The Weird Al Show

Synopsis

Each episode would start with a narrator introducing today's lesson to the viewers. Then, Al would be in a common situation in his mancave that he would address to the viewers. Afterwards, he would go watch TV of parody shows and commercials that are related to the day's show. Most of the time, Al's friend Bobby the Inquisitive Boy stops by and asks him a question. In turn, Al would play him an old-fashioned educational film to help answer his question. Sometimes, the show would also feature an animated cartoon called, "Fatman", which is about Weird Al as a fat superhero. At the end of the show, there would be a commercial parody being shown followed by a band performing a song. Sometimes, Al would review today's lesson before closing out the show.

CBS's reaction

Major creative conflicts occurred between CBS, which considered the show an educational children's series, and Yankovic, whose humor style was more adult-oriented. The show was canceled after one season, along with several other series in the CBS Saturday morning lineup.

CBS sent various notes to the writers of the show after reviewing the scripts, asking the writers to "Yankocize" (i.e. make funny) the commercial-break bumper announcements that the network wrote to reinforce each episode's lesson (or as Al put it, make them suck a little less), as well as remove any "imitable behavior" from the scripts that children might want to mimic after seeing on TV.

The writers were often surprised not at what the censors took out, but what they left in - for example, a sketch (written and submitted as a joke) in which Baby and Papa Boolie commit suicide after listening to one too many of Fred Huggins' songs was being seriously considered by the network for use on the show. (The sketch was later rewritten to have Papa Boolie call a mental hospital to take Fred away.) The unused script of the unedited Fred Huggins sequence is role-played in an audio commentary for an episode on the DVD.

Theme song

The theme song can be found on Yankovic's album Running with Scissors (1999) as "The Weird Al Show Theme".

It tells the story of how Al came to live in a cave and get a television show, including references to the fabricated life story in The Compleat Al, such as having worked in a nasal decongestant factory. Also referenced is playing on the company bowling team, which may be a reference to "Generic Blues".

Bite Me

After the end credits of each case, when the "Ear Booker Productions" logo flashes on the screen repeatedly, a 3-second version of the "Bite Me" track can be heard. "Bite Me" originally appeared a hidden track on "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1992 album Off the Deep End, only it was six seconds long. The track appeared after 10 minutes of the final track ("You Don't Love Me Anymore"). However, "Bite Me" wasn't included on the cassette version of the album (it was on the CD version only). The track was included as a parody of Nirvana's hidden track on the album Nevermind, but also to scare listeners into turning off the CD.

Cast

Gedde Watanabe's character, Kuni, also appeared in Yankovic's film, UHF. David Bowe, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, and Emo Philips also starred in the film.

Episodes

Episodes are listed in airing order, with the production code indicating the order they were intended to air in.

In the "Al Gets Robbed" episode, the Hooded Avenger walks over to Al delivering him his tabloid papers. The paper is called "Midnight Star", referring to the same-titled song about the tabloid off "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D. The main headline, "Incredible Frog Boy on the Loose", refers to a lyric in the song.

DVD release

Shout Factory, a company known for bringing cult series to DVD, released The Weird Al Show - The Complete Series on August 15, 2006. It is a 3-DVD set of all 13 episodes of The Weird Al Show, plus bonus features. The episodes are presented in broadcast order.

The Weird Al Show was released on DVD in Canada on September 26, 2006, alongside the U.S. release of his new album, Straight Outta Lynwood.

Before the DVD set release, a compilation of the short music video segments for "Lousy Haircut", "Lasagna", and "Livin' in the Fridge" (as well as the show opening) was released on "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection in 2003.

Special features