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53-498: The Weird Al Show is an American television show hosted by "Weird Al" Yankovic . Produced in association with Dick Clark Productions and taped at NBC Studios , it aired on Saturday mornings on CBS . The show ran for one season, from September 13 to December 6, 1997, with reruns airing until September 26, 1998. The show was released on DVD on August 15, 2006. The show is framed as a show-within-a-show , with Yankovic, starring as himself, living in an underground home while working as

106-495: A regional sports network for the team once its contract with Fox Sports West concluded. The Dodgers instead partnered with Time Warner Cable to launch Time Warner Cable SportsNet LA . On October 2, 2013, Dick Clark Productions teamed up with Keshet International to start out a joint venture to bring Keshet 's unscripted properties to the North American market, entitled Keshet-DCP. In 2014, DCP took over production of

159-459: A building on the Sunset Strip , in an area among visible, legendary clubs and landmarks. As Clark recounted in his 1976 book, Rock, Roll and Remember : "I hung up a very modest sign in lowercase print — dick clark productions — and started producing." In the 1970s, it operated a subsidiary Dick Clark Teleshows, to produce, most notably, the first American Music Awards , Sorority '62 , and

212-496: A group led by its former president Todd Boehly. Variety reported that CEO Allen Shapiro was "likely to be a key player in the spinoff, given his experience in running entertainment firms". Boehly's stake is represented by Eldridge Industries . In September 2016, it was reported that the Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group (which owns AMC Theatres and Legendary Entertainment ) was in talks to acquire Dick Clark Productions. This

265-514: A home video division, Dick Clark Video, to handle videocassettes, with Vestron Video handling distribution of the titles, most notably American Bandstand . In 1987, Dick Clark Productions had signed a five-year deal with the Golden Globe Awards to produce the telecasts from the next five years. Dick Clark Productions went public on NASDAQ in 1986. It was taken private in 2002 by an investment group that included Mosaic Media Group and

318-629: 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

371-470: A narrator ( Billy West ) introducing today's lesson to the viewers. Then, Al is in a common situation in his cave dwelling that he addresses to the viewers. Afterward, he watches a TV displaying parody shows and commercials that are related to the day's show. Most of the time, Al's friend Bobby the Inquisitive Boy stops by and asks him a question. In turn, Al plays him an old-fashioned educational film (with

424-522: A part of MRC (initially Valence Media) after Boehly's entertainment and media assets merged with the studio. Valence as a whole rebranded as MRC in 2020, with DCP being part of the MRC Live & Alternative division. In September 2021, MRC discontinued the Dick Clark Productions branding, and folded all of its productions under the MRC Live & Alternative branding going forward. In August 2022,

477-600: A present. Harvey the Wonder Hamster gets radioactive and grows to four times the size of Al, becoming the world's biggest hamster on Earth and getting put in the Guinness Book of World Records. Al becomes jealous and tries to make himself a world record. Al has to babysit Huey, Al's television producer's greedy nephew. Today is the day of the annual "Weird Al talent show", but Cousin Corky gets stage fright. Al decides to take

530-615: A television show host. It uses a combination of live-action skits with numerous guests, animated shorts, and musical performances by Yankovic and other guest bands. CBS had greenlit the show from Yankovic, seeking content for its required Educational/Informative programming block and framed similarly to Pee-Wee's Playhouse . Because of this, Yankovic and his writers struggled with developing content appropriate for children's programming that met CBS's expectations while still within Yankovic's form of visual and adult humor. Each episode starts with

583-451: A vacation, leaving Cousin Corky stuck hosting the show. Al bullies Harvey about doing a death-defying stunt, and must make amends. According to the DVD commentary, this was originally intended to be the debut, hence containing exposition for characters and segments that seem out of place on what turned out to be the tenth aired episode. Al competes against Fred Huggins and Uncle Ralphie to see who

