MADtv: Season Nine (2003-2004)

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The Season Nine cast of MADtv celebrating its 200th episode. (Top row, left to right) Michael McDonald and Paul Vogt. (Middle row) Ron Pederson, Stephnie Weir, Josh Meyers, Mo Collins and Frank Caliendo. (Bottom row) Aries Spears, Bobby Lee and Ike Barinholtz. Not pictured: Daniele Gaither, Keegan-Michael Key, Nicole Parker, Melissa Paull, Jordan Peele and Gillian Vigman.

[edit] Season summary

With Debra Wilson gone from the cast, it was time for another cast update. Last year's featured players - Ike Barinholtz, Josh Meyers, Ron Pederson, and Paul Vogt - saw their upgrade to repertory status. Sadly, this would be Meyers last season as a performer, but FOX held onto his contract so he could appear on FOX sitcom That 70's Show. The three other newcomers would carry on, however.

Since Debra was no longer on the show, this meant that Season 9 was the first year with none of the original cast members.

Mo Collins also confirmed that season 9 would be her last, as she would pursue ventures outside of sketch comedy.

Additionally, MADtv hired several new players to the cast. The first one would be Daniele Gaither, a member of Groundlings (she was trained by Michael McDonald pre-MADtv) and the second female African American on MADtv. Gaither appeared in season 2 as one of Dolemite's girls in a sketch about Bob Dole. As a featured player, she received rave reviews for her hilarious characters, but she had some good impersonations for this season, including Eve, La La, and Tyra Banks.

Another fresh-faced female player joined the cast as well: Nicole Parker. This perky newcomer became a breakout star for her impersonations of Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Ellen DeGeneres, Judy Garland (as her character Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz parodies), and Renée Zellweger.

It was also announced that Aries Spears would be leaving the show very soon, so new African American players were added: Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. MADtv execs were keen on having Key be chosen in favor, but Peele created a multitude of hilarious characters (such as Funkenstein) and offbeat impersonations (including that of Ja Rule) that made both featured players be upgraded to repertory status the following season.

There was also more females added to the cast, which included Gillian Vigman, who was known for celebrity impersonations of many actresses, including Charlize Theron, Jennifer Aniston, Pamela Anderson, and more. Despite her frequent appearances in sketches, and Aries Spears' mention of how she and the other newcomers did well this season, Vigman, along with Melissa Paull, did not stay for the next season.

Season 9 also marked the show's 200th episode, and the timing couldn't have been timed better, as former cast members would make returns to the show. For the first time since his disappearance at the end of the second season, Orlando Jones made a grand appearance as Andre 3000 of Outkast, where he performed a parody of "Hey, Ya." Nicole Sullivan returned in a couple sketches, reprising characters such as The Vancome Lady, Judith from Literally, and Meg Ryan. Alex Borstein made her first appearance since season 7, and portrayed Miss Swan to a crowd of cheering audiences. Will Sasso also appeared and reprised famous impersonations of Kenny Rogers and Bill Clinton. Finally, Artie Lange (who is now a regular on The Howard Stern Show) recorded a monologue of his life after leaving the show, which would be cheered on by audiences.

The guests kept pouring in as well. Key surprises included: Former Original castmember Phil LaMarr, Jessica Alba (Honey) honed her comic chops as pop star Jessica Simpson, Tommy Davidson and Fred Willard reprised their roles on Real Mother****ing Talk, more boxers and WWE wrestlers (including Sugar Shane Mosley and Trish Stratus) made an appearances, pro skater Tony Hawk promoted his fictional restaurant, Jeff Probst hosted a celebrity edition of hit show Survivor, Cedric the Entertainer (Johnson Family Vacation) co-starred in a blaxploitation take on Frankenstein , Frankie Muniz (Agent Cody Banks 2) returned in a sketch with Stephnie Weir's Dr. Kylie Johnson, Groundlings alum Jennifer Coolidge made an appearance, and Tom Bergeron appeared twice in a parody of his show Hollywood Squares.

