Dana Carvey Show, The: The Complete Series (DVD)

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Nowadays, most folks probably ask, "Whatever happened to Dana Carvey?" The former stand-up comic has currently put his career on hold to spend more time with his family. From 1986 to 1993, Carvey was a vital part of "Saturday Night Live" in what many fans call the show´s glory period. He was nominated for six Emmys and created memorable characters like the Church Lady and Garth from "Wayne´s World." Carvey also performed renowned impersonations of George Bush, Regis Philbin, and Ross Perot. After he left "SNL," Carvey´s name was tossed into lead contention to take over the hosting duties for "Late Night" after David Letterman departed for CBS. Carvey ultimately rejected the offer and the slot went to Conan O´Brien. The rest as they say is history.

Carvey would migrate to ABC in 1996 when they hoped the funnyman would develop an "SNL"-style sketch comedy show. For his writing and producing staff, Carvey recruited several talents who had worked on "SNL" as well as for Letterman and O´Brien. Though most of them may not have been big names at the time, they´ve grown in prominence since then. Sitting in the writers´ room of "The Dana Carvey Show" were comedian Louis C.K., Robert Carlock (writer and executive producer of "30 Rock") along with "Mr. Show" writers Bob Odenkirk, Michael Stoyanov, and Dino Stamatopoulos (who would go on to create "Moral Orel" for Adult Swim). There was also a fellow by the name of Charlie Kaufman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

Many of the show´s actors also doubled as writers, coming up with the ideas for many of the sketches they would act in. Carvey was backed up by "TV Funhouse" creator Robert Smigel who introduced the world to the Ambiguously Gay Duo on "The Dana Carvey Show" before they became a recurring part of "Saturday Night Live." In further ´before they became famous´ trivia, both Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert were members of Carvey´s ensemble before their salad days at "The Daily Show." Colbert got the chance to give birth to the blowhard pundit character that has become his trademark. "The Dana Carvey Show" was Carell´s first major gig and the talent that would make him an in-demand leading man today was firmly on display here. He and Colbert, who worked together in Chicago´s famous Second City comedy troupe, voiced the characters of Ace and Gary. Carell would also team up with Carvey for two of the show´s funniest recurring skits, Germans Who Say Nice Things and a pair of pranksters who don´t seem to get the idea of practical jokes. The tiny cast does lack a bit of diversity as the show only had one female performer (Heather Morgan) and no minorities.

Only eight episodes of "The Dana Carvey Show" were produced and only the first seven were ever aired. The series was a very controversial one for ABC which played a larger role in its cancellation then declining ratings. The show debuted right after "Home Improvement" and its family-friendly audience of moms, dads, and pre-pubescent girls with crushes on Jonathan Taylor Thomas had no idea what they were getting into. "The DCS" would debut with a sketch of Carvey as President Clinton feeding babies and puppies from multiple nipples on his chest. Carvey was also a constant source of headaches for the network and the show´s main sponsor Pepsi. Each episode featured the name of a Pepsi product in its title as homage to the variety shows of TV´s olden days. Following the opening skit, performers would do a song & dance number dressed as tacos or holding cans of Mug Root Beer. The songs would sometimes lightly mock the products. Carvey even compared Mountain Dew to a particular bodily fluid in one sketch. This practice was done away with in the seventh and eighth episodes once Pepsi pulled out. ABC probably wasn´t too happy either that Carvey didn´t perform as any of his familiar "SNL" characters. The Church Lady pops in for the first episode, but there´s no Garth and no Bush impressions.