Legendary late-night Fox TV series MADtv will return via the Web next week when 75 classic episodes of the show will exclusively stream in their entirety. The stream is a buildup to a brand new reunion show that features favorite cast members.
Get ready to re-live some of the biggest late-night laughs ever courtesy of the entire MADtv cast. In anticipation of a big reunion special featuring a slew of favorite former cast members, set to air Jan. 12 on the CW Network, CW's digital Web network, CW Seed, will stream 75 of the series' funniest episodes ever.
The sketch comedy show aired for an impressive 14 seasons on Fox, from 1995 through 2009, in the late-night Saturday time slot from 11 p.m. to midnight. Though it never got the publicity or accolades of its time slot competitor Saturday Night Live (SNL has always aired from 11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. and overlapped with MADtv during the 11:30 p.m. to midnight time period), many fans found the show's mix of original comedy sketches and TV parodies to be more consistent and funny than those of its rival.
Among the memorable and iconic characters the show produced are Alex Borstein's Miss Swan, who, as the proprietor of the "Gorgeous Pretty Beauty Nail Salon," constantly drove everyone crazy with her convoluted and illogical answers to the simplest of questions; Michael McDonald's man-child Stuart, who irritated anyone who crossed his path with his spasmodic body movements while shouting "look what I can do" in a high-pitched baby voice; and Debra Wilson's bipolar Bunifa Latifah Halifah Sharifa Jackson, who switched on a dime from a docile, compliant and softspoken sweetheart to a screaming, aggressive in-your-face ghetto girl.
The impressions on MADtv were also arguably superior to those on Saturday Night Live. For example, Wilson's spot-on Whitney Houston and Oprah Winfrey characterizations surpass underwhelming turns by SNL's Maya Rudolph during the same time period.
While several seasons' episodes were released on DVD, and the show was syndicated on Comedy Central for a while, some of the soon-to-be-released streaming episodes haven't been available since they first aired. Then, on Jan. 12, the CW will be airing a brand new hour-long reunion special featuring the most memorable former MADtv cast members, including Ike Barinholtz, Alex Borstein, Mo Collins, Keegan-Michael Key, Phil LaMarr, Artie Lange, Bobby Lee, Michael McDonald, Nicole Parker, Will Sasso, Aries Spears, Nicole Sullivan, Stephanie Weir and Debra Wilson.
The 75 classic MADtv episodes are set to begin streaming on CW Seed on Jan. 5 and will be completely free of charge and do not require a subscription to a streaming service such as Netflix or Hulu. For those who can't wait for a taste of their favorite MADtv blasts from the past, here are a few gems to hold you over.
