OOOOOOOHHHHHH This is a story about a guy named Al and he lived in a sewer with his hamster pal but the sanitation workers really didnt approve so he packed up his accordion and had to move to a city in Ohio where he lived in a tree and he worked in a nasal decongestion factory. And he played on the company bowling team. And every single night he had a strange recurring dream where he was wearing lederhosen in a vat of sour-cream but thats really not important to the story. Well the very next year he met a dental hygenist with a spatula tattooed on her arm. But he didnt keep in touch and he lost her number. And he got himself a Job on a tater-tot farm. And he spent his life savings on a split-level cave 20 miles below the surface of the earth. And

He

reallymakes a mighty-fine jelly-bean and pickle sandwich for what its worth. Then one day Al was in the forest trying to get a tan when he heard the tortured screaming of a funny little man. He was caught in a bear-trap and Al set him free. And the guy that he rescued was as grateful as could be. And it turns out hes a big-shot producer on TV. So he gave Al a contract and what do you know? Now hes got his very own Weird Al SHOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW! YEAH! YEEEEEEAAAAHHH! YEAH! YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHH! YEAH! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHH! about Weird Al as a fat superhero. At the end of the show, there is a commercial parody being shown followed by a band performing a song. Sometimes, Al reviews today's lesson before closing out the show.

Development

Around the time of recording "Eat It" in 1984, Yankovic and his manager started pitching the idea of a children's show hosted by Yankovic, believing that his energy suited this format well. It was not until the 1990s that the American network CBS showed interest, specifically looking for Saturday morning content that would meet new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules requiring broadcast networks to carry a number of hours of "Educational/Informative" (E/I) programming content. While this was not Yankovic's preferred approach, he considered it "the deal we made with the devil" as to get his show on air. Director Peyton Reed was brought to the show through his wife, who worked in a music video production company that had done some of Yankovic's music videos, and was hired by CBS to produce the show. The show had been pitched to Reed as similar to Pee-wee's Playhouse, but to have a more subversive humor that followed Yankovic's style of comedy. CBS brought in Wayne White, the production designer for Pee-wee's Playhouse, to construct the set for "The Weird Al Show". For casting, Yankovic used a combination of previous actors he collaborated with (such as Judy Tenuta) and casting calls for others. Filming was done in NBC Studios in Burbank, California, in the same sound stage used by The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and down the hall from the recording of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. As Yankovic had difficulty in getting guests, he had sometimes tried to ask Leno's guests to appear on his show while they were waiting backstage; he had approached and secured Drew Carey's appearance this way. Writing for the show was challenged due to the E/I expectations demanded by CBS. CBS, through producer Dick Clark, frequently demanded changes to some of the visual humor written by Yankovic and the writing staff, fearing it was "imitable behavior" for children watching, and which limited how much visual comedy they could use. CBS also demanded a moral for each episode, and insisted that the moral had to be stated clearly at the start of each episode. To get around this, Yankovic brought in voice actor Billy West to scream out the moral at the very start of the episode, and then let the episode continue as they wanted. The writers knew some of their material would be scrapped by censors but wrote such scenes anyway, but were often surprised at what the censors left in. For example, a sketch in which Baby and Papa Boolie commit suicide after listening to one too many of Fred Huggins's songs was being seriously considered by the network for use on the show. The sketch was later rewritten to have Papa Boolie call a mental hospital to take Fred away. The unused script of the unedited Fred Huggins sequence is role-played in an audio commentary for an episode on the DVD. CBS also wanted more of Yankovic's music parodies as part of the show, though they would not pay for the royalties for the original song. Yankovic ended up doing one original parody, "Lousy Haircut", loosely based on "Firestarter" by The Prodigy. The network desired to see musical acts of younger musical groups that would appeal to their target audience at the time. One of these was Hanson, who had just reached fame with their single "MMMBop". From this, Yankovic and the band members developed a camaraderie that continued long after the show, with Yankovic helping to direct some of their later videos. The show also featured the first television broadcast of the Barenaked Ladies, though Yankovic was surprised that the network allowed them to use the band's full name at the time. The show was cancelled after one season. Yankovic and the others on the team acknowledged that CBS did not find that the show followed the formulatic pattern set by Pee-wee's Playhouse, and coupled with difficulties in keeping the show in check, opted to cancel it. Yankovic and others on the production found in retrospect that working on the show was far too stressful and not the vision of what they wanted it to be; for the show's DVD commentary, much of the commentary ended up being directed at the issues they had with CBS in producing the show.

Undeveloped material

The series contains many Star Wars references, and Yankovic planned a segment in which he claimed to have played Luke Skywalker's "annoying younger brother" in scenes cut from the original Star Wars film. According to Yankovic, he planned to show "actual scenes from Star Wars with me green-screened into them, seamlessly interacting with the characters. Of course, we had to get clearances from everybody before CBS would agree to let us shoot it. In the end, George Lucas signed off on it, and Sir Alec Guinness signed off on it, but Mark Hamill would not agree to let us use any footage with him in it -- so unfortunately, the whole bit had to be scrapped."

Music

Theme song

The theme song can be found on Yankovic's album Running with Scissors (1999) as "The Weird Al Show Theme". It tells the story of how Al came to live in a tree and get a television show, including references to the fabricated life story in The Compleat Al, such as having worked in a nasal decongestant factory. Also referenced is playing on the company bowling team, which may be a reference to "Generic Blues". The visuals for the show's theme are done in three different styles - traditional animation, 3D computer animation, and claymation. The claymation portion was done by Mark Osborne and Scott Nordlund, who had previously done Yankovic's "Jurassic Park" music video.

Bite Me

After the end credits of each case, when the "Ear Booker Productions" logo flashes on the screen repeatedly, a three-second version of the "Bite Me" track can be heard. "Bite Me" originally appeared as a six second long hidden track on the CD version of Weird Al" Yankovic's 1992 album Off the Deep End. The track appeared after 10 minutes of the final track ("You Don't Love Me Anymore"). The track was included as a parody of Nirvana's hidden track on the album Nevermind, but also to scare listeners into turning off the CD.

Cast

Gedde Watanabe's character, Kuni, also appeared in Yankovic's film, UHF. David Bowe, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, and Emo Philips who also were in the film made cameos on the show.

Episodes

Home media

The Weird Al Show: The Complete Series was released on August 15, 2006 by Shout Factory. It is a 3-DVD set of all 13 episodes of The Weird Al Show, plus bonus features. The episodes are presented in broadcast order. The Weird Al Show was released on DVD in Canada on September 26, 2006, alongside the U.S. release of his new album, Straight Outta Lynwood. Before the DVD set release, a compilation of the short music video segments for "Lousy Haircut", "Lasagna", and "Livin' in the Fridge" (as well as the show opening) was released on "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection in 2003.

Special features