[edit] Opening montage

The title sequence starts off with the MADtv logo appears across the skyline of Los Angeles which takes up of the whole screen. The theme song, which is performed by the hip-hop group Heavy D & the Boyz, begins and an announcer announces "It's MADtv! With...", and then he introduces (alphabetically) the name of each repertory cast member, followed by the featured cast. As he does so, the screen dissolves into three live action clips (all of the same clip) of an individual cast member. Then the three screens multiple until it takes up the whole screen. Then all of the multiple clips flip over and displays another clip of the same cast member. As the multiple clips are reduced to one clip, a still color photo of the cast member is super imposed on the screen with his/her name appearing in caption over the photo. When the last cast member/guest is introduced, the music stops and the title sequence ends with the phrase "You are now watching MADtv..."

[edit] Cast

[edit] Repertory players

• Ike Barinholtz
• Frank Caliendo
• Mo Collins
• Bobby Lee
• Michael McDonald
• Josh Meyers
• Ron Pederson
• Aries Spears
• Paul Vogt
• Stephnie Weir

[edit] Featured players

• Daniele Gaither
• Keegan-Michael Key
• Nicole Parker
• Melissa Paull
• Jordan Peele
• Gillian Vigman

[edit] Episodes

The ninth season of MADtv aired from September 13, 2003 to May 22, 2004. There was a total of 25 episodes produced for that season. They were as follows:

[edit] Notes

• Season nine marked MADtv's 200th episode. To celebrate, they had guest appearances from MADtv alums, Artie Lange, Orlando Jones, Nicole Sullivan, Will Sasso and Alex Borstein. There was also a special guest appearance by Tommy Davidson.
• Original cast member Phil LaMarr also returned this season for MADtv episode #902 in the Real Mother****ing Talk sketch. LaMarr played the character Kalvin Mudflap Clarke.
• This was the last season to feature Josh Meyers as a member of the MADtv cast. FOX executives removed him from the show and instead gave him a contract to star in as MADtv Randy Pearson on That '70s Show, thus becoming the second MADtv alumnus to join that show's cast. The first MADtv alumnus to join the That '70s Show cast was Christina Moore.
• This was also the last season to feature Mo Collins, who had been a cast member for six seasons. Collins would actively pursue a movie career and appear in films like The 40 Year-Old Virgin with Steve Carell. Collins would also return to MADtv in guest appearances as Stuart's mother, Doreen, in later seasons.
• Out of the six featured players of season nine, all but two members, Melissa Paull and Gillian Vigman, were retained and promoted to repertory status for the following season.
• With Jordan Peele, Keegan-Michael Key, Daniele Gaither and Aries Spears on the show, this was the first time that MADtv had four African-American cast members on the show. Moreover, it was the first time since season five that there were at least three African-American cast members on the show.
• The reason for the high number of African-American players was explained as an effort to rebuild its black cast. Debra Wilson, who had been the only African-American woman cast member, had left after eight years. Thus, Daniele Gaither was groomed to be her replacement. It was anticipated that Aries Spears would eventually leave the show within the next few seasons, so Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele were hired as featured players and groomed to succeed Spears when he eventually left. However, originally, they were only going to select one out of the two. Most sources indicated that Key was the initial choice, and he was promoted to repertory status for the following season. However, Peele was able to create enough popular characters to justify a last minute promotion to repertory status.
• With a mere $10,000 being put into each episode, this season had the lowest budget in MADtv's history.

[edit] DVD releases

As of March 2007, there have been no video or DVD release of all of the MADtv episodes from Season Nine. However, several sketches from Season Nine was featured on the The Best of MADtv Seasons 8, 9 & 10 which was released on October 25, 2005. The Best of MADtv Seasons 8, 9 & 10 DVD sketch material includes celebrity impersonations, music video, commercial, movie, and TV show parodies, recurring characters, musical guests, and the occasional mock cartoons.

[edit] External links

• Planet MADtv
• The MADtv Forum
• MADtv - Official Website
• Crazy MADtv World
• MADtv at The Internet Movie Database
• MADtv at TV.com
• Jump The Shark - MADtv