12 Angry Facts About MADtv, SNL's Wilder, Louder, Messier Little Brother

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12 Angry Facts About MADtv, SNL's Wilder, Louder, Messier Little Brother

The year was 1995. Saturday Night Live had wrapped up its 20th season with a whimper, with fans and critics alike speculating that the king of late-night sketch comedy was in the middle of a creative slump. There existed a power vacuum in that time slot, and when October came around, so did a vibrant, garish, crass menagerie of sketch comedy misfits, rejects, and hellraisers bearing the name “MAD” and donning a red-haired, grinning, gap-toothed mascot as their symbol.

Some of you may not know, but MADtv was born from MAD magazine. And some of you really might not know that Cracked.com was also born from Cracked magazine, itself a second-banana to MAD magazine. We’ve all come a long way.

Anyway, the original MADtv lasted 14 seasons before cancellation, with a 20th anniversary special and a rebooted 15th season coming years later. Here are some entries from MADtv’s tumultuous history in the shadow of 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

Family Guy was supposed to be a series of shorts on MADtv CRACKED.COM Similar to how The Simpsons began on The Tracy Ullman Show, Family Guy was originally pitched to Fox as a series of animated shorts for MADtv. Ultimately, MAD didn't have the budget for the animation, so the network decided to give Seth MacFarlane his own time slot. Fitting that the wild little brother of SNL almost launched the wild little brother of The Simpsons.

Source: IGN

Ms. Swan was a BE Skywalker CRACKED.COM Not really, but Mark Hamill did guest star as the tough-talking father of Ms. Swan, Alex Borstein's popular character who has since aged like fine milk. Though overally racial charicatures have deservedly fallen out of style, Ms. Swan appeared in a whopping 41 sketches during Borstein's twelve year run on the show. Hamill's appearance included this exchange between Ms. Swan and Luke Skywalker: Remember, I am your father! Oh come on, get over it.

Source: IMDB

Patton Oswalt was the first member of the BE writing staff CRACKED.COM Emmy-winning comic Patton Oswalt had this to say about his time at MADtv: I was at the height of my self-righteousness, as far as comedy and pushing the edge goes. A perfect fit for the show branding itself as the boundary pushing, iconoclastic wild child of sketch comedy, Patton brought his sharpness to the writer's room int eh first season with his sketch Gump Fiction, a violently heartwarming mash-up of Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction with cast member Phil Lamarr reprising his role as Marvin.

Source: KPCC

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