As a kid, I was memorized by The Dana Carvey Show, and I’ll certainly be picking up the new DVD.  Along with the failed Ben Stiller sketch comedy show, these two programs attempted to bring “alternative” sketch comedy to mainstream audiences in the early-to-mid 90′s, and no one was less ready for that then one of The Dana Carvey Show’s sponsors, Mountain Dew.

How Carvey was able to sucker punch Mountain Dew so effectively, without the soft drink maker knowing, is truly remarkable.  In the episode, where the actual show was called “The Mountain Dew Dana Carvey Show,” there’s a sketch at 11:36 (see above) where Dana Carvey and cast member Bill Chot are having a conversation with a glass of yellowy Mountain Dew in the middle of the table.  Dana keeps asking, “what does that look like,” and Bill keeps offering marketing jabber like, “cool refreshing springtime in a glass.”  Finally, after much prodding, Dana and Bill both agree that Mountain Dew looks like “liquid sunshine.”  *WINK*

Of course, people had been comparing Mountain Dew to urine for years now, but this sketch became a nationwide intervention.  I remember being absolutely floored.  Of course, The Simpsons had taken plenty of shots at FOX, but The Simpsons was an established ratings hit.  Dana Carvey was targeting the sponsor — the lifeblood of all TV shows — and getting away with it.  Is such a thing possible?

No, not really.  The show was canceled after just a handful of episodes.  However, the show’s legacy lives on in Mr. Show, which shares several of the same writers and a related sensibility, along with creating The Ambiguously Gay Duo and featured young Stephen Colbert and Steve Carrell, among many others.  Perhaps in that one, short, simple little sketch about Mountain Dew looking like pee-pee, Carvey sacrificed himself and his show so that alternative sketch comedy could live and prosper in the aftermath.

Oh, also, they did a sketch about Bill Clinton breastfeeding animals.  Remember, this was 1996.  I guess the show wasn’t destined to be on very long regardless.