The Warner Bros.-owned network will air eight, one-hour episodes featuring a new cast, with each hosted by a former cast member. Which cast members will host has not yet been revealed, but the eight episodes should allow for each of the fan favorites to make a return.
Running for 14 seasons on Fox, from 1995-2009, MADtv was inspired by Mad Magazine, and served as a sort of mix between Saturday Night Live and In Living Color. It offered up hilarious recurring skits that targeted celebrities and popular culture. The show also spawned some seriously humorous characters of its own, like Michael McDonald’s creepy manchild Stuart, Alex Bornstein’s Ms. Swan, and Keegan-Michael Key’s limber and spastic Coach Hines. The show was performed in front of a live studio audience.
MadTV helped catapult the careers of several comedians, including Key who, along with former cast member Jordan Peele, went on to create the highly-successful sketch comedy show Key & Peele. Ike Barinholtz, cast member from 2002-2007, was most recently seen in the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy Sisters and Hulu’s (formerly Fox’s) The Mindy Project. Appearing on 127 episodes of the show from 1997-2009, Alex Borstein went on to voice the character of Lois Griffin on Family Guy for the past 17 years.
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In January, the CW aired a one-hour special to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the show, with several original cast members returning, including McDonald and Borstein, as well as Mo Collins.
Fans can see all 14 seasons of the show on The CW’s digital network, CW Seed. The network appears to be making a serious play into sketch comedy, having also revived Whose Line Is It Anyway? back in 2013. MADtv is produced by Telepictures, which is owned by Warner Bros. David E. Salzman, who served as executive producer of the original series, will again serve as executive producer and showrunner for the revival.
There’s no word yet on when exactly the eight episodes will air, nor whether The CW intends to bring the show back beyond the eight. For now, here’s hoping that the original cast members who appear to host will resurrect some of those iconic characters we’ve been missing for the past nine years since MADtv went off the air.
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