USA TODAY International Edition
Putting the ‘ mad’ back in ‘ MADtv’
CW’s new cast skewers politics, social media and all things PC with a familiar edge
Politics isn’t the only business that makes for strange bedfellows.
Comedy does, too, as Bill and Hillary Clinton and Donald and Melania Trump — or at least the comic actors who portray them — paired for a sketch during Friday’s first taping of CW’s new version of MADtv ( Tuesday, 9 ET/ PT).
The skit links the eight- episode prime- time revival with the original Fox late- night series, which ran from 1995 to 2009, as original cast members Will Sasso and Nicole Sullivan play the Clintons and newcomers Michelle Ortiz and Piotr Michael portray the Trumps.
“It’s not so much just the passing of the baton. It’s ( the casts) embracing each other,” says executive producer David Salzman, who also arranged a reunion special for CW in January.
The revival features other guest stars from the original series, including Bobby Lee ( though for now, not Keegan- Michael Key and Jordan Peele), but it mostly showcases the talents of a diverse young cast: Michael, Ortiz, Carlie Craig, Chelsea Davison, Jeremy D. Howard, Amir K, Lyric Lewis and Adam Ray.
“We’re very bold and irreverent. We take a very urban, multicultural point of view,” Salzman says. “I think this will be a little faster- paced. The range of pop culture targets for parody is much wider.”
The Clinton- Trump Newlywed Game parody was one of a halfdozen recorded during the taping in front of a studio audience. The evening also featured sketches satirizing Clinton’s rally with Sen. Elizabeth Warren ( Craig); an imaginary sing- off between Wicked’s Idina Menzel ( Ortiz) and Kristin Chenoweth ( Craig); and political correctness in the form of a college TV show about safe spaces.
Non- studio segments — in- cluding one demonstrating the confusing nature of Game of Thrones relationships — will be featured, too.
The Clinton- Warren skit, which had Sullivan’s Clinton introducing a hip- hop Warren, was a double thrill for Craig. “The fact that my first live sketch on the show was with Nicole Sullivan introducing me was monumental. I have admired her for so long,” she says.
Craig sees fertile ground in presidential politics, social media and gender equality.
“It’s an election year, so there’s a lot to address as far as the political landscape,” she says, adding that digital viewing will open up the show to a new generation.
Sullivan, who played one of her signature characters, right- wing country singer Darlene McBride, in a Carpool Karaoke takeoff, says the new cast is impressive.
“Will and I sat through the first table- read, and we kept glancing at each other with that ‘ Oh my God’ face. These people are good, the sketches were funny, they were well- delivered,” she says. The new version is “absolutely in keeping with what we were doing originally. I think what we did better than a lot of other shows have done is political incorrectness — not Trump’s version of it — about celebrities, politics, social media, pop culture in general, saying all the stuff no one else is willing to say.”
The lack of A- list guest stars gave the actors room to maneuver, she says.
“We didn’t have the cachet where possibly Justin Bieber might come on our show next week, so we can’t make fun of him,” she says. “That’s the freedom you get from being on MADtv.”
“Will ( Sasso) and I ... kept glancing at each other with that ‘ Oh my God’ face. These people are good, the sketches were funny, they were welldelivered.” MADtv original castmember Nicole Sullivan