Mad TV (season 13)
| Mad TV (season 13) | |
|---|---|
Cover for digital downloads
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| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 16 |
| Release | |
| Original network | Fox |
| Original release | September 15, 2007 – May 17, 2008 |
| Season chronology | |
The thirteenth season of Mad TV, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on the Fox Network between September 15, 2007, and May 17, 2008.
The 13th season of Mad TV saw more changes in show format and cast members. Repertory players Ike Barinholtz, Frank Caeti, and Nicole Randall Johnson and feature player Lisa Donovan were let go from the cast (Barinholtz left due to creative differences while Caeti, Johnson, and Donovan were fired). Johnny Sanchez joined the cast as a repertory player, while Dan Oster, Anjelah Johnson, and Daheli Hall were hired as feature players. John Crane and Bruce Leddy -- Mad TV's showrunners, head writers, and executive producers — directed most of the episodes.
In addition, Mad TV moved to a new studio (The Henry Fonda Music Box Theater) in order to give the show the feel of a live event. Because of competition from Saturday Night Live's Digital Shorts and FOX's massive budget cuts made to the show, many of Mad TV's sketches in season 13 were shot film-style, single-camera, and on location with little to no use of props or costumes.
Between November 24 and February 2, Mad TV became one of many scripted, current (at the time) television shows to be put on hiatus due to the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Even though the WGA strike did not end until February 12, 2008, three "new" episodes aired on February 2, February 9, and February 16. These "new" episodes were little more than pretaped sketches from canceled episodes and repeats of old sketches from seasons eight to ten (with no segments from the Music Box Theater). The show returned to its normal format on March 29, 2008.
This season was also the first of only two seasons to have "Best of..." clip shows a la Saturday Night Live, four of which aired prior to the show's official season premiere: Mad TV Ruined My Life (where Nicole Parker appears on a fictional episode of The Jerry Springer Show to defend the audience's claims that Mad TV's raunchy sketches have traumatized and disgusted them), Survivor: Mad TV (where Jeff Probst and Keegan-Michael Key host a collection of Mad TV's best TV and movie parodies), I Want My Mad TV (Perez Hilton and Bobby Lee's Johnny Gan character host a collection of Mad TV's best celebrity caricatures and swipes at pop culture), and Mad TV's Most Wanted (where Michael McDonald and Susan Sarandon host a collection of the show's best recurring sketches and characters).
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