The Weird Al Show vs the Network

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  • Опубликовано: 26 фев 2021
  • Part four of this month's miniseries! Today's lesson: What happens when the network explicitly targets YOU!

Комментарии • 127

  • @pedroandrespardopardo8692
    @pedroandrespardopardo8692 3 года назад +87

    What is funny is that Weird Al actually has an album called Running with Scissors.

  • @IsabellaCataldo
    @IsabellaCataldo 3 года назад +95

    It's ironic that a network wanted to bury a show with Weird Al in it considering how many show's he's appeared in over the past decade or so.

    • @ExtremeWreck
      @ExtremeWreck 2 года назад +5

      Guess they wanted to give Weird Al a chance to survive.

    • @noahbossier1131
      @noahbossier1131 2 года назад +3

      That makes sense

    • @CharcoalRabbit
      @CharcoalRabbit 8 месяцев назад +2

      Maybe the other shows wanted to make up for the fact that he was ripped off when he tried to make his own TV show. (Just a theory)

  • @mergieismoronic
    @mergieismoronic 3 года назад +72

    Imagine how well a Weird Al show would do today? I’m sure if it was online or something people would definitely watch.

    • @noahbossier1131
      @noahbossier1131 2 года назад +10

      Please reboot it. With more creative control

  • @ripleyandweeds1288
    @ripleyandweeds1288 Год назад +44

    Imagine being a jerk to Weird Al, one of the most genuinely chill and nice guys in the hell hole that is and was the entertainment and music industry. I feel like that should be physically impossible.

  • @LeafRazorStorm
    @LeafRazorStorm 3 года назад +179

    For real though, "Is WEIRD AL the next PEEWEE HERMAN??" is probably the closest you could get to shameless clickbait in the 90s. MatPat would be proud.

    • @umbrella3235
      @umbrella3235 3 года назад +23

      Nah, this goes beyond MatPat. This is ScreenRant levels of clickbaiting

    • @thehunterator520
      @thehunterator520 2 года назад +4

      @@umbrella3235 clickbait is tight

    • @B3fromYT
      @B3fromYT Год назад +2

      @@umbrella3235 Screenrant 🤢

    • @anth636
      @anth636 Год назад +1

      @@thehunterator520”hey you need to get ALL the way off my back about shameless clickbaiting!”

    • @thehunterator520
      @thehunterator520 Год назад

      @@anth636 I'll get right off it

  • @CinnamonGrrlErin1
    @CinnamonGrrlErin1 3 года назад +141

    I've always been surprised that Weird Al never became a RUclipsr; this is the perfect platform for his style of comedy

    • @liladefarge9125
      @liladefarge9125 3 года назад +9

      ruclips.net/user/alyankovic

    • @scoldedegg
      @scoldedegg 3 года назад +14

      Hey look it's jane

    • @AutisticJoker88
      @AutisticJoker88 Год назад +7

      That's because RUclips did not exist in 1997. You gotta remember, the internet was a different environment in those days. In 97, it was still a very niche, luxurious thing for nerds to spout Star Trek debates and dudes to look up porno unlike now

    • @ajzeg01
      @ajzeg01 Год назад +15

      He actually does have a RUclips channel and he did do short little comedy sketches on it years ago. It’s worth searching up.

    • @jaggerguth4391
      @jaggerguth4391 Год назад +6

      Technically he already is.

  • @snbsixteen6stars201
    @snbsixteen6stars201 3 года назад +47

    A studio run by karens is dead on arrival, weird al is a good man and a good teacher, hé deserved better

  • @georgerobertson7010
    @georgerobertson7010 3 года назад +65

    I feel so bad for Al and he went through with this show.

  • @genemelendez8157
    @genemelendez8157 3 года назад +56

    At least Milo Murphy’s Law can serve as a respectable spiritual successor to The Weird Al Show, even if it was just Weird Al playing the lead.

    • @mightyfilm
      @mightyfilm 3 года назад +9

      OH! And they both got completely screwed by their respective networks.

    • @spongebobplushiestuff8612
      @spongebobplushiestuff8612 3 года назад +4

      @@mightyfilm like father like son

    • @henrycoffey1207
      @henrycoffey1207 3 года назад

      Milo needs another season. It was never technically canceled as far as I know.

