The Maya Rudolph Show aired last night. It’s been a dream of the former SNL cast member to resurrect the variety show format for years, and she had hoped that if it were successful, ‘The Maya Rudolph Show’ could come back every few weeks or months. The ratings aren’t in yet, but I suspect that it’s not going to be a huge hit for NBC. It’s not necessarily Rudolph’s fault. There’s a reason why the variety-show format is dead; it’s just not that appealing. We already have Saturday Night Live, and we don’t really need a broader version with more musical numbers and a rotating cast of TV stars.
That’s not to say it wasn’t likable. The featured stars along with Rudolph were Andy Samberg (coming straight off his SNL hosting gig), Kristen Bell, Sean Hayes, and Fred Armisen (I also saw Chris Parnell). There was a cute Frozen sequel musical number, and the opening was, uh, very long and very song-and-dancy. It was all very well-intentioned, and I’m sure there are a lot of grandparents that really dug it. But I don’t think it’s going to be an NBC hit anytime soon.
I did, however, like ‘The Garmyns,’ a cute little sketch in which a daughter (Kristen Bell) brings her boyfriend (Andy Samberg) home to introduce him to her parents, who it turns out are the voices behind GPS systems. Like most SNL sketches, the premise is exhausted about a minute befor the sketch’s end, but the directions to the bathroom were pretty amusing.