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636-582: Is a song by British electronic dance music band the Prodigy , released on 18 March 1996 by XL Recordings as the first single from their third album, The Fat of the Land (1997). It was co-written and produced by Liam Howlett and features vocals by Keith Flint . It also was the group's first number-one single on the UK Singles Chart , staying on top for three weeks, and their first big international hit, topping

689-476: Is credited solely to Liam Howlett and Keith Flint . Martin James from Melody Maker wrote, "'Firestarter' finds onstage dancer, MC and man of scary eye make-up Keith Flint delivering his first vocal performance and...it's not really up to much. A 60- Marlboros -a-day growl more suited to guitar-drenched cider punk than The Prodigy's fast and furious cyber punk . Never mind though, because musically this cut finds

742-597: Is the best TV show host. Al celebrates the holidays with his friends. This was the last episode recorded and was intended to run last, however it ended up being the second-to-last episode aired. Al returns to the cave from a trip and finds that all of his stuff has been stolen. Guest appearances: Gilbert Gottfried as Al's imaginary friend Gilbert, Martha Quinn as Woman in Commercial, "Macho Man" Randy Savage as himself, Dick Van Patten as Burglar & All-4-One as musical guest The Weird Al Show: The Complete Series

795-514: The Record Mirror Dance Update described it as "a typically searing chunk of heavy techno featuring some manic vocale and an awesome synth line". He concluded, "Straight in the Top 10, no question, and destined to be pounded in the clubs." Writing for Pitchfork in 2005, Jess Harvell said, "'Firestarter' sounds like Trent Reznor in one of his all-too-rare moments of self-aware humor, like

848-630: The Billboard Music Awards , an awards show presented by Guggengeim-owned Billboard magazine. In July 2014, DCP settled a lawsuit with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association over its contracts with NBC to broadcast the Golden Globe Awards. On December 17, 2015, in response to losses across Guggenheim Partners, the company announced that it would spin out its media properties, including Dick Clark Productions, to

901-440: The $ 82,000 appearance fee Tesh charges he does infomercials to sell worthless junk. Eventually all his customers want a refund, including Tesh himself. Some coal miners break through Al's house and he has to learn to make friends with them. Al decides he wants to become smarter, and soon regrets it. Al forgot to get Harvey the Wonder Hamster a present on his birthday, so he uses his new invention to go back in time and get Harvey

954-489: The 90-minute special 200 Years of American Music . Between the 1970s and 1980s, Dick Clark Productions owned a cinema production company, Dick Clark Cinema Productions, to produce telemovies and feature films. In 1983, Daniel Paulson was appointed vice president of the division. In 1983, a company owned by Clark and his wife were among multiple applicants to acquire WRKS-FM in New York City. Also, in 1985, Clark operated

1007-472: The Bomb Squad at +5 with a pink-haired British bulldog bellowing about how tuff he is." David Sinclair from The Times noted, "A racing, twitchy, all-hands-on-deck rhythmic pulse, with a first beat in the bar that lands like a bodyblow, it is spiced up by a siren-wail synth sound and various shrieks that resemble an Art of Noise vocal sample." The accompanying black-and-white music video for "Firestarter"

1060-593: The Breeders , as the looped wah-wah guitar riff in "Firestarter" was sampled from the Breeders' track "S.O.S." from the album Last Splash . The drums are sampled from a remix of the song "Devotion" of the group Ten City . The "hey" sample is from the 1984 song " Close (to the Edit) " by Art of Noise . Then-members Anne Dudley , Trevor Horn , J. J. Jeczalik , Gary Langan and Paul Morley also receive songwriting credits. The "Empirion Mix", which does not include these samples,

1113-450: The Caisse . Mandalay Entertainment bought DCP's stake in 2004. On June 19, 2007, Dick Clark Productions was sold to Daniel Snyder , then the owner of Washington, D.C.'s NFL team , and former chairman of Six Flags , for $ 175 million. After Clark's death on April 18, 2012, Snyder commented that he was proud when he purchased Dick Clark Productions, adding that Clark was "in every sense of

