NewsRadio

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NewsRadio was an American sitcom, originally broadcast from 1995 to 1999 on NBC. The show was created by executive producer Paul Simms. All five seasons have been released on four DVD sets and contain various special features, such as commentaries, gag reels, and featurettes. Reruns can currently be seen on-line via Joost.

[edit] Background

The series is set at WNYX, a fictional news radio station in New York City populated by an eccentric station owner and staff. The show began with the arrival of new news director, level-headed Dave Nelson (Dave Foley), fresh from the heartland of Wisconsin. While Dave turns out to be less naive than his youthful appearance suggests, he never fully gained control of his co-workers.

The fast-paced, irreverent scripts and ensemble cast combined physical humor and sight gags with smart dialogue and absurdist storylines. Plots frequently involved satirical takes on historical events, news stories and pop culture references appealed to a sophisticated, college-educated target audience. The third- and fourth-season finales took the absurdism to the extreme, setting the characters first in a news radio station in outer space, and then as crew members aboard the Titanic.

Despite critical acclaim and an extremely loyal fanbase, ratings for the show were inconsistent. NBC moved the show 11 times, often to inhospitable timeslots, making it difficult to maintain an audience. After stabilizing the show on Tuesday nights, ratings did well, only to plummet when the show was moved in the fall of 1996 in an attempt to establish a block of sitcoms on Wednesdays. The show spent the remainder of its life on the brink of cancellation.

NewsRadio was briefly canceled in May 1998, after its fourth season, but the decision was reversed a day later, with an order of 22 episodes placed for a fifth season. A few days after the renewal, Phil Hartman was murdered by his wife. His absence cast a pall over the fifth season and NBC left the series "on the bubble" until the day the final episode of the fifth season aired, months after production had wrapped.

There were 97 episodes of NewsRadio. Reruns continued in syndication for several years before disappearing in most markets, but the show recently returned on Nick at Nite, TBS network and TVTropolis in Canada. The program will be available in syndication to local stations starting in July 2007 through the General Mills Program Exchange.

[edit] Cast

• Dave Nelson (Dave Foley) is the station's, sarcastic, coffee addicted, and long-suffering news director who considered a career as a professional tap dancer before going into radio. A former Boy Scout and 4-H Club member, Dave is a talented tap dancer, knife thrower and ventriloquist. Other staff members and, specifically, Bill often mocked Dave for his various talents and youthful appearance. He is a science fiction geek and a former arcade game addict. His favorite TV show is Green Acres while his favorite movie is Logan's Run. Dave is the rock of the office, listening to people's problems whether he wants to or not. He is secretly (until the third season) Canadian.

• Lisa Miller (Maura Tierney), with whom Dave has an intermittent relationship, is promoted and demoted within the show's run, serving as reporter, on-air personality, producer and news director. Lisa's parents raised her in a regimented environment (which Dave called a "Skinner Box"). She abruptly decided to go into news radio while eating a cheesesteak. Before this decision, she wanted to be a forest ranger, although in an earlier episode she said she was a political science major. A ridiculous overachiever, Lisa is able to perform complex mathematical calculations without the use of a calculator and also went so far as to retake her SAT exam well out of college. Her extensive crime record, which includes breaking and entering and car jacking, is a direct result of her ambitious desire to excel. This caused her to spend a total of two months in juvenile detention.

• Evelyn Bill McNeal (Phil Hartman) is a co-news anchor for WNYX. Bombastic, egocentric, and insubordinate, Bill is frequently a thorn in the news director's side. But despite his abrasive personality, Bill does have a streak of genuine kindness. As news director, Ed, Dave, and Lisa all struggled to deal with Bill. His relationships are often unorthodox or contentious. This is especially evident when Bill describes seemingly painful or sad childhood memories as "good times, good times." In the second season, his real name was revealed to be Evelyn (pronounced Evil-In) though he used his middle name as his primary name on any official documents. As a result of Hartman's death between the fourth and fifth seasons, Bill's death was addressed in the first episode of the fifth season.

• Catherine Duke (Khandi Alexander) is the second of WNYX's news anchors. Beautiful and regal, Catherine, as an African American and minority at the station, secretly wishes there were more minorities on the staff. She is often bitter rivals with co-anchor Bill McNeal, partly due to an office affair they had earlier, casting doubt on the wisdom of Dave and Lisa's relationship. Catherine leaves the station for a job in London during the fourth season. She makes a brief appearance in the fifth season premiere for Bill's funeral.

• Jimmy James (Stephen Root), the station's eccentric, extroverted billionaire owner who often helps his co-workers learn new lessons, places strange bets with his rich friends and is desperately looking for a wife. Despite his divergent business interests, he seems to enjoy micromanaging WNYX (despite the fact that most of his decisions are made seemingly at a whim), but usually gets Dave to make any decisions or announcements that will be unpopular with the staff. He is seen as a loving father figure by everyone in the office, often in spite of his eccentricities, which are bizarre even by the staff's standards. Jimmy knows many secrets about his staff but also has a few of his own. He claims to have been Watergate informant Deep Throat, and was once prosecuted by the federal government, who accused him of being notorious skyjacker D.B. Cooper. He has been banned from the White House after calling Rosalyn Carter "hotlips", stealing a couch from the Lincoln bedroom and peeing in the rose garden after drinking too much Billy beer.

