Back On My TV

Last night I was watching Comedy Central when I saw a promo for a new Norm MacDonald show. In it Norm came out of an office and told the New York Mets' mascot, conveniently named Mr. Met, to type something up for him. It's funny, you see, because Mr. Met has giant mascot hands, and those would make typing difficult. It wasn't clear from the spot, but I would guess MacDonald's new show is going to either be a sports sketch show, a comedy about making a sports show (think "Sports Night") or a "Daily Show"-like fake news show with a sports focus (because that idea hasn't already been done numerous times). In the end it probably doesn't really matter what format they go with because after watching the promo, if that is how they plan to sell the show I put the over/under of number of episodes it remains on the air at ten.

Now this assessment doesn't come from anything personal I have against Norm MacDonald. Sure, I have never understood the people that insist he was the best fake anchor in "Weekend Update" history because I happen to think he was just ok, but to each their own. Also, I actually believe MacDonald can be a good stand-up. Some of his bits are really funny. I just think history has shown that he isn't capable of carrying his own show. A quick check of his IMDB page reveals that this will be his fifth attempt at starring in his own show, with each show getting cancelled faster than the one before it. (One of his shows only made it six episodes, so perhaps my guess of ten will actually turn out to be generous.) At least after his first show lasted a couple of seasons you could justify giving him a second shot on a new network: I'm sure the each network thought that first show just wasn't the right fix and putting Norm with the right writers would solve that problem. But, MacDonald has now been with every major network, so I think it is time to let that ship sail and admit he works best as the grouchy neighbor of the trouble-making best friend, not as the guy the entire show revolves around.

The real reason this bothered me is because it seems like I keep seeing the same people get show after show after show and I would love for someone new to get a chance. At some point, don't people have to realise that not every comedian can deliver in the starring role? How many chances do these guys need? (No, really, I want an answer to that, because David Spade has to be close to reaching that point, right?) My other theory is that some of these comedians have acts which are so off the wall that while the executives at Comedy Central don't find them funny, they also don't want people to think they aren't cool enough to 'get' the humor. Thus they green-light the shows just to show how edgy and 'with-it' they are, but then it turns out no one gets the acts because they aren't edgy, just unfunny. (I need for this to be true, because there is no other logical explanation for Michael Ian Black to keep appearing on my TV.) So, yeah, I'll probably watch the first episode of Norm's new show. I just have this feeling that if you don't catch it the first time around you won't be able to see it at all.