| TV Funhouse | |
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The TV Funhouse Panel at Comic-Con in 2008. L to R: Robert Smigel, Dino Stamatopoulos, Bob Odenkirk and Tommy Blacha with Doug Dale on laptop screen |
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| Also known as | Saturday TV Funhouse |
| Format | Animated television series Sketch comedy |
| Created by | Robert Smigel Dana Carvey |
| Starring | Doug Dale Robert Smigel Jon Glaser Dino Stamatopoulos David Juskow Tommy Blacha Frank Simms |
| Theme music composer | Steven Gold |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Robert Smigel Dino Stamatopoulos Lou Wallach |
| Producer(s) | Samantha Scharff Tanya Ryno, for SNL |
| Running time | 30 Minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Comedy Central |
| Picture format | NTSC 480i |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original run | December 6, 2000 – January 24, 2001 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Saturday Night Live |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Saturday TV Funhouse is the title of a recurring skit on NBC's Saturday Night Live featuring cartoons created by longtime SNL writer Robert Smigel as well as a short-lived spinoff series TV Funhouse that ran on Comedy Central. TV Funhouse frequently satirizes public figures and corporations.
In between the host segments, it would show either parodies of 1950s educational films or cartoons most frequently drawn in the flat, low-budget style of Saturday morning Hanna-Barbera/Filmation cartoons of the 1970s and 1980s. Another frequent target is the classic 1960s "Animagic" stop motion animated holiday specials of Rankin/Bass.
The animation was originally produced by J. J. Sedelmaier Prod. for three seasons until WM Animation took over primary animation production duties in the 1999–2000 season. When featured on Saturday Night Live, the opening features an SNL bumper (featuring the host of that week's show) being torn by a small, white dog, revealing the TV Funhouse screen underneath. A caricature of Lorne Michaels appears, sees the dog, and yells, "Come back here with my show!" before going after the dog. The closing features Lorne Michaels still grappling with the dog over the torn piece of the bumper.
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The February 10, 2001 episode, Ray of Light, parodies the controversy over Ray Lewis's involvement in an Atlanta homicide. Although Lewis went on to become the Super Bowl XXXV MVP, he was unable to utter the famous line, "I'm going to Disney World!" The skit was involved with Disney "making it up" to Lewis by placing him in various Disney animated movies. Lewis would often be shown fleeing the scene of classic Disney character death scenes.
Bambi 2002, another poke at Disney, imagines a sequel to the original movie where Bambi's mother turns up alive. The title character fights stylized terrorist types and performs a rap music number in the forest. Also in the sketch are moments involving some of Disney's darker issues as well as pornographic humor.
On April 15, 2006, Smigel again parodied Disney's practice of supposedly "vaulting" their films, as well as their alleged past racism and anti-Semitism. This segment briefly circulated on YouTube until April 17, 2006, when all were removed due to copyright claims.
On April 29, 2006, NBC aired a full-length, 90-minute SNL "best of" special for TV Funhouse. The special was hosted by The Ambiguously Gay Duo, Ace and Gary, with a cameo from Jimmy Fallon.[1]
The special was released on DVD October 24, 2006.
The spinoff series was somewhat of a twisted Pee-Wee's Playhouse-style kiddie show, hosted by Doug Dale and his "Anipals" puppet animal friends. Every episode had a different theme to it (e.g., "Hawaiian Day" or "Astronaut Day") and saw the Anipals usually getting into some sort of trouble, not wanting to do whatever their happy-go-lucky host had in mind for the day. The Comedy Central version of TV Funhouse premiered in December 2000 and was not picked up for a second season. Interviews with Smigel indicate that Comedy Central believed in the show but was disappointed in how it went over budget every episode. Smigel has also expressed how difficult the show was and how tedious the puppet-live animal segments were to shoot. The show was released on DVD July 22, 2008 under the title, Comedy Central's TV Funhouse.