, the music stops and the title sequence ends with the phrase "You are now watching Mad TV."

Cast

Writers

Episodes

  1. "MADtv DVD news: DVD Plans for MADtv Season 2 through Season 5". TVShowsOnDVD.com. May 25, 2007. Archived from the original on July 28, 2013. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  2. "MADtv DVD news: Announcement for MADtv – The Complete 3rd Season". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on August 2, 2013. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
No.
overall
No. in
season
Guest(s)Original air date
11 Kato Kaelin and Poison October 14, 1995 (1995-10-14)
Fox executives search the streets of L.A. for cast members in a new sketch comedy show, which just happens to be Mad TV; two faux commercials for a beer known as Vudweiser are shown, the first with Vud sticking himself to the truck door on accident, the other with his two frog friends trying to warn him that the truck will crush him, which it does; The Vancome Lady (Nicole Sullivan) mistreats store customers; Ice-T (Phil LaMarr) and Ice Cube (Orlando Jones) perform a rap titled It Ain't Easy Being Me with a music video filmed in jail after being placed under arrest; a Fox News at Midnight anchor (David Herman) presents a 911 call to the Vancome Lady gone wrong; Spy vs. Spy: Bombing/Pogo Stick; Don Martin: Inflatable House/Last Chance Gas; a Forrest Gump meets Pulp Fiction parody is advertised: Gump Fiction; Spike Lee (Phil LaMarr) makes a tinned fish commercial; MTV Week With Poison; Kato Kaelin speaks his truth; chain smoker Mrs. Jewel Barone (Mary Scheer) spends time with her daughter (Nicole Sullivan) at the hospital during treatment; a new restaurant called MacDumpster's where customers literally dig in the garbage for their breakfast food; in Star Trek: Deep Stain Nine, the crew aboard the Enterprise battles such evils as a red sock in a load of white clothing.
22 Kato Kaelin, Joe Walsh and Dean Stockwell October 21, 1995 (1995-10-21)
P.C. Cops; Nicole Sullivan's bedroom secrets; Quantum Dream Team; a commercial for Power Book, the ultimate in interactive computers; Don Martin: Refrigerator Anesthesia/Chopped Frog Prince; Newt Gingrich (Artie Lange) presents the Habitat 2000 virtual reality helmet; The UBS Delivery Guy (Phil LaMarr) tries to hit on a businesswoman; Spy vs. Spy: Gorilla/3D Movies; Whoopi Goldberg (Debra Wilson) and Shirley MacLaine (Mary Scheer) in Crimson Tide II; Post Office gun regulation; Family that recently moved dislikes the unusual neighbors; The Pro Air Guitar Shop; Nicole Sullivan's Diary.