Mad TV is an American sketch comedy television series created by David Salzman, Fax Bahr, and Adam Small. It premiered on October 14, 1995, on Fox, where it ran for 14 seasons, with its final, 326th episode airing on May 16, 2009. Loosely based on the humor magazine Mad, Mad TV's pre-taped satirical sketches were primarily based around pop culture–featuring parodies of films, TV series, music videos, celebrities, and occasionally politics–and original characters, many of which were recurring.
The Annoyance Theatre, or Annoyance Productions, is a theatre and associated ensemble based in Chicago, Illinois, that deals mainly in absurd and outrageous humor. Many people who have performed with the ensemble have gone on to become successful stage and screen actors. Popular productions have included Co-Ed Prison Sluts and That Darned Antichrist. Annoyance Productions currently runs classes in improvisation, writing, musical improvisation, acting, and solo work.
Paul Andrew Richter is an American actor, comedian, writer, and talk show announcer. He is best known as the sidekick for Conan O'Brien on each of O'Brien's talk shows: Late Night and The Tonight Show on NBC and Conan on TBS. He was also star of the TV series Andy Richter Controls the Universe. He voiced Mort in the Madagascar film franchise and Ben Higgenbottom in the Nickelodeon animated television series The Mighty B!.
Matthew Gregory Besser is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, and writer, best known as one of the four founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, who had their own show on Comedy Central from 1998 to 2000. He currently hosts the improvisation-based podcast Improv4humans on the Earwolf podcasting network.
Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically radio and television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or season-long schedule.
WFLD is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed MyNetworkTV outlet WPWR-TV. Both stations share studios on North Michigan Avenue in the Chicago Loop, and transmitter facilities atop the Willis Tower.
WPWR-TV is a television station licensed to Gary, Indiana, United States, broadcasting the MyNetworkTV programming service to the Chicago area. It is one of two commercial television stations in the Chicago market to be licensed in Indiana. WPWR-TV is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox outlet WFLD ; the stations share studios on North Michigan Avenue in the Chicago Loop and transmitter facilities atop the Willis Tower.
In the United States, late night television is the block of television programming intended for broadcast after 11:00 p.m. and usually through 2:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time (ET/PT), leading out of prime time; informally, the daypart can include the designated overnight graveyard slot. Most notably, the type of programming that has been traditionally showcased in the daypart—most commonly shown after, if not in competition with, local late-evening newscasts—encompasses a particular genre of programming that falls somewhere between a variety show and a talk show.
Rich Koz is an American actor and broadcaster best known for his portrayal of horror-movie host Svengoolie, as well as his early '90s children's cartoon showcase The Koz Zone. Koz is also the host of the syndicated Stooge-a-Palooza program. In 2021, he was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame.
Svengoolie is an American hosted horror movie television program. The show features horror and science fiction films and is hosted by the eponymous character Svengoolie, who was originally played by Jerry G. Bishop from 1970 to 1973, before Rich Koz succeeded him in the role from 1979 on. Before and after commercial breaks, Svengoolie presents sketches, tells jokes, and performs parody songs related to the films being aired. The show is a long-running local program in the Chicago area and in recent years expanded nationally, airing Saturday nights on MeTV.
Robert "Bob" Sirott is an American broadcaster. He is the morning host at WGN in Chicago. He is also a former television news anchor, most recently working in that role at Chicago's WFLD.
Exit 57 is a 30-minute sketch comedy series that aired on the American television channel Comedy Central from 1995 to 1996; its cast was composed of comedians Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Jodi Lennon, Mitch Rouse, and Amy Sedaris, all of whom had previously studied improv at The Second City in Chicago. In 1999 Sedaris, Dinello, Colbert and Rouse also created the Comedy Central show Strangers with Candy.
The Sports Writers on TV was a sports talk show produced by John E. Roach for the Chicago-based SportsChannel and syndicated to most of the other regional outlets across the SportsChannel America network. Bill Jauss, Bill Gleason, Ben Bentley and Rick Telander were the usual panelists discussing the topical sports issues of the day, usually Chicago-oriented, but also frequently national in scope. Joe Mooshill and Lester Munson also appeared semi-regularly, sometimes as fill-in panelists.
Mick Napier is an American director and improvisational theater teacher. He is the founder and artistic director of the Annoyance Theatre and a director at The Second City. He has directed Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz, Nia Vardalos, Andy Richter, Jeff Garlin, and David Sedaris.
The fourteenth season of Mad TV, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on the Fox Network between September 13, 2008, and May 16, 2009.
New Age Vaudeville was an American professional theater troupe founded by Richard O'Donnell and Amy McKenzie, and was part of the Chicago comedy boom of the 1980s.
Richard O'Donnell is an American playwright, composer, lyricist, poet, actor, and stand-up comic. He has worked and lived in New York City and Chicago, where he has written and performed for the stage and television. O'Donnell co-wrote the ASCAP award-winning Off-Broadway musical comedy One & One, and Radio City Music Hall's Manhattan Showboat. He founded the New Age Vaudeville theatre company, the New Variety cabaret, the Black Pearl Cabaret, and St. John's Conservatory Theater. As a stand-up comic, he was the executive producer and host of the Fox, Chicago comedy variety television show R. Rated.
The New Variety is an American cabaret created and produced by Thomas Goodman and Richard O'Donnell. It was a fast-paced, ever-changing volley of acts that included jugglers, fire-eaters, stand-up comics, singers, musicians, and sketch comedy troupes. It was hailed by June Sawyer of the Chicago Tribune as a cabaret for the '90s.
Lisa Joann Thompson is an American dancer, choreographer, actress, and model involved in multiple areas of show business. She was a Warrior Girl, Laker Girl, Fly Girl, Motown Live Dancer, and Backup dancer to some of the most prominent artists in the music industry. She starred in the hit television show In Living Color as a Fly Girl during seasons 4 and 5, and was assistant choreographer during season 5.
The TV Dinner Hour is an American sketch comedy review written by Richard O’Donnell, directed by Amy McKenzie, and performed by the New Age Vaudeville theater company in Chicago.
