The Weird Al Show vs the Network

[@mergieismoronic]

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

[@noahbossier1131]

Please reboot it. With more creative control

[@pedroandrespardopardo8692]

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

[@weirdalyankoviccountdownsa528]

😂😂😂

[@megarigged]

What's even funnier is that it had the Weird Al Show theme on it.

[@georgerobertson7010]

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

[@roberttreacy8271]

Same here.

[@IsabellaCataldo]

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]

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

[@noahbossier1131]

That makes sense

[@CharcoalRabbit]

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)

[@MaskingAutism88]

That's soulless corporate suits for ya. They hate everything that's good

[@LeafRazorStorm]

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]

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

[@thehunterator520]

@@umbrella3235 clickbait is tight

[@B3fromYT]

@@umbrella3235 Screenrant 🤢

[@anth636]

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

[@thehunterator520]

@@anth636 I'll get right off it

[@joshhacker8503]

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

[@ripleyandweeds1288]

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.

[@MaskingAutism88]

The CBS Executives FOUND a way...

[@CinnamonGrrlErin1]

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

[@liladefarge9125]

kzbin.info

[@scoldedegg]

Hey look it's jane

[@MaskingAutism88]

That's because KZbin 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]

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

[@jaggerguth4391]

Technically he already is.

[@snbsixteen6stars201]

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

[@deathsceane]

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.

[@mightyfilm]

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]

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

[@bigmaxethanschannel1428]

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

[@ToonyTails]

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

[@drewzuhosky6826]

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.

[@genemelendez8157]

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]

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

[@spongebobplushiestuff8612]

@@mightyfilm like father like son

[@henrycoffey1207]

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

[@mightyfilm]

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]

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@henrycoffey1207]

Short lived and underrated.

[@angelmarie2281]

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]

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

[@stephenkehl7158]

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]

@@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]

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

[@drewzuhosky6826]

@@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.

[@idongesitusen5764]

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

[@jacemclain4062]

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.

[@ClaytonBrownMusicOfficial]

@@jacemclain4062That’s a musician in a rut right there… It does my heart good to see Al getting recognition nowadays.

[@MaxwellCartoons]

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

[@JacobFiveash]

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

[@RockSoup]

These days we have a word for that: Racism.

[@MaskingAutism88]

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

[@MaskingAutism88]

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

[@nightmarefuelfanita9343]

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!

[@ClabberHead]

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

[@thehunterator520]

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

[@mrcritical6751]

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

[@SketchBud]

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

[@christopherwall2121]

This did not age well

[@H04DZ]

Machinima….

[@weirdalyankoviccountdownsa528]

The Weird Al Show was amazing!

[@EriksGarbage]

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

[@berniedavis6676]

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.

[@marccamp6376]

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

[@ExtremeWreck]

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

[@Joe8th]

@@ExtremeWreck that brick probably fell on their heads

[@jaggerguth4391]

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.

[@BrowncoatFairy]

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.

[@brycemcneil4404]

"I mean: look at all the junk that ended up IN the movie. Well, this stuff is even worse than THAT! Kinda boggles the mind, doesn't it?!?"

[@thebobbyparkway1398]

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.

[@robertorick6383]

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.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

I only saw this when it came out on DVD. The only joke I remember is one where (because of IRL network notes) all condescendingly tells the Billy what a college is after he'd used the word in a sentence. Billy then says, "Yeah, I know. I'm not an idiot."

[@teddyfurstman1997]

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.

[@frankreads8618]

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

[@ExtremeWreck]

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]

That would’ve been nice.

[@ToonyTails]

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

[@ExtremeWreck]

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

[@F2SOnYouTube]

4:54 RIP Al

[@MERMANADE]

12:11 Being a diehard Wario fan, This music playing made my eyes widen and I got this visceral feeling that I can't even describe. My posture also immediately fixed itself automatically.

[@H04DZ]

That one wario copy-pasta immediately came into my mind reading that lol

[@MERMANADE]

@@H04DZ ...I'll take that as a compliment..

[@impalaman9707]

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

[@abbygiroux9097]

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

[@midabe01]

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

[@HumblyArtsy]

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]

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

[@TobytheHedgehog]

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)

[@KasumiKenshirou]

My local CBS affiliate (KIRO in Seattle) didn't air most of the kids shows. I only was able to see the Mother Goose and Grimm show ONCE. Some of the shows aired on the local Fox affiliate on Sunday mornings. The "red sky" seasons of the Ninja Turtles was one of these shows. I didn't even know the CBS Felix the Cat show even existed until many years later.

[@Syn-qk9sx]

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.

[@ajzeg01]

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

[@KasumiKenshirou]

UHF isn't a network.

[@Imaginamisuperfun]

I love weird al yankovic!!

[@isle-unto-thyself]

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

[@aresef]

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

[@ExtremeWreck]

Thing is, goldfish aren't as stupid as people tend to believe. kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6WZc2iGi69mnqc

[@MaskingAutism88]

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

[@bricksthroughtheages5308]

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

[@DoraemonFan-ww3jm]

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]

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

[@aidenmurphy8785]

This explains UHF alot, even if it came before or after

[@hollytheanimalcrossingfan]

I just learned it existed today

[@kidokoala]

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

[@doritto4095]

0:28 Aight time to make a joke

[@drewzuhosky6826]

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]

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

[@rickifriki]

6:28 Dude, this is not Mr. Enter

[@WinterSteele]

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]

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!

[@Toontastic_Juju]

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.

[@mediamementosofficial]

Thanks for the interest, but I don’t take requests. Sorry.

[@MaskingAutism88]

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

[@yamataichul]

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

[@TheIkranRider]

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?

[@mediamementosofficial]

I haven’t done any Simpsons season reviews.

[@BrendanBarney]

@@mediamementosofficial In a while?

[@horseguy273]

Bro can yap for so long

[@miggle2784]

KZbin commenters when someone has something of substance to say

[@timharrod]

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

[@emmagrove6491]

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.

[@rubenkoker1911]

ironically, Weird al went worldwide and CBS kids went nowhere

[@jackbarnicle9191]

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

[@kooarchived]

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

[@zing3461]

You’re right about that

[@DoraemonFan-ww3jm]

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.

[@autistic_baby_doll_mom_reb7898]

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

[@jonathanwilkinson4299]

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.

[@fangirlable]

I watched “The Weird Al” show every Saturday morning, and when they put him through was awful. If that were me, I would sue. I also liked the characters too, except for one: Madam Judy. I just found her incredibly annoying.

[@mmmmm4986]

0:26 pause

[@DatDrawingKid011]

0:20 what song is that?

[@Dantheferret]

Who else thinks this guy sounds like joblo?

[@dorinriki]

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.