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Aaarrrggghhh!
NewsRadio (one word) is simply one of the great all-time sitcoms. It’s one of those few shows in where every cast member is perfect, yet totally unlike one another. They used actors from a number of different comedy traditions - sketch players like Dave Foley from Kids in the Hall and Phil Hartman from SNL, a stand-up like Joe Rogan, and the sui generis Andy Dick. Dozens of other comedy names made appearances as guests. Vicki Lewis was so good that Kathy Griffin slavishly copied her part on Suddenly Susan. Stephen Root’s station owner is as magnificent a creation as Mr. Burns. Poor Khandi Alexander only had to talk sassy and look good because the writers never figured out her role, but she did both of those as fine as anyone could.
The show started out snarky and then got progressively surreal. (One season-ender had the show broadcast from space in the future.) When people today praise the quirkiness of the “one-camera” comedies like 30 Rock or Arrested Development, they forget that NewsRadio did it just as well, and in front of a studio audience.
It’s true that in real life Andy Dick is a real dick. (Oddly, my freshman roommate’s last name was Dick, and he was also a dick. Go figure.) But he was brilliant on the show, doing physical comedy in almost every episode that steals the scene from the great dialog.
I have to say a word about the dialog. There is a certain type of sitcom-y dialog that is clichéd and stilted and probably one of the reasons that sitcoms have been dying for a long time. NewsRadio never had that dialog. The standard set-up and punchline got twisted so that the punchlines were never predictable, but were funnier than anything you expected. That’s a big point for me, since as a writer I can often see things coming because no one bothered to put the extra work necessary into improving the lines.
All five seasons are available on DVD. The show starts getting truly weird in the third season, so if you want to sample it you might start there. Phil Hartman was murdered just after the show was picked up for the fifth season and his friend Jon Lovitz took his place. Not his fault, but the show never recovered its rhythm.
Hate Andy Dick all you want. Go ahead. Please. But give NewsRadio a try. It’s wonderful.
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Word. That show is absolutely fantastic, and would be one of the all-time greats if the folks at NBC had given it a chance.
I’ll point out one thing, though: The show never really relied on punchlines for its bread and butter. It set up whole gags, which is what made it so different from other sitcoms.
