Review of 11-28-1998 episode (MD-323; OAD 5-2-1998)
Numbe...@my-dejanews.com
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I already reviewed this episode almost 7 months ago so I'm not
going to do it again; still, I have a few additional comments.
(1) I still like South Parknuts! (2) I have to admit that before
I originally saw "Window of the Soul" I wasn't sure if Nicole
Sullivan could pull off the really "sexy" roles; after seeing
this and a few others my doubts have been completely dispelled
and I apologize for ever questioning her histrionic ability.
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BEGIN ORIGINAL REVIEW
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Review of 5-2-1998 episode (some spoilers)
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Home Business Marketing: Man (Pat Kilbane) wants to quit his boring
accounting job and start a home business; we get to see him in varying
stages of decline, as his home business fails, his wife divorces him, and
he winds up homeless. This is better than most of their parodies of "make
money fast" commercials, and a good start to the show. [Addition: at the end
we are told that working for Anderson Consulting isn't so bad after all,
so if you work for them don't quit your job like this poor bastard did.]
Opening Monologue: Debra Wilson works the crowd. Her breasts do seem to be
larger.
South Parknut: A cross between South Park and Peanuts. I thought this would
be really funny when I read about it in the program listings; this was not
quite as funny as I thought it would be but was still very good. Some may
remember a series of obscene versions of the Peanuts comic strips that
circulated a number of years ago (one of them showed Charlie Brown
sporting an erection); this is humor in the same vein. Funny especially
if you watch South Park because they make reference to some of the more
memorable moments of that series: e.g. "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch"
becames "Charlie Frown is a Big Blockhead", and Sloopy (Snoopy) says
"hidey-ho" at the end, after biting CB's head off.
Antonia: Antonia (Nicole Sullivan) must land a plane; and - guess what -
Phil LaMarr is the air traffic controller who must deal with her. This
was about average for Antonia sketches.
Window of the Soul: Another Mad TV classic. Apart from the fact that they're
just padding supposedly "new" episodes with old material, I would query the
wisdom of attaching the word "classic" to anything less than fifty years old.
In this case, we are talking about a Mad TV segment from two years ago. Joe
Eszterhas (Dave Herman) talks about his new movie, "Window of the Soul."
Catherine (Nicole Sullivan) kills her husband (Bryan Callen) and has an
affair with the sheriff (Orlando Jones) in this parody of Joe Eszterhas
films. Herman-as-Eszterhas delivers the obligatory statement in which he
claims he is being persecuted for his art. Good performances by Herman and
Sullivan make it work.
I Love Lucy '98: Lucy (Nicole Sullivan) gets involved in an orgy presided over
by The Artist Formerly Known as Prince (Phil LaMarr). The funniest element of
this parody in my opinion was Fred (Will Sasso) parading around in S&M gear.
This was alright; LaMarr does a good Prince and Sullivan does a pretty good
Lucy.
The Funeral: David Boreanaz (Himself) of the hit UPN show "Buffy, the Vampire
Slayer" shows up at a funeral and disrupts the proceedings because all
attention shifts to him; then we find out it was all a sham to see if
Boreanaz would show up at all. This was probably the funniest segment of the
show, even though the plot of the sketch as elaborated here doesn't sound
that funny. The best part is where a mourner (Aries Spears) mistakes Boreanaz
for Kevin Bacon and keeps asking him to do "Footloose". Obviously, in the
"Buffy" wars, Mad TV at least gets the consolation prize: we didn't have
Sarah Michelle Gellar hosting the show, but we had Nicole Sullivan doing a
pretty good Sarah Michelle Gellar impression earlier on in the season, and
now we have David Boreanaz.
Office Sketch: Underling (Will Sasso) gets chewed out by his boss (Pat
Kilbane) who subsequently returns, apologizes, and waves his "thing" in the
underling's face. Debra Wilson also appears as a secretary. Not a very
original concept, but still funny, especially the second part (where Kilbane
waves his "thing" in Sasso's face).
Dinner: Man (Phil LaMarr) is with his fiancee (Nicole Sullivan) in a
restaurant; she appears to be hard of hearing, and thus he is unable to break
up with her, but in the end we find out she is just feigning deafness. This
is another sketch that is a lot funnier than it sounds, especially the
denouement ("I'll tell you when this relationship isn't working.").
Art Party: Halie Straw (Nicole Sullivan), an eccentric old woman, hosts an
children's television program about art, which consists mostly of her telling
a story about athropomorphicized animals and drawing scribbles on paper. This
is funny in that it's not too far off from some of the children's programming
they have on PBS stations. Sullivan's performance is convincing enough;
again, not side-splittingly funny, but good anyway.
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In my opinion, this show probably falls somewhere into the middle of the
pack, maybe a little bit above average on the strength of "South Parknut"
and the David Boreanaz segment. While not deserving the highest accolades,
none of the segments bombed and quite a few were rather good. I noticed here
that Lisa Kushell did not seem to appear in any of the segments (although she
came out at the end); also, Alex Borstein seems to appear only in the "I Love
Lucy" segment. The show is dominated by Nicole Sullivan, who appears in almost
every sketch, and she rises to the occassion as Antonia, Lucy, and Catherine,
the woman in the "Window of the Soul" segment.
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END ORIGINAL REVIEW
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Number Six | http://www.nic.com/~dzien/nicolesullivan/
dz...@nic.com | (The Unofficial Nicole Sullivan Tribute Page)
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Rich/MetalMan
>
> >but we had Nicole Sullivan doing a
> >pretty good Sarah Michelle Gellar impression earlier on in the season,
>
Yes. Nicole rules. The end.
--
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Rich Bunnell or "Metal Man," whichever sounds more insane
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"This is your life and you do what you want to do, just don't hurt
nobody, unless they ask you" -XTC
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K. Adams
> Antoniaish/Debbie-the-Eracistish.
Not to start a war here, but in the original Buffy movie, Buffy was this valley
girl, and they (in my opinion) should have kept it like that...
And I think that her Felicity is pretty good... Because when I saw a few episodes
of the show, she seemed to be obsessed with Ben... but she didn't seem like a
bubble head.... but that's what's expected from Nicole <---not that it's a bad
thing!
K
dz...@nic.com
the best ways to parody someone is to make them seem like airheads.
> K
rnpe...@gmail.com
> Review of 11-28-1998 episode (MD-323; OAD 5-2-1998)
> ===================================================================
> I already reviewed this episode almost 7 months ago so I'm not
> going to do it again; still, I have a few additional comments.
> (1) I still like South Parknuts! (2) I have to admit that before
> I originally saw "Window of the Soul" I wasn't sure if Nicole
> Sullivan could pull off the really "sexy" roles; after seeing
> this and a few others my doubts have been completely dispelled
> and I apologize for ever questioning her histrionic ability.