The Weird Al Show
A live-action children's show with parody, music, and animation.
The Weird Al Show is an American television series hosted by "Weird Al" Yankovic, produced in association with Dick Clark Productions. It aired on Saturday mornings on CBS for one season in 1997, with reruns continuing into 1998. The show was released on DVD in 2006.
Quick Facts
- Runtime
- 23 minutes
- Creator
- "Weird Al" Yankovic
- Executive producers
- Dick Clark
- "Weird Al" Yankovic
- Jay Levey
- Starring
- Brian Haley
- Gary LeRoi Gray
- Judy Tenuta
- Paula Jai Parker
- Danielle Weeks
- Narrator
- Billy West
- Country
- United States
- Network
- CBS
- First aired
- 13 September 1997
Facts from the source article.
Synopsis
Each episode begins with a narrator introducing the day's lesson. Al addresses viewers from his cave dwelling, then watches a TV showing parody shows and commercials. Bobby the Inquisitive Boy often visits with a question, prompting Al to screen an old educational film with replaced dialogue. The show may include the animated "Fatman" cartoon and ends with a commercial parody and a band performance.
Development
Yankovic and his manager began pitching a children's show around 1984, but CBS did not express interest until the 1990s, when the network needed Saturday morning content to meet new FCC Educational/Informative programming rules. Yankovic considered this requirement "the deal we made with the devil" to get the show on air. Director Peyton Reed was brought in through his wife, who worked at a music video production company that had done Yankovic's videos. CBS hired Wayne White, production designer for Pee-wee's Playhouse, to construct the set. Casting combined previous collaborators like Judy Tenuta with new actors. Filming took place at NBC Studios in Burbank, in the same sound stage used by The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Yankovic sometimes asked Jay Leno's guests to appear, securing Drew Carey this way.
Music
The theme song appears on Yankovic's album Running with Scissors as "The Weird Al Show Theme". It recounts how Al came to live in a tree and get a show, referencing his fabricated life story from The Compleat Al, including work in a nasal decongestant factory and playing on the company bowling team. The theme's visuals use traditional animation, 3D computer animation, and claymation. The claymation was done by Mark Osborne and Scott Nordlund, who had worked on Yankovic's "Jurassic Park" video; DNA Productions handled the CGI, and Jireh Animation did the traditional animation. After the end credits, a three-second version of "Bite Me" plays, originally a hidden track on the 1992 album Off the Deep End.
Home media
The Weird Al Show: The Complete Series was released on August 15, 2006 by Shout Factory as a 3-DVD set of all 13 episodes in broadcast order, with bonus features. A Canadian DVD release followed on September 26, 2006. Earlier, a compilation of short music video segments and the show opening appeared on "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection in 2003. Bonus features include 13 commentaries, a featurette on "Fatman", a concept art gallery, animated storyboards, and karaoke for the theme song.
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