The Newz

For the album by Nazareth, see The Newz (album).

The Newz
Genre	Sketch comedy Parody
Starring	Tommy Blaze Mystro Clark Deborah Magdalena Dan O'Connor Stan Quash Brad Sherwood Nancy Sullivan Shawn Alex Thompson Lou Thornton
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
Production
Executive producer(s)	Michael Wilson
Producer(s)	Jon Ezrine
Broadcast
Original run	October 1994 – March 1995

The Newz was a half-hour syndicated sketch comedy television series that aired in 1994 and 1995.^[1] It starred Tommy Blaze, Mystro Clark, Deborah Magdalena, Dan O'Connor, Stan Quash, Brad Sherwood, Nancy Sullivan, Shawn Alex Thompson, and Lou Thornton. In addition to the main cast, regular guest stars included Melissa Savage, Mark Fenlon, Justin Cambridge, and Tim Watters as Bill Clinton. The series was aired from Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.^[2]

The show was notable for being nightly, rather than weekly as are most sketch comedies; the show would air five nights a week, plus a repeat episode on Saturdays.

Recurring segments included:

Tommy Blaze and the Newz, in which Blaze would deliver what was basically a monologue on recent news events. In this piece, Tommy would be seated in a chair modeled after Captain Kirk's command chair from the original Enterprise. Behind him was a wall of televisions. Tagline, "I'm not finished yet!"
Ask Abby and Andy, a relationship advice segment in which Abby (Sullivan) would give caring, insightful advice in response to the mailed-in problems, after which Andy (Blaze) would give his outrageous (and usually sexist) point of view on the subject.
Short humorous films by Thompson.
Quash as someone who was extremely disgruntled because of his job; e.g., as "Elf Boy" who hated working for Santa Claus, or as "Caddy Boy" who was sick and tired of putting up with bad golfers.
Malcolm X in various situations where he would deliver some of his famed speeches. The title of the sketch was always a play on his name (and self-titled biography), for example "Malcolm FedEx", after the company.

According to Blaze, the show was canceled after "the Executive Producer - not Michael Wilson - had misplaced about 1.5 million dollars."^[3]

References

^ Everett, Todd. (1994-09-15). "The Newz". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117903133.html?categoryid=32&cs=1. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
^ The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present. Ballantine Books. 2003. pp. 854. ISBN 0-345-45542-8.
^ Blaze, Tommy. Tommy Blaze FAQ. Accessed 2007-05-26.

External links

The Newz at the Internet Movie Database