The Weird Al Show

The Weird Al Show

The Weird Al Show - The Complete Series DVD cover
Created by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Presented by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Starring Brian Haley
Gary LeRoi Gray
Judy Tenuta
Paula Jai Parker
Danielle Weeks
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 13
Production
Location(s) NBC Studios Stage 11, Burbank, CA
Running time 23 minutes
Production company(s) Ear Booker Productions
Dick Clark Productions
Release
Original network CBS
Original release September 13 – December 6, 1997 (1997-12-06)

The Weird Al Show was a television show hosted by "Weird Al" Yankovic. Produced in association with Dick Clark Productions and taped at NBC Studios, it aired on Saturday mornings on the CBS TV network. New episodes ran from September to December 1997; after that, the episodes were repeated until September 1998. The show was released on DVD on August 15, 2006.

Al's television set is called "Al TV", the name of a number of Yankovic's television specials.

Synopsis

Each episode would start with a narrator introducing today's lesson to the viewers. Then, Al would be in a common situation in his mancave that he would address to the viewers. Afterwards, he would go watch TV of parody shows and commercials that are related to the day's show. Most of the time, Al's friend Bobby the Inquisitive Boy stops by and asks him a question. In turn, Al would play him an old-fashioned educational film to help answer his question. Sometimes, the show would also feature an animated cartoon called, "Fatman", which is about Weird Al as a fat superhero. At the end of the show, there would be a commercial parody being shown followed by a band performing a song. Sometimes, Al would review today's lesson before closing out the show.

CBS's reaction

See also: E/I

Major creative conflicts occurred between CBS, which considered the show an educational children's series, and Yankovic, whose humor style was more adult-oriented. The show was canceled after one season, along with several other series in the CBS Saturday morning lineup.

CBS sent various notes to the writers of the show after reviewing the scripts, asking the writers to "Yankocize" (i.e. make funny) the commercial-break bumper announcements that the network wrote to reinforce each episode's lesson (or as Al put it, make them suck a little less), as well as remove any "imitable behavior" from the scripts that children might want to mimic after seeing on TV.

The writers were often surprised not at what the censors took out, but what they left in - for example, a sketch (written and submitted as a joke) in which Baby and Papa Boolie commit suicide after listening to one too many of Fred Huggins' songs was being seriously considered by the network for use on the show. (The sketch was later rewritten to have Papa Boolie call a mental hospital to take Fred away.) The unused script of the unedited Fred Huggins sequence is role-played in an audio commentary for an episode on the DVD.

Theme song

The theme song can be found on Yankovic's album Running with Scissors (1999) as "The Weird Al Show Theme".

It tells the story of how Al came to live in a cave and get a television show, including references to the fabricated life story in The Compleat Al, such as having worked in a nasal decongestant factory. Also referenced is playing on the company bowling team, which may be a reference to "Generic Blues".

Bite Me

After the end credits of each case, when the "Ear Booker Productions" logo flashes on the screen repeatedly, a 3-second version of the "Bite Me" track can be heard. "Bite Me" originally appeared a hidden track on "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1992 album Off the Deep End, only it was six seconds long. The track appeared after 10 minutes of the final track ("You Don't Love Me Anymore"). However, "Bite Me" wasn't included on the cassette version of the album (it was on the CD version only). The track was included as a parody of Nirvana's hidden track on the album Nevermind, but also to scare listeners into turning off the CD.[1]

Cast

Gedde Watanabe's character, Kuni, also appeared in Yankovic's film, UHF. David Bowe, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, and Emo Philips also starred in the film.

Episodes

Episodes are listed in airing order, with the production code indicating the order they were intended to air in.

# Title Guest stars Plot Original airdate Code
1 Bad Influence[2] Al meets a new friend named Spike who has a "way-moby (cool) club," and Spike tells Al that he has to rip off one pant-leg, stick his arms in chocolate syrup, and shave-off his right eyebrow to be able to join the club. He eventually finds out it was all made up, and kicks him out of the house. September 13, 1997 3603
2 Promises, Promises[2] Al lies to his friends about being buddies with John Tesh, so in order to raise the $82,000 appearance fee Tesh charges he does infomercials to sell worthless junk. Eventually all his customers want a refund, including Tesh himself. September 20, 1997 3604
3 Mining Accident Some coal miners break through Al's house and he has to learn to make friends with them. September 27, 1997 3602
4 Back to School Al decides he wants to become smarter, and soon regrets it. October 4, 1997 3605
5 Time Machine Al forgot to get Harvey the Wonder Hamster a present on his birthday, so he uses his new invention to go back in time and get Harvey a present. October 11, 1997 3609
6 One for the Record Books Harvey the Wonder Hamster gets radioactive and grows to four times the size of Al, becoming the world's biggest hamster on Earth and getting put in the Guinness Book of World Records. Al becomes jealous and tries to make himself a world record. October 18, 1997 3606
7 Because I Said So Al has to babysit Huey, Al's television producer's greedy nephew. October 25, 1997 3607
8 Talent Show The day of the annual "Weird Al talent show." November 1, 1997 3612
9 Al Plays Hooky Al decides to take a vacation, leaving Cousin Corky stuck hosting the show. November 8, 1997 3611
10 He Ain't Heavy, He's My Hamster Al bullies Harvey about doing a death-defying stunt, and must make amends. According to the DVD commentary, this was originally intended to be the debut, hence containing exposition for characters and segments that seem out of place on what turned out to be the tenth aired episode. November 15, 1997 3601
11 The Competition Al competes against Fred Huggins and Uncle Ralphie to see who is the best TV show host. November 22, 1997 3608
12 The Obligatory Holiday Episode Al celebrates the holidays with his friends. This was the last episode recorded and was intended to run last, however it ended up being the second-to-last episode aired. November 29, 1997 3613
13 Al Gets Robbed Al returns to the cave from a trip and finds that all of his stuff has been stolen. December 6, 1997 3610

In the "Al Gets Robbed" episode, the Hooded Avenger walks over to Al delivering him his tabloid papers. The paper is called "Midnight Star", referring to the same-titled song about the tabloid off "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D. The main headline, "Incredible Frog Boy on the Loose", refers to a lyric in the song.

DVD release

Shout Factory, a company known for bringing cult series to DVD, released The Weird Al Show - The Complete Series[3] on August 15, 2006. It is a 3-DVD set of all 13 episodes of The Weird Al Show, plus bonus features.[4] The episodes are presented in broadcast order.

The Weird Al Show was released on DVD in Canada on September 26, 2006, alongside the U.S. release of his new album, Straight Outta Lynwood.

Before the DVD set release, a compilation of the short music video segments for "Lousy Haircut", "Lasagna", and "Livin' in the Fridge" (as well as the show opening) was released on "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection in 2003.

Special features

References

  1. ↑ http://weirdal.com/archives/miscellaneous/ask-al/
  2. 1 2 The Weird Al Show
  3. ↑ The Weird Al Show: The Complete Series
  4. ↑ tvshowsondvd.com
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