    • @mightyfilm
      @mightyfilm 3 года назад +4

      The worst kind of cancelled, the not really "cancelled" cancelled. Or the old "we didn't care enough to cancel something so we just gave up on it" trick.

    • @sollunadonis1995
      @sollunadonis1995 2 года назад +4

      fun fact: when I first saw Milo Murphy’s Law, I had no idea Weird Al voiced Milo, I didn’t even recognize him singing the theme song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • @joshhacker8503
    @joshhacker8503 3 года назад +22

    Ratchet: Are you crazy, or just stupid?!
    Wreck-Gar: I am Wreck-Gar. I DARE to be stupid!

  • @mightyfilm
    @mightyfilm 3 года назад +54

    The lessons here are:
    A) None of the networks liked the TV/EI mandate, and they clearly just wanted to run nothing but infomercials in that timeslot and essentially get effortless money. Consider the next season they just used the Paramount/CBS merger to run old Nick Jr. reruns.
    B) No one working in children's programming blocks and/or networks likes their jobs and takes it out on the staff. Everything mentioned here sounds like complete and utter sabotage.
    C) By extension, no one working in children's programming blocks and/or networks even likes children, and clearly thinks they're all incredibly stupid.
    and D) For the love of Mike, WHY didn't VH1 or MTV pick this show up for adults after it was canned?!

    • @noahbossier1131
      @noahbossier1131 2 года назад +4

      I agree. Or even better. Nickelodeon should of picked it up

    • @bigmaxethanschannel1428
      @bigmaxethanschannel1428 2 года назад +3

      @@noahbossier1131 Oh no no no, nickelodeon would have been a horrible pick.

    • @ToonyTails
      @ToonyTails 7 месяцев назад +2

      @@bigmaxethanschannel1428Yeah sure MODEREN Nick would ba an awful choice, but I could see a show like this being on 90’s Nick

    • @drewzuhosky6826
      @drewzuhosky6826 2 месяца назад

      The decision to run Nick Jr. programming was made in June of 2000, as in *three months* before the block was to premiere. CBS was dead last in Saturday morning and clearly went with preschool programming to try and get modest gains in the ratings.

  • @henrycoffey1207
    @henrycoffey1207 3 года назад +23

    Short lived and underrated.

  • @deathsceane
    @deathsceane 2 года назад +16

    I remember catching this when it was on CBS. I think it was listed in my local newspaper's tv listings section. I see the words Weird Al and just tuned in every week since. I remember the following year when he did AL TV he mentioned how the network thought how dumb the kids would be and mentioned the whole Immatatable behavior arguement. He then proceeded to take a (prop) knife and jam it into his arm causing himself to bleed and said something to the effect of "What kid would be stupid enough to take a sharp knife and hurt himself" then proceeds to faint from bloodloss. At least I think the fainting happned.

  • @idongesitusen5764
    @idongesitusen5764 3 года назад +24

    I can't begin to imagine how this must've impacted his music recording.

    • @jacemclain4062
      @jacemclain4062 3 года назад +12

      He didn't record any songs during the filming of the show. The show was produced in between Bad Hair Day and Running with Scissors, and the first recording sessions for RWS didn't happen until a year after the show ended.

  • @MaxwellCartoons
    @MaxwellCartoons 3 года назад +24

    This is even worse than the treatment the Pinky and the Brain teams had. Al's show was great but I wish the network wouldn't breathe down his neck all the time

  • @angelmarie2281
    @angelmarie2281 2 года назад +8

    I remember this show being moved to Sunday mornings in my area. The network knew exactly what it was doing. Thank you for this video!

    • @thebobbyparkway1398
      @thebobbyparkway1398 Год назад

      I think it aired 7 AM on Sunday mornings in my area, started Saturday at 7 AM.

