Norm MacDonald’s Television Endeavors, Ranked

Norm MacDonald turns 51 today, and over the past 20+ years he’s brought us tons of laughs on various TV shows and movies. Today, we’re looking at Norm’s ventures into the television world, and looking at where he did his best work, and which shows might be best forgotten — although, in Norm’s case, even at his worst, he’s still pretty hilarious.

6. A Minute With Stan Hooper (2003)

In this show, Norm played a big-city TV reporter who hosts a one-minute weekly segment called… well, you can probably figure that out. He focuses on stories from Small Town America, but fears he’s losing touch by doing the segment from New York. So, he moves back to his hometown with his wife (Penelope Ann Miller), and would have some quaint misadventure every week. Not one of Norm’s finest efforts, and sure enough, it was canceled after just six episodes. If you’re curious about this show, every episode is on YouTube, including a few that never aired on television. That’s the pilot above. Maybe you’ll enjoy it more than I did.

5. Back To Norm (2005)

If A Minute With Stan Hooper‘s six-episode run seemed short, consider the fate of Back To Norm, which aired just one episode before getting the axe from Comedy Central. the show’s opening sketch centered on a man who received severe burns after his wife set him on fire (although, he sorta deserved it). The gruesome image likely turned many people off the show right away. It’s a shame, because a sketch show centered around Norm might have had a lot of potential, but it was given the axe before it had any real time to grow.

4. The Norm Show –– also known as Norm (1999-2001)

The closest thing Norm ever had to a hit show — it ran for three seasons — was also his most conventional. He played a former hockey player who is forced to work as a social worker after a court order. Laurie Metcalf played the do-gooder counselor he naturally developed a crush on, and gradually, he became a better person as his attempts to impress her became more sincere. This show likely got a boost from airing after The Drew Carey Show in its first full season. When it moved to Fridays the following year, it struggled, and quickly got the axe. But hey, at least Norm MacDonald had one show that lasted for more than one season.

3. Sports Show With Norm MacDonald (2011)

Okay, now this show’s cancellation was a travesty. Norm finally got to bring back his ultra-dry news anchor routine that worked so well on Weekend Update, but this time for a show about sports. The show had amusing recurring bits like “What the H?” and “Wait…what?,” and looked like it could become a Comedy Central mainstay. Sadly, they had no faith, and the show would last only nine episodes. Out of all of MacDonald’s shows that lasted just one year (or one episode), this one had the most potential, and frankly, I’m still mad that Comedy Central didn’t give it more time.

2. His many, many hilarious talk show appearances.

Norm is one of the best talk show guests of all-time, mainly because he doesn’t follow the typical conventions of a talk show appearance at all. Rather than talking about whatever project he’s supposed to be promoting, he’ll go off on whatever tangent he feels like, whether it’s teasing poor Courtney Thorne-Smith about doing a movie with Carrot Top (in the clip above), or telling a really long joke about a dolphin, or ruining Conan’s local promos. If you’re tired of conventional late-night guests, having Norm show up is always a refreshing change of pace.

[protected-iframe id=”e36aa69fad9d5b58132b885fe5e400ae-60970621-66206423″ info=”https://screen.yahoo.com/weekend-norm-macdonald-000000227.html?format=embed” width=”650″ height=”400″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”]

1. Saturday Night Live (1993-98)

This was pretty much a foregone conclusion; Norm won over our hearts on SNL, both as the most sardonic Weekend Update anchor in history, and for his underrated sketch work, particularly his hilarious impressions of Bob Dole, Burt Reynolds, and Larry King. Norm was both a great Update anchor, and an underrated sketch actor. SNL introduced many of us to Norm MacDonald, and it remains the place where he’s done his most lasting work.

×