The Dave Thomas Comedy Show
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''The Dave Thomas Comedy Show'' (later simply ''Dave Thomas'') was a sketch-based, half-hour, five-week summer replacement series, which aired on
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
in the summer of 1990. The show starred
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
comedian
Dave Thomas Dave may refer to: Film, television, and theater * Dave (film), ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * Dave (musical), ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film * Dave (TV channel), a digital ...
, who is best known for an earlier sketch comedy series, '' SCTV''. Thomas himself served as head writer, while the writing staff included Hollywood scriptwriter
Ed Solomon Edward James Solomon (born September 15, 1960) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for writing the screenplays to ''Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'' (1989), ''Men in Black'' (1997), and '' Now You See Me'' (2013). Life and career Solo ...
and
Mike Myers Michael John Myers OC (born May 25, 1963) is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. His accolades include seven MTV Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2002, he was awarded a star on the Hollyw ...
. The series debuted May 28, 1990.


Cast and guest stars

Anson Downes,
Teresa Ganzel Teresa Ganzel is an American actress and comedian. Career Ganzel was a recurring cast member of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' as the Matinee Lady in the "Tea Time Movie" skits. She has often played stereotypical ditzy blonde bimb ...
, Don Lake,
Julie Fulton Julie Fulton (born April 10, 1959) is an American actress of stage and screen. Fulton was born in Evanston, Illinois. Career Fulton portrayed astronaut Judith Resnik in the movie about the shuttle disaster Challenger. She also played a secreta ...
and David Wiley made up the supporting cast of various characters in the sketches, while veteran character actress
Fran Ryan Fran Mary Ryan (November 29, 1916 January 15, 2000) was an American character actress featured in television and films. She was born in Los Angeles, California. Career Ryan began performing at the age of six at Oakland's Henry Duffy Theatre. ...
had a recurring role as a wise-cracking waitress also named Fran Ryan. In addition, the series usually featured big-name guest stars (
John Candy John Franklin Candy (October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994) was a Canadian actor and comedian known mainly for his work in Hollywood films. Candy rose to fame in the 1970s as a member of the Toronto branch of the Second City and its '' SCTV'' ser ...
,
Dan Aykroyd Daniel Edward Aykroyd ( ; born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian actor, comedian, producer, musician and writer. He was an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1979). During his tenure on ''SNL'' ...
,
Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He became a key cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'', where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment became a staple of the ...
,
Martin Short Martin Hayter Short (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, and writer. He has received various awards including two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. In 2019 Short became an Officer of the Order of Canada. He ...
and
Catherine O'Hara Catherine Anne O'Hara (born March 4, 1954) is a Canadian-American actress. She is known for her comedy work on ''Second City Television'' (1976–84) and ''Schitt's Creek'' (2015–2020) and in films such as '' After Hours'' (1985), ''Beetleju ...
) Thomas knew from
The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre op ...
and other previous projects—although the musical guest for the series finale was actually a fictionalized version of
Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...
played by Dave himself. John Roarke, Valri Bromfield, and Rick Overton were also occasionally featured in supporting roles.


Format

Dave introduced every episode with a monologue that typically segued into the first sketch. Despite the often larger celebrity status of his guest stars, Thomas himself usually played the lead in the sketches, with his celebrity guests in co-starring roles. In addition to sketches, the show featured semi-scripted interview segments on the set of "Fran's Diner," where Dave and his guests would chat over coffee or a meal. Fran's Diner was also the setting for a running gag which appeared in every episode, in which Dave, as a customer, would chat with Fran and experience vivid daydreams which invariably spoofed stereotypical male sexual fantasies filled with beautiful women—only to be disappointed that the reality was Fran and her diner. In these segments, the punchline would typically involve Fran somehow knowing the content of Dave's daydream, or breaking the
fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...
with references to the fact that they were on a television series.


Notable sketches

Critics from such publications as ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' and
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
applauded a trio of sketches in which Thomas impersonated notable personalities in absurdist situations --
Edward Woodward Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE (1 June 1930 – 16 November 2009) was an English actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began his career on stage. Throughout his career, he appeared in productions ...
as his '' Equalizer'' character reimagined as "the Humiliator" (who uses insults rather than guns to incapacitate criminals),
Jack Palance Jack Palance ( ; born Volodymyr Palahniuk ( uk, Володимир Палагню́к); February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006) was an American actor known for playing tough guys and villains. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, all fo ...
miscast as a creepy sitcom star (who still uses his catch-phrase from ''
Ripley's Believe it or Not! ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' feat ...
''), and
Max von Sydow Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...
as a depressed barber who inadvertently terrorizes his customers by chatting casually about his obsession with death.


List of episodes


Production

As Thomas explained in an interview with Kenneth PlumeIGN: Interview with Dave Thomas (Part 4 of 5)
/ref> on IGN.com, Thomas had originally conceived of the show as more experimental, especially in terms of interaction with the studio audience, but CBS executives told him to tone down the experimental aspects of the series—a decision which, Thomas believes, ultimately contributed to the show's short life span.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dave Thomas Comedy Show Dave Thomas Comedy Show, The 1990s American sketch comedy television series 1990 American television series debuts 1990 American television series endings English-language television shows