''The O Show'', also known as ''steve.oedekerk.com'', is a 1997

surreal comedy Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causality, causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviours that are obviously illogical. Portrayal ...

variety TV special put together for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

O Entertainment Steven Brent Oedekerk (born November 27, 1961) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, director, editor, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his collaborations with actor and comedian Jim Carrey and director Tom Shadyac (particular ...

founder

Steve Oedekerk Steven Brent Oedekerk (born November 27, 1961) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, director, editor, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his collaborations with actor and comedian Jim Carrey and director Tom Shadyac (particular ...

. This was the first prime time network special to feature and extensive use of graphical sets and computer animation. The show features segments such as 'Glass Booth Guy', in which passersby are harassed by a man in an unbreakable glass booth at a gas station; 'Plane Stalker', in which a man finds himself being followed by a full-size airliner (in similar fashion as

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...

's "The Killer Cars"), 'Fat Back Jack', in which a morbidly obese man sings of his need for a woman to 'help him find his shoes', and 'Oedebattle', a ''

Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a v ...

'' style video game where an arrogant warrior mercilessly defeats hopelessly outmatched opponents. ''The O Show'' also featured appearances by Tom Wilson. The show made heavy use of

computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...

combined with live action footage, a relatively novel concept in the world of

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

at that time. This film is known to be Robert Hutchinson's (the actor who played Billy) only film so far.

Cast

This is the following cast: *

as Himself *

Fred Willard Frederic Charles Willard (September 18, 1933 May 15, 2020) was an American actor, comedian, and writer. He was best known for his roles in the Rob Reiner mockumentary film ''This Is Spinal Tap'' (1984); the Christopher Guest mockumentaries ''Wai ...

as Contestant *

Stephen Root Stephen Root (born November 17, 1951) is an American actor. He has starred as Jimmy James on the television sitcom ''NewsRadio'', as Milton Waddams in the film ''Office Space'' (1999), and provided the voices of Bill Dauterive and Buck Stricklan ...

* Kristan Alfonso as Lisa *

Robin Riker Robin Riker (born October 2, 1952) is an American actress and author. She made her big screen debut in the 1980 horror film ''Alligator'' and later went to star in the Showtime comedy series '' Brothers'' (1984–1989). Riker had starring roles ...

as Mom * Jim Jackman as The Cop * John Mendoza * Jason Duplissea * Robert Hutchinson as Billy *

Heather Morgan Heather Morgan is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member and writer on '' The Dana Carvey Show'', writing and performing such notable skits as Jenny and First Ladies as Dogs, the latter being called "one of the two or three funni ...

as Female Customer * Ned Gill as Cliff Vet

Plot

In the beginning of the movie we see Billy (Robert Huthinson) in his room playing on his

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

as his mom (

) walks in to bring some

CDs The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

from his dad's warehouse. He reads one the

that says "Oedekerk" and puts it in his

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

drive. The computer begins to go completely out of control as Billy and his room is sucked into the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

as himself introduces himself as well as introduces and tells us about the

and where to go for help. The show begins to feature many of its segments known as 'Glass Booth Guy', in which passersby are harassed by a man in an unbreakable glass booth at a gas station; 'Plane Stalker', in which a man finds himself being followed by a full-size airliner, 'Fat Back Jack', in which a morbidly obese man sings of his need for a woman to 'help him find his shoes', and 'Oedebattle', a ''

'' style video game where an arrogant warrior mercilessly defeats hopelessly outmatched opponents as well as the "Talking Skeleton" and much more. In the end, we see Billy back in his room with most of the characters from the segments going crazy and dancing. His mother comes into his room in sudden shock and tells him to go to bed. A face sticks out of the door and the commotion goes on again. During the end credits we see outtakes and reels by different comedians and the talking skeleton from the segments of the show screaming "Who am I?" twice while

is playing his

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

Home media

released an extremely rare VHS copy in 1997. However, it has not been seen for sell, it is only for available by the owners at

. The YouTube Channel "Oedekerk Report" released a VHS Capture of the show in 2013, and has been praised for its accurate predictions for what the Internet would become in the following decades.

Sequel

A second volume called "The O Show: Vol II" was released possibly that year. Nothing is known about its release, plot, or home media yet because of its rarity to the public. According t
Oedeville.com
there is a second volume in existence, but not released to the public.

Critical reception

References

External links

*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3bFIPa0tlM
{{DEFAULTSORT:O Show 1997 television specials Films directed by Steve Oedekerk NBC television specials DNA Productions films