[MADtv] Is MADtv a "Variety Show"?

[Mad Dog]

I wouldn't say so anymore. For it to be a "Variety Program", it should have 'variety'. MAD used to do sketches in these formats...

-Movie Parodies
-TV Parodies
-Commercial Parodies
-Music Video Parodies
-One-Off Sketches
-Political Satire
-Recurring Characters, Impressions
-Live Sketches (Show openings, monologues, closings)
-Cartoons/ Claymation

But now the balance is way off and some of the above listed don't appear very often or not at all. What do you guys think? I think if they did a better variety again, we'd get better shows.

[PitaPockets]

I don't really think of it as a "Variety Show". To me, a variety show is like The Sonny and Cher show and programs like that. Like, it had a variety of acts (singing, dancing, comedy, interviews), not just a variety of comedy subjects.

I think of MADtv as just a sketch comedy show.

[Mad Dog]

Okay, okay fair enough. But is the show offering a good variety of the types of above listed sketches? That's more what I was getting at.

[Dartanian]

Yes. Even cartoons.

[PitaPockets]

I can't really say that i've noticed a lack in the variety of sketches, but you could be right.
But maybe thats because the current cast members don't handle certain sketches very well.

I don't mean that when they do a political thing they start freaking out, but they might not be good with those impersonations and nobody really looks, sounds or acts like the person they're playing.

Maybe, I dunno.

[Mad Dog]

I sorta feel that they are doing a lot of commercials this season. Not that it is THAT bad because I like commercials and they usually do a good job at them. They sorta cut down on the music parodies which is nice to see. But they rarely do movie parodies anymore which is disapointing to see. I also feel they don't do enough one-off sketches anymore. They have written a few awesome ones the past year and a half and I like them better than all the celebrity impressions they do. They're creative and offer an old-school feel to the show. Too many celebrity impressions IMO.

[GoGo Yubari]

MadTV is a sketch comedy show with the occasional musical guest and cartoon, IMO. Though they HAVE done interviews before, actually...

[Vancome Guy]

-Movie Parodies
-TV Parodies
-Commercial Parodies
-Music Video Parodies
-One-Off Sketches
-Political Satire
-Recurring Characters, Impressions
-Live Sketches (Show openings, monologues, closings)
-Cartoons/ Claymation

I wish Mad woukd get back to those things. I miss animation, movie parodies, political satire. It's not a variety show. It used to be, and it was great. But it's different now.

[ashcan05]

impressions should be emphasized... they show the real talent of cast members...

[Dartanian]

Well, here is what appeared in episode #913, going by MD's list.
A lot of sketches intertwine, especially with Celebrity Impressions, so I will list them on more than one occassion.
-Movie Parodies: 0

-TV Parodies: 3

- The simple Life
- Celebrity Survivor
- Scare Tactics

-Commercial Parodies: 2 (or 5?)

- Playstation 2
- Fake Sponsor: Everybody Loves Raymond/NoDoz/EasyOff/Palmolive

-Music Video Parodies: 0

-One-Off Sketches: 1

- Fireballs press conference

-Political Satire: 0

-Recurring Characters: 2

- Angela: Racism
- Dr. Kylie: Fertility

- Recurring Impressions: 12

- John Madden
- Andra
- James
- Oscar Delahoya
- Dr. Phil
- 50 cent
- Meg Ryan
- Clay Aiken
- Charlotte Rae
- Connie Chung
- Jack Nicholson
- Michael Jackson
*All within 5 sketches*

-Live Sketches (Show openings, monologues, closings) : 0

-Cartoons/ Claymation: 0

Political satire and Music videos are common, whereas claymation is as good as extinct and cartoons are few and far between (Which is a good thing IMO unless they are PSHR) Live sketches can include Interviews on the red carpet, right?

[Jericho]

MADtv is more of a regular sketch show now. It had a lot of variety in its earlier season, but I guess the producers wanted the show to evolve. To keep the show from getting stale. Change is always good as long as the quality is there.