The Edge (TV series)

Did You Know?

• It was developed for NBC after the failure of the pilot The Julie Show, but NBC passed and Fox picked it up.
• Music was provided by Steve Hampton, Stephen Graziano, B.C. Smith, and Christopher Tyng among others.

Synopsis

The sketch comedy series The Edge was led by comedian Julie Brown, with a main ensemble that included Jennifer Aniston, Tom Kenny, Wayne Knight, Carol Rosenthal, James Stephens III, and Jill Talley. Recurring performers were Rick Overton, Paul Feig, and Alan Ruck. Its sketches featured original characters like a gun-toting All-American family and a cowboy named Cracklin' Crotch, and often mocked pop culture. One episode parodied TV sweeps by advertising ratings stunts such as a birth, a wedding, and a death. Like other sketch shows of the era, each episode had at least one flagship sketch broken into segments shown throughout the episode. For instance, one episode split up interviews with the four swimsuit models of Illustrated Sports across different points in the show. Another episode parodied Rescue 911 by presenting the fictional origin of the 911 emergency number in segments. A recurring gag killed off the entire cast before the first sketch in each episode, via a bus, a collapsing set, explosions, decapitations, immolation, hangings, arrow impalement, or a vortex. Bill Plympton cartoons were used as bumpers between sketches. The Illustrated Sports parody featured guest appearances by Kim Walker and Shari Shattuck.

Controversy

Producer Aaron Spelling threatened to sue the show over its lampoons of his TV show Beverly Hills 90210. He objected to its "completely tasteless" humor, which included an impersonation of his daughter Tori Spelling exclaiming "I can do that because it's Daddy's show." TriStar Television refused to apologize. Mirkin responded that such parodies do not hurt a show and are only cross-promotion, adding that Spelling's reaction showed he had no sense of humor. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mirkin was "forced off the show" due to this negative reaction, but in 2012 Mirkin stated he left after refusing a substantially reduced budget. Sony failed to persuade him to stay, though he returned to produce the final "Best Of" compilation.