• Beth (Vicki Lewis) is Dave's quirky secretary, whose work mainly consists of eavesdropping, getting coffee for Dave, and being the coolest person in the office. She wears crazy, often ridiculous outfits, and perpetually chews gum. She is Dave's office confidante, and reluctantly advises both him and Lisa throughout their relationship. Her last name is never revealed.

• Matthew Brock (Andy Dick) is a news reporter and official "office weird guy". Clumsy and simple-minded, the child-like Matthew causes the most havoc in the office. He idolizes Bill, who in return calls him "Spaz" and makes him the butt of often cruel jokes. (At one point, Dave tells Matthew: "Bill is not a god." Matthew replies, "Only time will tell.") When Bill dies, Matthew keeps insisting he faked his death to live his dream of starting a new life abroad but a letter Bill left behind makes him face the truth. The staff is easily annoyed with him, but they nonetheless think of him as a kind of little brother. Despite his apparent dimness, it is revealed in the fourth season that Matthew is a skilled dentist who gave up his practice because radio was his "passion."

• Joe Garrelli (Joe Rogan) is the station's electrician and all-around "fix-it guy". He builds all the things he needs, rather than purchasing them (including his own homemade duct tape), and espouses various conspiracy theories. He is rowdy and immature, and will frequently try to start fights for no apparent reason. His last name is the subject of a running gag: whenever it is mentioned, someone looks perplexed and says, "Your last name is Garrelli?" He is a self-proclaimed ladies man, yet is too shy to approach his true love, Catherine. He has never set foot outside of New York City.

• Max Louis (Jon Lovitz) is Bill McNeal's replacement in the final season, an old colleague of his whose odd mannerisms and personality-changing compulsions kept him moving between literally dozens of radio jobs before winding up at WNYX. The eccentric Max has a thing for redheads named Beth and puppies named Daisy. (He is unrelated to two earlier characters Lovitz had played on the show.)

A picture of McNeal/Hartman remained as part of the set in the news director's office during the final season. Lovitz, who had gotten his start with Hartman in The Groundlings and also worked with Hartman in the 1986 movie ¡Three Amigos! as well as Saturday Night Live, later said he agreed to do the show out of love for his friend, saying, "I'm doing this for Phil." When the show was canceled, Andy Dick became very vocal about off-screen feuds with Lovitz on the set (which oddly mirrored Matthew's initial reluctance to accept Bill's replacement).

[edit] Recurring characters and guest appearances

The only recurring character to appear in more than one production season was Jimmy's lawyer, Roger, played initially by Norm MacDonald, but replaced with NewsRadio writer Drake Sather in subsequent episodes when MacDonald was unavailable. During the last season, Patrick Warburton had a recurring role as Johnny Johnson, Jimmy's nemesis and Lisa's love interest (and eventual husband).

Several other actors appeared in multiple seasons playing different characters, notably Jon Lovitz, David Cross, Toby Huss, David Anthony Higgins, Dave "Gruber" Allen and Bob Odenkirk.

An inordinate number of guest characters had the last name Johnson, and there were multiple guests named Dr. Mandel.

Tone Lōc and Toby Huss played security guards Lorenzo and Junior in two Season 2 episodes. The characters were based on the security guards at the studio where NewsRadio was shot.

Lauren Graham had a four-episode run as Andrea, an efficiency expert who shakes up the office (firing Matthew, demoting Dave, and promoting Lisa to news director). She was intended as a possible replacement for the departing Alexander, but Graham tested terribly with audiences, and her character disappeared before Alexander left, and without explanation. It is worth noting that on a season 4 commentary, Tierney gives the hiring of Graham as a possible explanation for Alexander's departure, which contradicts the idea that Alexander intended to leave before Graham appeared on the show. All of the changes introduced during Graham's time on the show would be reverted by midseason to the way things were before her arrival. She is sometimes referred to as Planbee after Matthew misunderstands her being Jimmy's "Plan B" for the office.

Brad Rowe had a four-episode run as Walt, an office intern with a crush on Lisa, causing more worry for Dave. Intended as a regular for season five, the character disappeared without explanation after "Sinking Ship" (most likely due to the fact that his character was often used as an impetus for Bill's actions in several episodes).

Steve Susskind had a recurring role as Milos the Janitor, appearing in three episodes in the second season.

When Alexander appeared as Catherine Duke in the fifth season opener (in which the McNeal character was killed off to coincide with Hartman's death), she was credited as a recurring character.

Kevin McDonald, Foley's former castmate from The Kids in the Hall, made a guest appearance as the knife-wielding Throwdini in the episode "Stupid Holiday Charity Talent Show" during Season 4.

Other guest stars inluded John Ritter, Dennis Miller, Janeane Garofalo, Bebe Neuwirth, Ben Stiller, French Stewart, Scott Adams, Jon Stewart, Tiffani Amber Thiessen, and, in a non-speaking cameo, Ron Jeremy. Celebrities appearing as themselves included Chuck D, Al Roker, Bob Costas, Jerry Seinfeld, James Caan, Adam West, George "Goober" Lindsey and thrash metal icons Anthrax.

Guest stars Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk, John F. O'Donohue and David Cross all worked on The Ben Stiller Show with Andy Dick.

Guest stars in Season 4's "Chock" episode, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk and Brian Posehn all worked together on Mr. Show. Each of them appeared separately in earlier episodes of NewsRadio. Cross guest starred as Mr. James' weird nephew in Season 2's "Houses of the Holy", Odenkirk appeared as the doctor in "The Injury", and Posehn asked questions at Mr. James' book signing in Season 4's "Super Karate Monkey Death Car".