This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)

TV Funhouse
Also known as	Saturday TV Funhouse
Format	Animated television series Sketch comedy
Created by	Robert Smigel
Starring	Doug Dale Robert Smigel Jon Glaser Dino Stamatopoulos David Juskow Tommy Blacha Frank Simms
Theme music composer	Steven Gold
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producer(s)	Robert Smigel Dino Stamatopoulos Lou Wallach
Producer(s)	Samantha Scharff
Running time	30 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Comedy Central
Picture format	NTSC 480i
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	December 6, 2000 (2000-12-06) – January 24, 2001 (2001-01-24)
Chronology
Related shows	Saturday Night Live
External links
Official website

Saturday TV Funhouse is the title of a recurring skit on NBC's Saturday Night Live featuring cartoons created by longtime SNL writer Robert Smigel and J.J. Sedelmaier Productions, as well as a short-lived spinoff series TV Funhouse that ran on Comedy Central. TV Funhouse frequently satirizes public figures and corporations. In between the host segments, it would show either parodies of 1950s educational films or cartoons most frequently drawn in the flat, low-budget style of Saturday morning Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 1970s and '80s. Another frequent target is the classic 1960s "Animagic" stop motion animated holiday specials of Rankin-Bass. The opening and closing sequences of the SNL skits features a cartoon Lorne Michaels grappling with a small dog for control of his show.

[edit] Saturday TV Funhouse

[edit] Recurring SNL TV Funhouse skits

• The X Presidents – features former US Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush as crime-fighting superheroes, imbued with superpowers by a "hurricane-powered dose of radiation" received at a celebrity golf tournament. Each of their wives is a member as well. Bill Clinton, despite his status as a living former president, is not a member since he did not receive the hurricane-powered dose of radiation, as he was in office during the initial incident. In one episode, Clinton is shown unsuccessfully attempting to establish himself with the cabal. The X Presidents has been adapted to comic books by Random House Comics. Reagan himself is no longer a member of the X Presidents but does appear as an Ex-X President. With Ford's death in late 2006, it is apparent that he too is now an Ex-X President.

• The Ambiguously Gay Duo – the vaguely effeminate superheroes Ace, and Gary (performed by Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell respectively). All the shorts were re-written from The Dana Carvey Show.

• The New Adventures of Mr. T – a parody of the Ruby-Spears animated series, The Adventures of Mr. T, depicting the former The A-Team star, as desperate to find work, aggressively auditioning for unlikely parts such as classical theatre and tampon commercials.

• The Michael Jackson Show – a parody of typical Hanna-Barbera productions, highlighting the misadventures of Michael Jackson and his odd friends. Including in this rag-tag crew are an aged Emmanuel Lewis, an anthropomorphic llama, his chimp Bubbles, and the living skeleton of Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man).

• "Fun With Real Audio" – are segments with recordings taken of actual events (e.g. presidential debates and celebrity interviews), re-arranged for comedic effect, and set against a backdrop of outrageous animation.

[edit] Disney parodies

The TV Funhouse Panel at Comic-Con International. From left to right: Robert Smigel, Dino Stamatopoulos, Bob Odenkirk and Tommy Blacha with Doug Dale on laptop screen

One of the animated shows for Saturday Night Live, entitled Titey, pokes fun at the glaring revisionism some accuse the Walt Disney Company of crafting. The skit imagines a Disney version of the anthropomorphic Titanic, with Napoleon and Anne Frank as characters, having the ship victorious over the iceberg which sank the real Titanic.

The 10 February 2001 episode, Ray of Light parodies the controversy over Ray Lewis's involvement in an Atlanta homicide. Although Lewis went on to become the Super Bowl XXXV MVP, he was unable to utter the famous line, "I'm going to Disney World!" The skit was involved with Disney "making it up" to Lewis by placing him in various Disney animated movies. Lewis would often be shown fleeing the scene of classic Disney character death scenes.

