Country of origin United States Original network Fox | No. of episodes 22 | |
Original release September 17, 2005 (2005-09-17) – May 20, 2006 (2006-05-20) | ||
The eleventh season of Mad TV, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on the Fox Network between September 17, 2005, and May 20, 2006.
Contents
Summary
Spencer Kayden, Ron Pederson, Aries Spears, and Paul Vogt left at the end of season ten. Crista Flanagan, a featured player from season ten, was promoted to repertory status. One new repertory cast member, Arden Myrin, and two new featured cast members, Nicole Randall Johnson and Frank Caeti, were added to the cast. Stephnie Weir, who announced her departure at the end of season ten, agreed to film four new episodes' worth of material, which was spread throughout the first half of the season until Weir ended her 6-year run on Mad TV.
Season 11 showcased one of the youngest casts ever: except for Michael McDonald and Stephnie Weir, all cast members were born in the 1970s and joined Mad TV after the year 2000. The ethnic composition of the season 11 cast was also the most diverse in the show's history, with one Asian male, one Jewish male, three white males, two African-American males, two African-American females (the only season to do so), and four white females.
New sketches in season 11 included send-ups of Fox NFL Sunday, featuring Arden Myrin, Jordan Peele, Frank Caliendo, Frank Caeti, and Ike Barinholtz, and Ike and Bobby "On the Town" sketches, which were often shot on location. Nicole Parker introduced her first recurring character, The Disney Girl, a perky, happy young woman who tries to spread joy in city slums. The Disney Girl is also carefree yet naive and expresses her feelings by singing. (Parker won a Creative Arts Emmy for best lyrics in the Disney Girl sketch "Wonderfully Normal Day"). Daniele Gaither appeared as mumbling sociopath Yvonne Criddle and Crista Flanagan played Wendy Walker, a cooking show host who gets stressed out preparing meals. Myrin impersonated Hollywood's D-list celebrities such as Jillian Barberie in Fox NFL Sunday sketches; she also played nerdy craftsworkers Krista and Alana from Holly Meadow Estates. Johnson played characters like The Vancome Ladylike Ka-Son and impersonated celebrities like Star Jones, Queen Latifah, and Chris Rock. Frank Caeti impersonated Nick DiPaolo and former Dallas Cowboys coach-turned-Fox NFL Sunday-announcer Jimmy Johnson.
A variety of special guests this season were from sitcoms (Jeff Garlin, Alyson Hannigan, Neil Patrick Harris, Jaime Pressly, Michael Rapaport), wrestling organizations (John Cena), and past seasons of Mad TV (Jeff Probst, Pauly Shore, Fred Willard). Pamela Anderson, a celebrity lampooned by past cast members Mo Collins and Arden Myrin (and who hosted a season 22 episode of Mad TV's rival show, Saturday Night Live), made her first appearance on the sketch show's 250th episode.
Opening montage
The title sequence opens with the Mad TV logo appearing against the skyline of Los Angeles. The theme song, performed by the hip-hop group Heavy D & the Boyz, begins and an announcer introduces each repertory cast member alphabetically, followed by the featured cast. The screen dissolves into three live-action clips of an individual cast member, then the three screens multiply until they fill the entire 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 superimposed 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 Mad TV."