The Dana Carvey Show

Within its first few minutes on air The Dana Carvey Show had already alienated the general ABC viewing audience, as then-president Bill Clinton (Carvey) opened his shirt to reveal his lactating, multi-nippled chest from which human babies and puppy dogs fed with glee. The key word here is "glee", since that's what but a tiny percentage of the audience at home (i.e. a 14 year old me) felt as they busted a gut to this unprecedented absurdity from the man they had come to know as "Garth".

For 13 years now, the few, the proud, the...criminally insane, have had to hold out hope as they watched worn out VHS copies of the show containing skits such as "World Leaders and Their Baths" for the 1,000th time, that someone, somewhere would employ Dana Carvey so that his fame would warrant a DVD release of his short-lived, 7 episodes of madness.

Well, that didn't happen (Dana Carvey's return to the spotlight, I mean) but in an even bigger fluke formerly unknown castmates Steven Colbert and Steve Carell (if only he'd changed his name to STEVEN Carvey) have become national comedy superstars and thus we, the patient(and deranged) will soon be treated to a complete DVD set with a cover most likely featuring large graphics of Colbert and Carell with Carvey relegated to peaking out from behind their shoulders. But personally, I'll take these episodes anyway I can get 'em.

Classic skits like: "Waiters Who Are Nauseated By Food", "Deleted Scenes from the Wizard of OZ" and "Academy Awards: Best Foreign Animated Short" are sure to please the masses, but I for one can't wait to see the likes of "Grandma The Clown", Prince Charles singing Beatles-style about chopping Lady Di's head off and any skit featuring Bob Dole in all their digital glory.

Whichever former sponsor(whether Mountain Dew or Szechuan Dynasty) forked out the dough for the release of this DVD set I thank you, especially since this wonderful gift is being released on my Birthday. Somebody up there likes me or maybe 24 hour a day phone calls to ABC have finally paid off. Thanks, again.
"Bob Dole knows the flavor of soup!"

A painfully funny show that was too quick, too smart and too irreverent for America in 1996. You'll either love it or scratch your head, wondering why people find this stuff funny. "Grandma the Clown" left me wheezing in laughter precisely because Grandma was such an unfunny clown, her infirmities overwhelming her meager comic talent. Given what happened to Bill Clinton after he won reelection, the "nursing puppies" skit seems incredibly mild instead of shocking, but still hilarious. Some skits will still shock us: Pat Buchanan eating the beating, slightly spicy "Mexican" heart; comparing Mountain Dew (a show sponsor) to a similarly colored liquid. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! It's about time this was freed from the vaults.

Great show. I especially like Nixons, the Casey Casum bit and the Pied Piper. And Carvey doing Brokaw taping an absurd series of lines is priceless. Some outrageously funny stuff in the deleted scenes. You'll laugh out loud like you did when you watched the show in '96.