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1166-558: 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. 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

1219-919: The Fridge" (as well as the show opening) was released on "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection in 2003. Dick Clark Productions The studio primarily produces award shows and other music entertainment programs, including the Golden Globe Awards (owned outright by DCP since 2023), Academy of Country Music Awards , the DCP-created American Music Awards , the Billboard Music Awards (presented by co-owned music magazine Billboard ), Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve , and So You Think You Can Dance (with 19 Entertainment ). Some of its earlier productions, such as American Bandstand , New Year's Rockin' Eve , and TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes (initially with Carson Entertainment ), were hosted by Clark himself. The company

1272-485: The Golden Globes and New Year's Rockin' Eve to STX Entertainment . On February 1, 2018, DCP merged with Billboard - Hollywood Reporter Media Group and Media Rights Capital to form Valence Media . Mike Mahan was appointed CEO of DCP. In November 2019, the company's COO and CFO Amy Thurlow became president of Dick Clark Productions, with Mike Mahan expected to become a vice chairman in 2020. In July 2020, Valence

1325-416: 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

1378-477: The boys slamming through an exhilarating, breakbeat techno theme for snowboarding freestylers. Half-pipe hardcore — you know the score." A reviewer from Music Week gave "Firestarter" top score of five out of five, and named it Single of the Week and a "Powerful return for the kings of live techno ." Gerald Martinez from New Sunday Times noted its " heavy metal meets techno-dance stylisations". Brad Beatnik from

1431-451: 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." The theme song can be found on Yankovic's album Running with Scissors (1999) as "The Weird Al Show Theme". It tells

1484-610: The charts in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, and Norway. The music video was directed by Walter Stern and filmed in the London Underground , in black-and-white. Melody Maker ranked the song number two in their list of "Singles of the Year" in 1996. 24 years later, The Guardian ranked it number eight in their list of "The 100 Greatest UK No 1 Singles". The songwriting credits include Kim Deal of alternative rock group

1537-570: The company following the transaction, and at least 16 employees were laid off. The deal expands on an existing relationship between the companies, under which PMC operates Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter . On June 12, 2023, DCP acquired the assets and intellectual property of the Golden Globe Awards from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, as part of a transition to a for-profit entity undertaken by Boehly. Firestarter (The Prodigy song) " Firestarter "

1590-435: The company's assets, effectively undoing the 2018 deal that created Valence Media. Among other assets, Eldridge re-acquired the MRC Live & Alternative division and announced it would restore the Dick Clark Productions name to the unit. In January 2023, DCP was subsequently acquired by a joint venture of Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge Industries known as Penske Media Eldridge: Adam Stotsky stepped down as president of

1643-416: 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

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1696-413: The film made cameos on the show. Al meets a new friend named Spike who has a "way-moby (cool) club," and Spike tells Al that he has to rip off one pant-leg, stick his arms in chocolate syrup, and shave-off his right eyebrow to be able to join the club. He eventually finds out it was all made up, and kicks him out of the house. Al lies to his friends about being buddies with John Tesh, so in order to raise

1749-483: 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

1802-472: 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

1855-703: The merger was unwound, with Eldridge re-gaining control of the studio and reinstating the Dick Clark Productions name. In January 2023, DCP was subsequently acquired by a joint venture of Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge Industries known as Penske Media Eldridge. The Dick Clark radio show began syndication in the late 1950s as part of MARS Broadcasting. The name and lower-case stylization of Dick Clark Productions dates back to, at latest, 1964, when Dick Clark's public relations manager, Henry Rogers of Rogers & Cowan, suggested naming his production company after himself, so he could be more visible following American Bandstand ' s move to Hollywood. Later, Clark rented

