Viva Variety

Members of MTV's comedy series The State return to television on Comedy Centrals Viva Variety. On paper, the idea looked pretty good. A Variety Show from the 1970's for the 90's. Music, showgirl dancers, comedy sketches, and celebrity guests. The only problem, Viva Variety has hardly any of that! Only lasting a handful of episodes, the show only had 1 or 2 recognized celebrity guests and the comedy was only funny 1/4 of the time. With no original music of any Las Vega style dance numbers, the only thing that held up the show was the sketch comedy, which too, could not hold up on its own. The Premise of a Spoof style show had spoof sketches. So the idea of a spoof of a spoof was beyond most of the members of the audience that Comedy Central has. In the end, the idea was original and members of the show were talented, but nothing progressed. The show was a failure by the first episode back in the summer of 1996. From here, the creative team behind the show went on to create Reno 911.....here we go again!

This was one of my fave shows of all time. It was hilarious and great parody! She was so sexy and he was such a great parody TV host. The variety acts and music and dancing were always so entertaining and the show always made my sister and I laugh our guts out. I can't believe people barely remember this show now, so sad.

Viva Variety was a unique hybrid program that was both a parody of and a tribute to the programs it represented.

It was most directly a mock up of the classic 1970s favorite, "The Sonny & Cher Show," With Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney playing a divorced show biz couple who were somehow forced to host this program together, the female of the pair towering over the male, and the constant barrage of "insult humor" the couple tossed at each other, plus sketch comedy bits and performances from what are most kindly described as "specialty" acts!

The "hybrid" was the mix of fact and fantasy. Of course, there was no "Mr. and Former Mrs. Laupin," and the program's announcer, Johnny Bluejeans, was likewise equally fictional. But all the acts that performed were certainly real, and some were even entertaining! But there were also some acts that would have clearly been better suited for the old Chuck Barris "Gong Show."

The show itself was really more like an extended sketch from "SCTV" (it was borne from the MTV series, "The State," after all), and some would suggest that it would have been better as a five minute bit in the mix of a program like that one, rather than a stand alone series. But "Viva Variety" certainly should get high marks for original concepts, and even though it was often more odd than funny, it was certainly worthwhile, especially when they road tripped to Las Vegas and brought in even glitzier acts to perform. It's unlikely we'll ever see anything like this on television again.

Thomas Lennon, Kerri Kenney and Michael Ian Black of the comedy group "The State" did a real variety show that was both homage to and parody of this near-forgotten (in the U.S., anyway) type of TV show. They had name celebrities mixed in with weird novelty acts of the type you can only find at Circus Circus in Las Vegas. They never made fun of the acts, but created characters at whom they could jab. It was too original and weird to survive, alas. I hope they all put together another original creation this good!

I came across a film clip from this show at a web site that specializes in strange media. The mustachioed host introduced a pair of pianists who walked on stage, stood behind a piano, dropped their pants, raised their arms over their heads, and played a medley of songs with their units. It was goofy and silly, and vaguely familiar.

I recognized the host, but couldn't recall much of anything else. Some creative searching at Google helped me nail the title of the show, and when I looked up "Viva Variety" on IMDb, it all came flooding back to me. How could I have forgotten Johnny Bluejeans and the Laupins? Shame on me!

This show was funny and original. It's too bad that the variety format seems dead in America. I would have liked to see more of it. If you happen to catch any of these episodes in the great cable wasteland, it's a refreshing change of pace from the banality of current offerings on TV.