    • @stephenkehl7158
      @stephenkehl7158 8 месяцев назад +1

      I worked in the programming department of a CBS affiliate in the Midwest. The problem we ran into was that the year Weird Al aired was also the year CBS started airing a news program that went to 9 am. Sports often started at 11am, so there was only two hours of protected time slots for a mandated three hours of kids programming. The E/I rules made it difficult to preempt and reschedule shows, so Sunday morning became the only logical time slot available.
      In our case, the network refused to let us clear the third hour of programs on anything but Saturday, so we cleared only two hours of CBS programs on Saturday and picked up an hour of syndicated programs on Sunday. That meant we had to choose which four of the six CBS offerings to clear, and I had to convince the general manager that The Weird Al Show should be one of them.

    • @angelmarie2281
      @angelmarie2281 8 месяцев назад

      @@stephenkehl7158I didn’t think about the E/I rules making it difficult for programming. That does explain why I remember some shows airing on Sunday rather than Saturday. I randomly remember my local ABC Affiliate airing the Weekend Specials on either 7am or sometime on Sunday for example.
      Was the News show CBS News Saturday Morning? I remember it had a beautiful opening title sequence but I don’t remember much about it aside from that.

    • @drewzuhosky6826
      @drewzuhosky6826 2 месяца назад

      @@angelmarie2281 Yep. Russ Mitchell was the anchor of the program.

    • @drewzuhosky6826
      @drewzuhosky6826 2 месяца назад

      @@stephenkehl7158 It was like that in Pittsburgh. The 7 am hour of Think CBS Kids was bumped from Saturday to Sunday during its only year. KDKA continued to delay the 7 am hour of the CBS children's blocks for *years* afterward. They once were forced to do a makegood of a _Dora the Explorer_ episode at 1 pm on a Saturday afternoon. Granted, the CBS children's block was a mix of Nick Jr. and general Nickelodeon programming back then, but still, what child would be watching TV at 1 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon? Most kids might have been out playing at the time.

  • @nightmarefuelfanita9343
    @nightmarefuelfanita9343 3 года назад +13

    damn i actually watched the weird al show a month ago or so (all the episodes are on youtube btw) and had no idea of this,but to be honest i culd tell that the last episode seemed kinda rushed and that they just wanted it to end. thanks for this video!

  • @SketchBud
    @SketchBud 3 года назад +26

    Thankfully with the age of streaming services, show creators can finally have creative freedom without those uptight network exects breathing down on their necks.

  • @AutisticJoker88
    @AutisticJoker88 Год назад +10

    In the celebrity guest stars part, you forgot to mention Bill Mumy: Little Danger Will Robinson, the guy who co-wrote Fish Heads, a computer genius guy, and someone who was on 90s Sci-Fi shows like Babylon 5. He played the delivery guy in the episode where Al tries to learn everything: You even forgot to mention the rest of Weird Al's UHF co-stars: David Bowe, Gedde Watanabe, and Kevin McCarthy. They guest starred in episodes of The Weird Al Show too

    • @AutisticJoker88
      @AutisticJoker88 Год назад +2

      Oh and Dweezil Zappa. You forgot to mention he was in an episode too

  • @weirdalyankoviccountdownsa528
    @weirdalyankoviccountdownsa528 3 года назад +13

    The Weird Al Show was amazing!

  • @BrowncoatFairy
    @BrowncoatFairy 9 месяцев назад +4

    The commentary tracks on The Weird Al Show really are fascinating and hilarious -- a lot more entertaining than the show itself, in my opinion. It's worth seeking out the DVDs just for them.
    The deleted scenes on UHF are equally great -- at one point Al pops up and just fast-forwards through a really boring one, haha.

  • @EriksGarbage
    @EriksGarbage 7 месяцев назад +3

    I will say that, despite the fact that the show was forced to be more educational, I think it's still a great show worth watching

  • @ClabberHead
    @ClabberHead 3 года назад +11

    How about MST3K, it was treated badly by *2* networks. Comedy Central and The SciFi Channel. Which "Weird Al" indirectly got me into.

    • @thehunterator520
      @thehunterator520 3 года назад +2

      Fun fact: for uhf Al originally wanted Joel Hodgeson, but Joel turned it down.

