Mr. Show with Bob and David

Format

Each episode of Mr. Show consists of a series of sketches, at times surreal, each one transitioning to the next by a link in a manner reminiscent of Monty Python's Flying Circus or the State. For example, a minor character in one sketch might return as the major character in the next. Often, common themes or story lines are returned to at different times throughout an episode. As a premium cable show, its audience was limited. DVD editions, however, have opened the show to a broad new audience.

Every episode begins with an individual introducing the hosts. This role was filled by Mary Lynn Rajskub in the first two seasons. After her departure for personal reasons, the introduction was made by a random character from that week's episode.

Episode titles were mostly quotes from the episode. For example, "Bush Is a Pussy" is written on a T-shirt worn by one of the characters. One of the exceptions is "Eat Rotten Fruit from a Shitty Tree", which is a line in a song within the episode that was eventually performed as an instrumental.

Certain lines of dialogue are often repeated by different characters during the course of a single show (e.g., "I was on the eighteenth hole!" in "The Biggest Failure in Broadway History" and "Who let you in?" in the episode of the same name).

At the end of each episode's credits, a random celebrity is listed in the "Special Thanks" section. Examples include: Rick Dees (in the first episode) and Greg Maddux (in the third episode).

Themes

The show contains a strong, confident contrarian viewpoint, little respect for traditionalism and at times satirizes organized religion and global capitalism. Vanity Fair noted that the series had mocked "satanism, teenage suicide, cock rings, hermaphrodites, after-school specials about mentally challenged parents, and the Ku Klux Klan."

Many of the show's sketches were constructed with a strong critique of modern television in mind, whether it be local news, sitcoms, commercials, infomercials, reality shows, or music videos.

Contributors

Mr. Show's main cast for the entire run consisted of David Cross, John Ennis, Tom Kenny, Bob Odenkirk, and Jill Talley. Cross, Ennis, and Odenkirk appeared in each season. Kenny left the show after the third season, returning for one episode of season four. Talley appeared in all episodes except for four towards the end of the third season, which she missed due to pregnancy. Jay Johnston, a featured performer throughout the series, was credited as a member of the main cast for the final episode of the show.

Main cast

Contributing writers

Reception

Mr. Show with Bob and David was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program at the 50th Primetime Emmy Awards, losing to Dennis Miller Live, and also received a nomination for the song "How High The Mountain" in the category of Outstanding Music and Lyrics. The following year it was renominated for Outstanding Writing, losing this time to The Chris Rock Show, and also received a Creative Arts Emmy Award nomination for lighting director Simon Miles.

At the 9th Golden Satellite Awards in 2004, the show's third season DVD set was nominated for "Best DVD Release of TV Shows."

In 2010, prompted by the announcement of IFC's plans to re-air Mr. Show, it was included in a short list of "TV's greatest cult comedy series" by The A.V. Club.

Run Ronnie Run

Mr. Show also spawned a spin-off movie, Run Ronnie Run, which was shown at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, but went straight-to-DVD. In an April 2004 article in Chunklet magazine, Odenkirk noted numerous problems they had had with the film, blaming the film's director, Troy Miller, who "chose to freeze us out, hold us at arm's length and not let us influence the movie nearly on the scale that we should have."

Mr. Show Live: Hooray for America!

In September 2002, original cast members Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, John Ennis, Brian Posehn and Stephanie Courtney toured in a show called Mr. Show: Hooray for America!!!. The two-month stint included "distillations" of some of Mr. Show's sketches, such as "The Burgundy Loaf", and new material. In the stage show, the large fictitious mega-corporation Globo-Chem ("We own everything, so you don't have to!") sponsors David's stage persona to run for the presidency of the United States. The tour included 16 large cities and college towns in North America: San Diego, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Madison, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Eugene, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver.

Hollywood Said No!: Orphaned Film Scripts, Bastard Scenes, and Abandoned Darlings from the Creators of Mr. Show

In September 2013, Grand Central Publishing released a Hollywood Said No!, a book of rejected scripts and unused Mr. Show sketches. The audiobook version included full cast readings by former Mr. Show performers and writers. One of the rejected scripts is the original version of Hooray for America!, which had earlier been adapted as part of the Mr. Show Live tour.

Legacy

While the show was never viewed by a mass audience due to its premium cable broadcast, it remains a highly influential piece of American sketch comedy. Many involved with the show have gone on to become staples of the American comedy landscape.

The Sarah Silverman Program was written by and stars Sarah Silverman, and features Jay Johnston and Brian Posehn. Arrested Development features David Cross as regular character Tobias Fünke; the series also had guest spots filled by Mr. Show alumni, such as Bob Odenkirk as a marriage counselor, Jerry Minor and Jay Johnston as gay cops, and John Ennis as a mall security guard. Jack Black had supporting roles in Mr. Show. Cross and Odenkirk would go on to work with Black on producing a show for HBO for the comedy band Tenacious D which would also feature Mr. Show alumnus Paul F. Tompkins.

In January 2011, IFC began airing 90-minute blocks of Mr. Show, The Ben Stiller Show, Action and The Larry Sanders Show three times per week. The programming block was often hosted by Mr. Show writer and actor Scott Aukerman, who also conducted new interviews with the shows' contributors and younger comedians who have been influenced by the shows. The song Adam's Song by American alternative rock band Blink-182 got its name as a tribute/reference to a sketch from the show about a band that writes a song by the same name with similar lyrical content. This was confirmed by Cross in an interview, who said "They were fans of the show and that was a knowing tribute that I thought was pretty cool."

David's Situation

Odenkirk and Cross reunited in 2008 to create the HBO pilot David's Situation, which was shot but never aired or picked up. The network gave the pair $400,000 to shoot a pilot (which was shot on the Everybody Loves Raymond soundstage), which appeared to go well during the taping; however, while Cross and Odenkirk were editing the episode, they felt it failed to "capture that same energy on screen." In an interview with Vanity Fair, Cross said, "We told them that we didn't want to do this show, we'd rather do Mr. Show 2.0. And they were like, 'Yeah, O.K., that's great, but the thing is, we don't have any more money for this year. But we'll figure out something next year.' And we never heard from them again."

Comedians and shows inspired by Mr. Show

Comedy duo Tim & Eric have said their program Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! was highly inspired by Mr. Show. Odenkirk served as the producer on Awesome Show as well as Tom Goes to the Mayor and The Birthday Boys.

Other sketch comedy shows whose creators have cited Mr. Show as an influence include Portlandia, Key & Peele, Kroll Show, Inside Amy Schumer and Human Giant.

Episodes

The four episodes of the first season premiered in November 1995. The second season aired a year later, for six episodes, which continued into December. The third season included 10 episodes, spread out from September to December 1997. The ten final season episodes aired from October to December 1998.

Revival

In April 2015, Netflix acquired Mr. Show and put in an order for four half-hour episodes and one hour-long "making-of" special. The announcement was a followup to a Twitter post from Paul F. Tompkins teasing about "something new coming from the Mr. Show gang in the new year." W/ Bob & David premiered on November 13, 2015.

Characters

Odenkirk and Cross mostly avoided using recurring characters a la Saturday Night Live, but some characters made repeat appearances: