Rudolph and other comedy stars make variety a reality

Until this past year, I had never watched an episode of “Saturday Night Live.”
Put your pitchforks down. I now watch it as religiously as the next guy.
However, my late jump on the bandwagon resulted in me missing the careers of many great comedians, including “SNL” legend and “Bridesmaids” star Maya Rudolph.
With the launch of her variety show, I’m hoping to make up for it.
“The Maya Rudolph Show” kicked off with a hilarious opening number that poked fun at everything from invasive camera angles to Beyoncé and her hair fan.
Rudolph even made fun of her own comedy, all while showing off her golden pipes and smooth dance moves.
There to help Rudolph introduce her show were “Frozen” star Kristen Bell, “Will and Grace” legend Sean Hayes and fellow “SNL” retirees Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell.
The skits were clever and didn’t fail to make me laugh. Rudolph, Bell and Hayes united to plot the sequel to “Frozen” through song.
Rudolph and Armisen later played the couple who provides the voices of navigation systems.
Their annoying robot voices were spot-on and complete with mispronunciation of names, horrible names and aggressive repeating of the same direction.
The show included a musical number based on a pair of puns and a gaggle of sexual innuendos, and it stole my heart.
As with every great variety show, there was a great musical guest.
Janelle Monáe lit up the stage with an energetic performance of her hit “Electric Lady.”
The special ended with an unimpressive dance-off between Rudolph and Samberg, who was dressed as if he had just moonwalked out of the 1970s.
The ending wasn’t as amazing as the show built it up to be. But, overall, it was entertaining and the perfect way to introduce this generation to the genre of variety shows.
Variety shows, such as “The Sonny and Cher Show” ruled television in the 1960s and ’70s.
Excluding the success of “SNL,” variety shows in this era face a problem that often results in failure.
Variety shows demand the attention of an audience with the risk of performing sketches that don’t appeal to them.
In the ’60s and ’70s, audiences had fewer options, whereas today, we have hundreds of channels at our disposal, not to mention DVRs to catch up with and Netflix to which we sell our souls.
But we can’t underestimate the brilliance of a comedian such as Maya Rudolph.
Rudolph knows how to attract a large audience and keep it.
She knows the kind of comedy she needs to perform to relate to various groups of people.
In complete honesty, “The Maya Rudolph Show” is a lot like “SNL,” but you never have to worry about having a lousy host.
Rudolph and producer Lorne Michaels know what they’re doing.
They are prepared to bring this brand of old-style television to the 21st century.