    • @mrcritical6751
      @mrcritical6751 8 месяцев назад +1

      MST3K just gets screwed over no matter who owns it or works with them. Universal and Gramercy forced way too many changes to the MST3K movie then decided to promote Barbed Wire over it, Netflix forced them to do that Gauntlet season so they could make the show more bingeable then when they got their own streaming service to make new episodes it ended up getting screwed by Covid which is why season 13 is 90% green screens

  • @JacobFiveash
    @JacobFiveash 3 года назад +33

    I can't believe that they rejected Mrs. Fesenmeyer's original actor just because she was too ethnic.

    • @RockSoup
      @RockSoup 10 месяцев назад +4

      These days we have a word for that: Racism.

  • @frankreads8618
    @frankreads8618 3 месяца назад +1

    It's so weird how a network will greenlight a show and then so throughly work against its creators.

  • @berniedavis6676
    @berniedavis6676 Год назад +5

    when Bare Naked Ladies was on to perform a song, the network hated their band name. so they had to film 2 intros for the musical guest. one with Al saying the full name of the band ( which is on the DVD) and the censored version with Al saying the band was called BNL . which was what aired on tv.

  • @jaggerguth4391
    @jaggerguth4391 Год назад +3

    According to TV Tropes, There was a unproduced 6 episode of Fat man where Uncle Frank unites all the Villains to go against Fat Man.

  • @robertorick6383
    @robertorick6383 Год назад +2

    You're not the only one who remembers "Mike ,Lu, & Og." I remember it, too. I really liked Mike Micelli. Also, yes, I believe that Weird Al got screwed by CBS. The fact that Weird Al had a legendary comic like Stan Freberg on it made it special. He fit right in with the other weird characters.

  • @teddyfurstman1997
    @teddyfurstman1997 3 года назад +4

    These TV Network guys don't get why Weird Al is amazing! Glad he has his own show called Milo Murphy's Law witch also sadly ended sorta after two seasons. It's also from Disney and the guys who also made Phineas and Ferb.

  • @thebobbyparkway1398
    @thebobbyparkway1398 Год назад +2

    Great video! The Weird Al Show was a footnote on the trainwreck that CBS Saturday Morning had become in 1997. I was born in the mid-80's, so I saw as a kid how kids programming on CBS went from beautiful to ugly in only about 3 years. In 1994, CBS canceled Garfield & Friends, despite good ratings. In 1995, Disney bought ABC, so no more Disney cartoons on CBS (Aladdin, Timon & Pumbaa, The Little Mermaid). In 1996, the Children's TV Act passed Congress, this led to the cancelation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. CBS was last in the ratings for Saturday AM in late 1996, so they decided to start a 2 hour News Program in September 1997 and by that time they were throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if anything stuck. Thanks to ABC's One Saturday Morning success in the 1997, quality kids programming on CBS was now dead.

  • @marccamp6376
    @marccamp6376 3 года назад +4

    9:32 Sorry... WUT?
    "I know its a hamster... but... it could... sing or something?" :P ?

    • @ExtremeWreck
      @ExtremeWreck 2 года назад +3

      Bruh, clearly the network runners had less intelligence than a brick.

    • @JosephMcCormick-s1c
      @JosephMcCormick-s1c Год назад +2

      @@ExtremeWreck that brick probably fell on their heads

  • @abbygiroux9097
    @abbygiroux9097 3 года назад +3

    i liked that danganronpa refernce u put in there when you talked about how cbs cancled the show,

  • @Imaginamisuperfun
    @Imaginamisuperfun 3 года назад +9

    I love weird al yankovic!!

  • @HumblyArtsy
    @HumblyArtsy 3 года назад +8

    You’re saying if Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Twisted Tales of Felix, or any other “weird sense of humor” show was pitched in 1997 it would’ve got canned too ?

    • @ExtremeWreck
      @ExtremeWreck 2 года назад +6

      Twisted Tales of Felix was cancelled too, though for different reasons.

    • @TobytheHedgehog
      @TobytheHedgehog Год назад +3

      That Ending Tho could be the start of a revival to The Twosted tales of Felix the Cat(The last episode ends on a cliffhanger with felix stuck in Tape due to the Clone fairy if ya dont know)

  • @isle-unto-thyself
    @isle-unto-thyself 2 года назад +1

    Why does this only have 4k views omg?? This is a really good video :)

  • @Syn-qk9sx
    @Syn-qk9sx 26 дней назад

    Funnily enougn I'm actually rewatching the weird al show now :) it was so good and far ahead of its time. Oh the nostaglia from when i was a kid.

