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Written by Michael Oppenheimer
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Monday, 27 November 2006 |
Who is Spike Feresten? No household name I can tell you that much. However, if you asked anyone whom the Soup Nazi was and they didn't come up with an answer you would slap them in the head, call them a retard and say the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld was the greatest achievement in television history. So who is Spike Feresten, a former writer for Seinfeld and more specifically the writer and creator of the Soup Nazi. Why do you care? Because late night TV is shit, and Spike is out to change it.
I was wholly disappointed by any and all new sitcoms, dramas or British gimmicks that came out this fall on the networks. That is until on a Saturday night my remote happened to turn to Fox where I was introduced to "Talk Show with Spike Feresten". I had no clue what this show was and I never heard of it, but I'm not one to watch Saturday night television. SNL is at a low point in its life, and I don't even understand why Mad TV is even still on the air. The flashy images and bright colors held my attention long enough to let me decide I'll watch this show. After the first couple minutes I realized this was in fact a new show this season.
As a talk show Spike is allied more with John Stewart and Steven Colbert, then Conan O'Brian or Jay Leno. His show is half hour long and on once a week. It's a blend of sketch comedy and late night talk. Yet there's no opening monologue, no band, no tired old jokes retold every night. From the start I knew this was something special.
The show began and I was hooked. The guest for the night was Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe from 24, yes the bitch everyone wish was killed off...but every other character who was badass was killed off instead). After I saw that I thought I was in for lame ass interview (Honestly, who cares about Chloe, I don't even think she has done anything worthy of a talk a show spot) but to my surprise this interview was the turning point from another late night show to something genuine and new. She didn't talk about lame stories only celebrities find funny, and she didn't promote any movie or 24. The interview went as such: Chloe drank half a bottle of cough syrup and then proceeded to operate heavy machinery found on set. Other episodes I have seen each do something differently with the guests nothing is the same, yet it's so much more then anything seen on Jay Leno.
After the guest, the show ends with the last sketch "Comedy for Stoners", a little 15 second clip that is completely random yet the best 15 seconds on the show (And no, you don't have to be high to enjoy it). When one of the last lines of the show is "John Wilkes Booth bogarted my life span", said by a psychedelic Abraham Lincoln you know this is a show worth watching. Not every sketch is gold, and not every moment had me laughing hysterically. But the comedy that hits is pure Da Vinci genius. For a show just starting out finding its feet there is a lot of room for this puppy. When Conan just stared, when the Daily Show just started, they were not nearly as funny as the first episodes of Spike have been. It took those shows years before they found their comedy.
The show is on once a week for only a half hour as I mentioned before. This is smart move. The show isn't trying to be big and isn't over extending it self. If the show were an hour long or on multiple days of the week there would be a much greater risk of losing quality (Honestly, a psychedelic Abe Lincoln is only funny for so long it would not survive for an hour), this show is all about quality over quantity. Which I believe will lead to a growing fan base to allow it to mature into an hour show, then to something more then weekly. This brings me to my final point about the show and why you should watch it. It has so much promise and potential. There have only been less then a hand full of episodes so far, if it makes it to next year Spike Feresten will be a household name, and he'll be hosting the Emmys before you know it.
So here's my recommendation; if you are looking for something fresh, raw, genius, and hilarious find Spike on Saturday night and give him a shot. Late night TV is shit and you know it, time for a change.
- Michael, keeping you ahead of the curve and out of the shit.
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