Bambi 2002, another poke at Disney, imagines a sequel to the original movie where Bambi's mother turns up alive. The title character fights stylized terrorist types and performs a rap music number in the forest. Also in the sketch are moments involving some of Disney's darker issues as well as pornographic humour.

On 15 April 2006, Smigel again parodied Disney's practice of supposedly "vaulting" their films, and urban legends of alleged racism and anti-Semitism. This segment briefly circulated on YouTube until 17 April 2006 when all were removed due to copyright claims.

Main article: List of Saturday TV Funhouse segments

[edit] NBC special

On April 29, 2006, NBC aired a full-length, 90-minute SNL "best of" special for TV Funhouse. The special, was hosted by The Ambiguously Gay Duo, Ace and Gary with a cameo from Jimmy Fallon.[1].

The special was released on DVD October 24, 2006.

[edit] Comedy Central series

The spinoff series was somewhat of a twisted Pee-Wee's Playhouse-style kiddie show, hosted by Doug Dale and his "Anipals" puppet animal friends. Every episode had a different theme to it (e.g., "Hawaiian Day" or "Astronaut Day") and saw the Anipals usually getting into some sort of trouble, not wanting to do whatever their happy-go-lucky host had in mind for the day. The Comedy Central version of TV Funhouse premiered in December 2000 and was not picked up for a second season. Interviews with Smigel indicate that Comedy Central believed in the show but was disappointed in how it went over budget every episode, Smigel has also expressed how difficult the show was and how tedious the puppet-live animal segments were to shoot. The show was released on DVD July 22, 2008 under the title, Comedy Central's TV Funhouse.

[edit] Episodes

• 1-1 - "Western Day" (December 6, 2000)
  • Doug must wrangle up his own fun when the Anipals ditch him to head for high times south of the border in Tijuana.
• 1-2 - "Hawaiian Day" (December 13, 2000)
  • Doug and Rocky the Fish have a luau all by themselves while the Anipals help Chickie rescue his 95th son, Jason, from a cult.
• 1-3 - "Christmas Day" (December 20, 2000)
  • The Anipals tap Doug's spine to extract his Christmas Cheer. After one of Chickie's sons helps to turn the cheer into powder, the Anipals snort it and get addicted to powdered Christmas cheer.
• 1-4 - "Mexicans Day" (December 27, 2000)
  • The Anipals appear on the Sally Jessy Raphael show to help an endangered lizard get laid, leaving Doug to celebrate Mexicans Day with a tequila worm and a Puerto Rican Mexican-food deliverer.
• 1-5 - "Caveman Day" (January 3, 2001)
  • The Anipals compare New Year's resolutions: Hojo wants to learn to play the saxophone, Chickie hangs out with his brother with Tourette syndrome, and Fogey must resist eating his own poop. Meanwhile, Doug builds a dinosaur skeleton out of baby back ribs, and Rocky the Fish takes a group of kids to visit a cookie factory.
• 1-6 - "Safari Day" (January 10, 2001)
  • Part 1 of 2 The Anipals travel to Atlantic City to visit Fogey's old friend, Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, where Chickie falls in love with a chimp-stitute.
• 1-7 - "Astronaut Day" (January 17, 2001)
  • Part 2 of 2 Still in Atlantic City, the Anipals attempt to "unstick" Triumph before his big show. Meanwhile, Doug tries to achieve weightlessness.
• 1-8 - "Chinese New Year's Day" (January 24, 2001)
  • The Anipals ditch the Funhouse to enter the lucrative, glamorous world of lab animals, as Doug celebrates Chinese New Year's Day and makes fireworks with a panda.
  • This being the final episode, the set was struck by detonating a puppet panda (full of innards for realism) on the set, splattering everywhere. Staged as a satirical accident, Doug replied after with resignation: "cut."

[edit] See also

• List of Saturday TV Funhouse segments

[edit] External links

• TV Funhouse at the Internet Movie Database