  • @ExtremeWreck
    @ExtremeWreck 3 года назад +8

    I really wished this was a completely animated show honestly. That would've been so awesome! Then it would've gotten to air on a better network like say, Fox Kids, or Cartoon Network, or Kids WB. No, not Nickelodeon, Nick isn't allowed to make a Weird Al cartoon, I know what they do to cartoons if they don't perform as well as SpongeBob, & from what I can tell, even BEFORE SpongeBob, they'd screw cartoons over.

    • @roberttreacy8271
      @roberttreacy8271 Год назад +2

      That would’ve been nice.

    • @ToonyTails
      @ToonyTails 7 месяцев назад +1

      Well we did get something close to that. It was called Milo Murphy’s Law

    • @ExtremeWreck
      @ExtremeWreck 7 месяцев назад

      @@ToonyTails And from the Phineas And Fer crew as a bonus!

  • @kidokoala
    @kidokoala Год назад +2

    Wait, I thought that people liked Beakman's World.

  • @AutisticJoker88
    @AutisticJoker88 Год назад +3

    I feel Al's show would have done better if it had aired on Fox Kids (and considering nobody was watching that programming block unless Power Rangers was on, that's saying a lot) or even Nickelodeon. He especially likely would not have gone through the same bullshit he did if he went through Nick instead

  • @aresef
    @aresef 3 года назад +1

    The note about the lessons makes me wonder if execs were confusing kids with goldens.

    • @ExtremeWreck
      @ExtremeWreck 2 года назад

      Thing is, goldfish aren't as stupid as people tend to believe.
      ruclips.net/video/Ut6B5PVJ3hE/видео.html

  • @midabe01
    @midabe01 3 года назад +3

    Good video. Nothing but respect for Weird Al and co.

  • @drewzuhosky6826
    @drewzuhosky6826 2 месяца назад

    14:40 Actually, _Beakman's World_ had long since wrapped production by 1998. The series was originally supposed to have wrapped in 1995 after the 65-episode plateau was reached [at that time, 65 episodes was the standard number of shows produced for a children's series.] Once word got out that CBS was intending to cancel the series, fans inundated the network with phone calls, written letters and emails, causing the network to order one final 26-episode production season, split in half to air during the 1996-1997 and 1997-1998 broadcast seasons.

    • @dotseth6492
      @dotseth6492 Месяц назад

      In the TV guide always said the amazing live sea monkeys was airing when really it was beakman's world.

  • @rickifriki
    @rickifriki 2 года назад +2

    6:28 Dude, this is not Mr. Enter

  • @DoraemonFan-ww3jm
    @DoraemonFan-ww3jm Год назад +2

    I don't think "Beakman's World" was hated a lot. I think it had its fans and it ran before the "Think CBS Kids" era began.
    At least the CBS Kids block turned into a block filled with Nelvana cartoons from 1998-2000.

    • @thebobbyparkway1398
      @thebobbyparkway1398 Год назад +1

      Beakman was on for CBS for a long time. Ran from 1993 to 1998.

  • @impalaman9707
    @impalaman9707 Год назад +1

    As a Gen Xer who grew up in the 80s, I was privileged to live in a world where Saturday Morning kids TV programming hadn't been watered down yet. I grew up with "Pee Wee's Playhouse", was already out of college when the "Weird Al Show" was going, so this is my first time hearing about it. At first, it did sound like CBS attempting to re-boot "Pee Wee" with a different guy, but unlike Pee Wee, which had all the sugar and caffiene a kid could want, Weird Al sounds like a sugar-free version of Pee Wee. For the record, I did know about Weird Al, but enjoyed the times when he was doing "Al TV" on MTV, because it was totally politically incorrect and unrestricted, and he was allowed to lampoon all the videos and artists he wanted to. AL TV was more the "real" Al than this restricted version of Al

  • @ajzeg01
    @ajzeg01 Год назад +1

    They should’ve pitched the show to UHF. I’m sure they would’ve treated it right.

