# Frank TV
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 21, 2007, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321 "2007-11-21T14:11:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/1 "2007-11-21T14:11:18Z")
Anyone else watch this last night? I figured I’d give it a shot after all the ads that they played during the baseball playoffs. It’s pretty much what I thought it would be, but I liked it. I think that Caliendo comes off as personable as the host of his own show and the sketches were decent. It’s pretty hard to showcase a talent like that in a show that has nothing else to really offer but I laughed a few times. The Seinfeld sketch was well done and his Charles Barkley is dead on.
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### Author:  [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/2 "2007-11-21T15:24:06Z")
It’s a lot of fun to watch Frank do his thing, and some of his impersonations are amazingly good. I just wish they had come up with a better format – something with more variety. It seemed like they were already running out of ideas in one thirty minute episode.
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### Author:  [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/3 "2007-11-21T15:43:25Z")
I haven’t seen the episode yet (I TiFauxed it) but I heard him on Mike & Mike yesterday and his impressions were great - Adam Sandler, Barkley, and of course Madden. He had M&M in stitches.
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### Author:  [@Boggette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boggette)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/4 "2007-11-21T17:36:59Z")
Got it on the DVR for later tonight… The previews looked good! His Madden was spot on.
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### Author:  [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/5 "2007-11-21T17:50:55Z")
I had hopes, but I saw the opening, which was not funny. Look, a bear! Cue Robin Williams. While the impersonation was good, it was not funny. :o
I gave it another shot with the Seinfeld skit. While the impersonations were good, it was not funny.
Then, he said he was going to do Madden. I love his Madden. I watched his Madden. While the impersonation was good, it was not funny.
I was thinking Frank would want to put his best material first to draw people in. Having concluded his first and thus best material was not funny, I changed the channel. Hopefully, he just needs time to settle in.
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### Author:  [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2007, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/6 "2007-11-21T21:36:30Z")
[QUOTE=Bearflag70]
I had hopes, but I saw the opening, which was not funny. Look, a bear! Cue Robin Williams. While the impersonation was good, it was not funny. :o
I gave it another shot with the Seinfeld skit. While the impersonations were good, it was not funny.
Then, he said he was going to do Madden. I love his Madden. I watched his Madden. While the impersonation was good, it was not funny.
I was thinking Frank would want to put his best material first to draw people in. Having concluded his first and thus best material was not funny, I changed the channel. Hopefully, he just needs time to settle in.
[/QUOTE]
I thought the Barkley was funny. But I hope he’s not writing all the sketches himself. If he is, he needs to get some professional humor writers to help him. There’s no shame in that; Groucho Marx didn’t write his best material.
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### Author:  [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2007, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/7 "2007-11-22T05:41:33Z")
He’s been on the local morning radio show for years. His best impression, IMHO, is Jeff Goldblume.
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### Author:  [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2007, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/8 "2007-11-22T09:05:51Z")
I agree with / had the same experience as Bearflag 100%.
[QUOTE=WF Tomba]
I thought the Barkley was funny. But I hope he’s not writing all the sketches himself. If he is, he needs to get some professional humor writers to help him. There’s no shame in that; Groucho Marx didn’t write his best material.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I’m thinking now is not the best time to try and hire a writer. Maybe he is writing all his own material because of the strike.
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### Author:  [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2007, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/9 "2007-11-22T14:11:10Z")
I don’t think so, at least the writing credits shown didn’t make it look that way, and if you’re writing the whole show by yourself because everyone else is on strike then why put their names on it?
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### Author:  [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2007, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/10 "2007-11-22T16:34:52Z")
My favorite part of his Madden impression is that the real John Madden hates it, which is great. he also did Bill Walton on Mike & Mike which was spot-on and hilarious.
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### Author:  [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/11 "2007-11-22T16:48:51Z")
I think Frank is QUITE talented in impersonations but I don’t think he’s funny at all. Too bad too. It’s hard to say that too. I so want to like him. Like I said, he is VERY talented and those impersonations are some of the best that I’ve seen in a long time but it was overall not funny.
Like **The Surb** says, “Good movies (same for TV) don’t need a lot of ads. Bad ones do. What they lack in quality, they make up for in advertising.”
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2007, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/12 "2007-11-22T17:11:50Z")
I was surprised at how good it was. The dueling trailer announcers sketch was funny, the Cheney gives advice sketch worked, which is amazing, and most of the random lines were also good. The Seinfeld sketch was meh, but I never liked Seinfeld much to begin with. Overall, the sketches were a zillion times better than any random episode of SNL.
I’m going to keep watching it. I suppose it may have helped that I never watch TBS so I didn’t catch the millions of ads everybody complains about and didn’t burn out on him before the program.
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### Author:  [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/13 "2007-11-22T17:45:47Z")
I just rewatched it (never hurts) and while I do think that it was funny, I don’t know how many variations on the good voices he does are possible without getting stale and repetitive. Maybe he’d be helped out with some other cast members, but then it would just be a repeat of when he was on Mad TV.
I don’t know, maybe his talents aren’t enough to stand on their own on TV. I think that what’s his name, Michael McDonald from Mad TV is pretty funny sometimes too, but I couldn’t take a whole show of him.
I’ve heard him on the radio lots of times (besides the Mike and Mike the other day he does “Sunday Night John” on the Mac Jurko and Harry local ESPN afternoon show here pretty frequently as he has been a working stand up and comes to Chicago on a regular basis.) so maybe radio is a better medium for him to work in.
He also refuses to be mean about the people he’s doing, more just silly and dead on and I don’t know if mild comedy works anymore. If he was that voice with maybe Sarah Silverman’s caustic nature it might be a bigger success.
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### Author:  [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/14 "2007-12-05T19:02:10Z")
I’ve seen 3 episodes now and none of them are funny.
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### Author:  [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2007, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frank-tv/427321/15 "2007-12-06T05:51:06Z")
I recorded it after constantly seeing the ads during The Office reruns. I like impressionists with pitch-perfect technique and definitely has that.
But my god, the show was awful. I deleted it after just a couple minutes. Its got a _laugh track_ for god’s sake!