MadTV is Fox's answer to late-night sketch comedy for Saturday nights. The show borrows its humor from Mad Magazine, popular magazine that pokes fun at pop culture. MadTV goes head-to-head with Saturday Night Live on Saturday nights, so the show was aimed at a younger audience. With movie parodies, fake commercials, animated shorts and hilarious sketches, MadTV was able to gain an audience and build a strong following. This DVD features some of the funniest moments from seasons 8, 9 and 10. Cast members for those seasons include Michael McDonald, Bobby Lee, Jill-Michelle Melean, Aries Spears, Mo Collins, Debra Wilson, Frank Caliendo, Stephnie Weir, Ike Barinholtz, Paul Vogt, Ron Pederson, Josh Meyers, Nicole Parker, Daniele Gaither and Keegan-Michael Key.
Warner Bros release the first season of Mad TV in September of 2004. Apparently sales of the set weren't good enough to continue releasing other seasons, so they decided to switch to a "best of" format. Sketch comedy is one of the few instances where a "best of" release actually works. Here's a list of the sketches found on the DVD, broken down by season:
Season 8 (47:36)
Reality Show Cameras (4:16)
Stuart: Meet the Parents (7:31)
Oprah: Jackass (4:55)
George W. Bush: Fitness (2:17)
Lords of the Bling 2 (5:10)
Madvertising: Hey Joe (1:03)
Honeymooners (4:53)
Mofaz: Marital Breakdown (4:03)
CSI (3:28)
Dr. Kylie: Butt Seriously (4:42)
Oprah: Fat Camera (5:18)
Season 9 (1:10:10)
Stuart: Therapist (6:59)
Madvertising: UPS (1:31)
Real Mofo: Black History Month (6:20)
The O.C. Meets American Idol (5:43)
Coash Hines: The Assembly (5:24)
Dot: Spelling Bee (4:35)
Marvin Tikvah: Clubbing (5:55)
Madvertising: M&Ms (1:03)
Letters to Lincoln (4:43)
Jovan Musketelle: Eyewitness 2004 (3:14)
Lillian Verner: Game Show (7:06)
Man Up: Regional Championships (4:37)
Lorraine: Happy Trails (5:51)
Stuart: Next Door (7:09)
Season 10 (49:10)
Ms. Swan: Valentinie's Day (6:08)
Bae Sung: Auto Craze (3:25)
Sean Gidcomb: Supply Closet (6:13)
Gotta Getta Gotti (3:41)
Madvertising: Fantana Fun (1:30)
Tank: Rocketeer (5:41)
Patrol Car (2:51)
Angela: Chasing Dubya (4:14)
Average Asian: Party Asian (3:21)
Lost (7:32)
Boca Condo Report: Hurricane (5:11)
My Predicament (2:34)
Abercrombie: Black & White (4:21)
Video
I can't find much to complain about with this release. The show is shot on video, and since the material is just a few years old, it looks very nice. I didn't notice any compression problems, artifacts, or other annoying problems, just a little bit of noise in a few of the segments. There are chapters placed at each sketch, so if you don't like something you can skip over it very easily. The chapter placement was my biggest concern with season 1, so it's nice to see it done right for this release. There's also a scene selection screen, broken down by season, which helps if you want to locate a specific sketch. The video is Full Frame (1.33:1), and there's an option to play all the segments.
Audio
In my review of season 1 I said that Warner probably didn't need to include a Dolby Surround audio track, since the show didn't make very good use of it. They've switched to stereo for this release, and it sounds fine. Sketches sound good, with some sound effects coming from the front left and right speakers, but most of the dialog is heard from the center channel. There aren't any subtitles, but the sketches are captioned.
Stuart Bloopers (6:49)
Michael McDonald provides optional commentary over the bloopers. The commentary is painfully boring.
Summary
I had a lot of fun watching this release. While *I* may be fine with a "best of" release, I'm sure there are a number of people that want more season sets. Mad TV hasn't resulted in the success of Saturday Night Live, which has spun-off numerous movies, but it's a pretty good show. I had to laugh at some of the characters like "Stuart," "Tank," and "Bae Sung." The parodies of Lord of the Rings and Lost were great, and I loved some of the guests they had on the show.
This is a decent "best of" release. The bonus features are rather lame, especially the commentary by Michael McDonald, but the release delivers almost 3 hours of laughs.