1908-660: The number one spot again. This was done out of respect for Keith Flint and to raise awareness of suicide among men. During this time the single also returned to the Billboard charts, entering number 13 on its Dance/Electronic Digital Songs Sales chart in its 16 March 2019 issue, marking the first time that this song has appeared on a Billboard dance chart. In June 2020, The Guardian ranked "Firestarter" number eight in their list of "The 100 Greatest UK No 1 Singles". In July 2022, Rolling Stone ranked it number 110 in their list of "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time". "Firestarter"

1961-432: The original dialogue replaced) to help answer his question. Sometimes, the show features an animated cartoon called "Fatman", which is 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. Around the time of recording " Eat It " in 1984, Yankovic and his manager started pitching

2014-449: The psychotic mind." In October 2011, NME placed it at number 52 in its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years". In 2017, Billboard ranked "Firestarter" number 25 in their list of "The 100 Greatest Pop Songs of 1997". Following Flint 's death on 4 March 2019, fans used the hashtag 'Firestarter4Number1' on various social media platforms to replicate the song's success by getting it to

2067-516: 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

2120-459: 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

2173-526: 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. 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

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2226-411: 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

2279-557: The word, a giant". Until 2012, Dick Clark Productions was majority owned by Red Zone Capital Management, a Daniel Snyder-controlled private equity firm, with a 40 percent stake held by Six Flags . The week of June 13, 2012, Red Zone confirmed a possible sale of the company, and that investment bank Raine Group had been tapped to determine possible suitors. Rumored suitors included CORE Media Group , whose 19 Entertainment produced So You Think You Can Dance with DCP, and Ryan Seacrest Productions , whose namesake founder worked with and

2332-448: Was also used in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 reveal trailer. Sales figures based on certification alone. Shipments figures based on certification alone. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. "Weird Al" Yankovic created a loose parody of "Firestarter", titled "Lousy Haircut", for an episode of The Weird Al Show ; he could not do a full parody of

2385-456: Was confirmed on November 4, 2016, when Wanda Group announced the purchase for $ 1 billion. On February 20, 2017, Bloomberg News reported that the sale was facing regulatory issues in China. On March 10, 2017, an Eldridge Industries spokesperson stated that the sale had been scrapped. DCP received $ 50 million from Wanda Group in breakup and extension fees. The studio later sold Chinese rights to

2438-410: Was directed by English director Walter Stern and was filmed in an abandoned London Underground tunnel at Aldwych . In December 1996, Melody Maker ranked "Firestarter" number two in their list of "Singles of the Year", writing, "Bringing vague but keenly felt terror to a million living rooms, "Firestarter" was superbly ominous, a funny, freakish and pulse-quickening rumble through the tunnels of

2491-410: Was done by Mark Osborne and Scott Nordlund, who had previously done Yankovic's " Jurassic Park " music video. 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

2544-568: 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

2597-540: Was mentored by Dick Clark. On September 4, 2012, Red Zone Capital Management reached an agreement to sell Dick Clark Productions to a group partnership headed by Guggenheim Partners , Mandalay Entertainment , and Mosaic Media Investment Partners for approximately $ 350 million. In December 2012, reports by several baseball insiders indicated that the Los Angeles Dodgers (also owned by Guggenheim Partners) were in talks with Dick Clark Productions to potentially form

2650-404: 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

2703-466: Was rebranded as MRC, with Dick Clark Productions operating as a label of its non-scripted division MRC Live & Alternative. Thurlow stepped down from DCP in June 2021. In September 2021, the Dick Clark Productions name was discontinued, with all of its productions now falling under the MRC Live & Alternative banner. In August 2022, Eldridge and MRC's co-CEOs Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu agreed to divide

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2756-506: 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

2809-457: Was sold to a group led by Daniel Snyder in 2007 for $ 150 million. In September 2012, it was sold again to Guggenheim Partners , Mandalay Entertainment and Mosaic Media Investment Partners for $ 350 million. Guggenheim's stake was later spun out to former president Todd Boehly . In 2016, Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group announced its intent to acquire DCP, but the deal was thrown out in early 2017 due to regulatory issues. The company then became

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