Back in the wild days of the mid-’90s, there was an effort by FOX to compete with NBC’s sketch comedy giant Saturday Night Live with some form of similar show. They still attempt it today with ADHD Animation, but the competition there seems to be with things like the internet and Adult Swim as opposed to SNL. But back in the ’90s we had Mad TV. We had competition.
The show spawned quite a few memorable characters and featured a fair share of famous faces like Will Sasso, Artie Lang, Key & Peele, and several others. It was a good time to enjoy sketch comedy on TV and it gave Fox a proper follow-up to In Living Color. Mad TV ran until 2009 and next year, the cast will get back together for a 20th-anniversary reunion special on The CW. According to Deadline, the special will air on Jan. 12 and will feature a selection of classic clips from the show’s 14 seasons and will also bring back 19 members of the cast from across the years for some new material:
According to the network, here’s the list of returning cast members: Ike Barinholtz, Alex Borstein, Mo Collins, Crista Flanagan, Anjelah Johnson, Nicole Randall Johnson, Keegan-Michael Key, Phil LaMarr, Artie Lange, Bobby Lee, Michael McDonald, Arden Myrin, Nicole Parker, Eric Price, Will Sasso, Aries Spears, Nicole Sullivan, Stephnie Weir and Debra Wilson.
This is going to be some great news for fans of the show, especially since many of the castmembers have gone on to appear in more high profile series since leaving. There’s also so much to dig through across all of those seasons and so many changes in tone and direction. At first it attempted to fully be a Mad Magazine clone, switching gears in later seasons to be a general sketch show. Having a reunion will be a fun way to relive it, not to mention that CW Seed will stream 75 of the “the maddest and funniest episodes” online for folks to watch starting on Jan. 5. And if you can’t get it there, YouTube features plenty of great options:
