Monday, June 14, 1999
Comedy Central's new lineup bad vs. good
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Stop and think about how the great promise of cable television has enhanced our lives in 20 years:
Biography. SportsCenter. CNN Headline News. Grand Ole Opry Live. Blue's Clues. Wild Discovery. Behind the Music. The Larry Sanders Show. Larry King Live. I Love Lucy.
Around-the-clock news, weather, children's programming, home-improvement advice, music, cartoons and cooking shows.
Now consider the sad fact of cable TV: The most popular cable shows are none of the above. America's top 10 cable programs May 24-30 were six hours of pro wrestling, two NBA playoff games, Inside the NBA andthe NASCAR Coca-Cola 600.
Here's more bad news: Comedy Central's highly touted “biggest original programming launch ever” this week won't end wrestling's stranglehold on the ratings.
Only one show, Comedy Central's VS., matches the fun of the channel's Win Ben Stein's Money.
Another, The Man Show,is a sexist waste of time that could exist only in the increasingly splintered 100-channel universe.
This “joyous celebration of chauvinism” premiering 10:30 p.m. Wednesday features “the fastest beer-drinker in the world” and lots of cleavage from the scantily clad “Juggy Dance Girls.” Each program ends with women (some in skirts) jumping on a trampoline.
Starting today, Comedy Central expands original programming to nearly two hours a day (10 p.m.-midight), four days a week. (NBC broadcasts 101/2 hours of original programming every weekday.)
The series will be paired with Jon Stewart's The Daily Show (11 p.m.) and Win Ben Stein's Money, hosted by the actor and former Nixon White House speech writer (11:30 p.m.)
The lineup:
• Strangers with Candy (10 p.m. Monday): Amy Sedaris stars as 46-year-old Jerri Blank, a former prostitute and drug addict, who resumes her high school education. Comedy Central promotes this as a spoof of those “after school dramas” for teens. In other words, don't expect subplots, character development or other subtleties found in prime-time shows. Think of this as a bad Saturday Night Live sketch that goes on too long.
• Upright Citizens Brigade (10:30 p.m. Monday): A second season of uneven sketch comedy returns with bits about a guy boxing a horse; parents organizing toddler boxing matches to prove their kid's superiority; and teen-agers determined to master dozens of dialects. These sketches would be pitched by SNL.
• Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (10 p.m. Tuesday): After winning a Peabody Award, the doctor is in for a sixth season. The ad-libs of the animated analyst (comedian Jonathan Katz) and his guests (Jeff Goldblum in the season premiere) are edited into half-hour programs and illustrated on computers.
• Comedy Central Presents (10:30 p.m. Tuesday): Mark Curry from Hangin' with Mr. Cooper stars in the first in a series of half-hour comedy concerts. Hardly an original concept.
• South Park (10 p.m. Wednesday): Six new adventures of crude Kenny, Kyle, Cartman and Stan start this week, just in time to promote the South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut feature film due out June 30.
• The Man Show (10:30 p.m. Wednesday): “Grab a beer and drop your pants” invites the theme song before male-order hosts Adam Carolla (MTV's Loveline) and Jimmy Kimmel (Win Ben Stein's Money) promise to give men what they want: “Girls jumping on trampolines, monkeys and midgets.”
Again, viewers will think they're watching a bad SNL routine, or FX's new sexist The X-Show (11 p.m. weeknights).
Only fans of South Park's Mr. Hanky, the dancing piece of poop, will howl at a demonstration for disposing of doggy droppings, a firecracker called “Log Loads.”
To be fair, buried in this garbage is a hilarious bit about the hosts' campaign to “stop women's suffrage.” Women eagerly sign petitions, unaware they are for repeal of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. It's as funny as Jay Leno's best “Jaywalking” street routine.
• Bob and Margaret (10 p.m. Thursday): Still reruns? The second season of this cartoon about a middle-age dentist and his podiatrist wife won't debut until Aug. 19.
• Comedy Central's VS (10:30 p.m. Thursday): It's part Jeopardy! and part Family Feud, this competition between teams of opposites, like community college students and Harvard graduates. Comedian Greg Proops (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) hosts future match-ups between Rocket Scientists vs. Body Piercers, Prison Guards vs. Bikers and Rockers vs. Rappers.
More fun than playing along is reading the wacky categories: “Three Reichs And You're Out” and “She Swore She Was A Virginian.”
VS. could become another long-running cable gem, fulfilling the promise of that multi-channel universe we envisioned two decades ago.
But viewers will have to hunt for them, as they do for quality programs on broadcasting networks, even during the summertime rerun blues. Each year it becomes harder, as the number of cable channels explodes along with cable viewership, up 2.7-million viewers from last year (while the Big Four broadcast networks lost 5 million viewers last season).
Yes, cable is about choices. Sometimes, it's about really bad choices.
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. His column appears Monday and Wednesday. Write: 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202.
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. Write him at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, 45202.