  • @bricksthroughtheages5308
    @bricksthroughtheages5308 3 года назад +1

    My favorite part of the show was when al was selling bad products and he sold the amazing four tined food stabber

  • @Toontastic_Juju
    @Toontastic_Juju 3 года назад +2

    I love the video you did on Dan vs the network! I do wish you can do a video on littlest pet shop and pound puppies vs the network. But the two shows were cancelled because of the toys based on it. So it would be cool if can you do videos on littlest pet shop and pound puppies vs the toys.

  • @TheIkranRider
    @TheIkranRider 3 года назад +6

    Geez, you coulda used the Willy Wonka quote, "You get...NOTHING!! You LOSE! Good DAY, sir!" I...never even heard of this show, and I'm sure this is sheer HELL! I'm surprised any kids would be in this! I didn't get into Weird Al till I was like...in my late teens I think. This is indeed tragic. Hey, r u gonna continue w/ the Simpsons Seasons reviews, or r u pretty much done?

  • @doritto4095
    @doritto4095 Год назад +1

    0:28 Aight time to make a joke

  • @yamataichul
    @yamataichul Год назад

    2:15 I genuinely believe the network was filled to the brim with former parents who only made sure checking their box on their "personal life" template to have at least a kid, and then not raise them

  • @emmagrove6491
    @emmagrove6491 3 месяца назад

    It's not much better nowadays. I had a friend that was doing a pilot and the network executives' notes were unending and way too excessive and insane.

  • @WinterSteele
    @WinterSteele Год назад +3

    MTV would've been a much better fit for this show. Back in the mid-late 90s they aired a lot of offbeat comedy programs.

    • @impalaman9707
      @impalaman9707 Год назад +1

      What do you mean? MTV already had AL TV---which was totally unrestricted and he had complete artistic control for two hours and was drop dead hillarious!

  • @AutisticJoker88
    @AutisticJoker88 Год назад +1

    I loved The Weird Al Show. Very underrated. Too bad it did not last long

  • @rubenkoker1911
    @rubenkoker1911 3 месяца назад

    ironically, Weird al went worldwide and CBS kids went nowhere

  • @horseguy273
    @horseguy273 3 месяца назад +1

    Bro can yap for so long

    • @miggle2784
      @miggle2784 Месяц назад

      RUclips commenters when someone has something of substance to say

  • @jackbarnicle9191
    @jackbarnicle9191 Месяц назад

    I didn’t even know he had a tv show he is a comedian

  • @user-ni7tg5fg9k
    @user-ni7tg5fg9k 3 месяца назад

    Wasn't it the hamster in the microwave prank?

  • @timharrod
    @timharrod 3 года назад

    13:09 You're absolutely right... not Victoria Jackson.

  • @mmmmm4986
    @mmmmm4986 3 года назад

    0:26 pause

  • @kooarchived
    @kooarchived 3 года назад +3

    It could've been cancelled because of the Ear Booker Productions logo flashing a lot.

    • @zing3461
      @zing3461 2 года назад +1

      You’re right about that

    • @DoraemonFan-ww3jm
      @DoraemonFan-ww3jm Год назад +2

      I agree. That logo was creepy in my opinion. I had a few nightmares about this logo mostly because I'm not comfortable with zoom-in logos.

  • @jonathanwilkinson4299
    @jonathanwilkinson4299 2 года назад

    Hmm, this is interesting. I always hatted how short this show was lived but Weird Al did promise an educational show and this show was not educational.

  • @DatDrawingKid011
    @DatDrawingKid011 Год назад

    0:20 what song is that?

  • @autistic_baby_doll_mom_reb7898
    @autistic_baby_doll_mom_reb7898 Год назад +1

    I only like werid al because he voices cheese sandwich in my little pony.

  • @Dantheferret
    @Dantheferret Год назад

    Who else thinks this guy sounds like joblo?

  • @dorinriki
    @dorinriki 3 года назад +3

    On top of all these things that went wrong, Al simply wasn't a very good actor. He and Jay Levey did well writing together, but Al alternated between mumbling lines, and screaming punch lines at the top of his lungs. He did this in "UHF," too.