MADtv (season 13)

MADtv's thirteenth season premiered on September 15, 2007 and ended on May 17, 2008 with sixteen episodes (four clip show episodes, three episodes done during the WGA strike featuring pretaped sketches and reruns of past sketches, and nine episodes filmed at the Music Box Theater).

Season summary

The 13th season of MADtv saw more changes in show format and castmembers. Repertory players Ike Barinholtz, Frank Caeti, and Nicole Randall Johnson and feature player Lisa Donovan did not come back to the cast. Johnny Sanchez joined the cast as a repertory player, while Dan Oster, Anjelah Johnson, and Daheli Hall were hired as feature players. The season was Executive Produced by Show Runners John Crane -- who also served as Head Writer -- and Bruce Leddy who directed most of the episodes.

In addition, MADtv moved to a new studio (The Henry Fonda Music Box Theater) in order to give the show the feel of a live event. To update the look of the show (and because of budget constraints), many of MADtv's sketches in season 13 were shot film style, single camera, and on location with little to no use of props or costumes.

Between November 24 and February 2, MADtv became one of many television shows to be put on hiatus due to the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Even though the WGA strike did not end until February 12, three "new" episodes aired on February 2, February 9, and February 16. These "new" episodes were nothing more than pretaped sketches from canceled episodes and repeats of old sketches from seasons eight to ten (with no segments from the Music Box Theater). The show returned to its normal format on March 29, 2008.

This season was also the first of only two seasons to have "Best of..." clip shows a la Saturday Night Live, four of which aired prior to the show's official season premiere: MADtv Ruined My Life (where Nicole Parker appears on a fictitious episode of The Jerry Springer Show to defend the audience's claims that MADtv's raunchy sketches have traumatized and disgusted them), Survivor: MADtv (where Jeff Probst and Keegan-Michael Key host a collection of MADtv's best TV and movie parodies), I Want My MADtv (Perez Hilton and Bobby Lee's Johnny Gan character host a collection of MADtv's best celebrity caricatures and swipes at pop culture), and MADtv's Most Wanted (where Michael McDonald and Susan Sarandon host a collection of the show's best recurring sketches and characters).

Opening montage

The opening title sequence for season thirteen has been dramatically redesigned. The original MADtv song used for the previous twelve seasons has been completely replaced by random snippets of drum and guitar music. (The first four episodes used small snippets from the original theme song.) The show also has a new announcer.

Cast

• Crista Flanagan
• Daheli Hall
• Anjelah Johnson
• Keegan-Michael Key
• Bobby Lee
• Michael McDonald
• Arden Myrin
• Dan Oster
• Nicole Parker
• Jordan Peele
• Johnny Sanchez

Bold means featured member.

Past Members Who Guest Starred

• Mo Collins
• Debra Wilson

Episodes

Episode	Airing Date	Guest(s)	Sketches	Other notes
#1301	September 15, 2007	Jerry Springer	MADtv Ruined My Life: The Sketches That Shocked a Nation: Jerry Springer hosts a fictitious episode of his talk show, where audience members claim that MADtv's raunchy sketches have ruined their lives and MADtv castmember Nicole Parker tries to defend herself and the show. Sketches include: "Flashlight Masturbators," "The Zapruder Home Movies," "Wizard of Oz Deleted Scene: The One-Legged Slave," the music video parody of Nelly's "Hot in Herre" about Catholic priests molesting boys, and "Brian's Special Gift".	Season premiere; the announcer of this episode mentions a season one sketch that never aired called "Schindler's Lost", which can now be seen online.
#1302	September 22, 2007	Jeff Probst	MADtv's All-Time Best TV Parodies (a.k.a Survivor: MADtv): Jeff Probst hosts a clip show of MADtv's best TV show parodies, including parodies of Survivor, The Sopranos, House, M.D., and Grey's Anatomy
#1303	September 29, 2007	Perez Hilton	I Want My MADtv: Perez Hilton and Bobby Lee (as his character, Johnny Gan from "Johnny Gan's Movie Reviews") hosts a clip show episode of centered on MADtv's best swipes at pop culture and celebrities. Sketches include: Kenny Rogers' Jackass and many sketches about Britney Spears.
#1304	October 6, 2007	Susan Sarandon	MADtv's Most Wanted: Susan Sarandon and MADtv castmember Michael McDonald host this clip show episode, highlighting MADtv's most popular recurring characters, like Stuart Larkin (Michael McDonald), Miss Swan (Alex Borstein), and Lorraine Swanson (Mo Collins).
#1305	November 3, 2007	Carlos Mencia	To celebrate MADtv's 13th season and its first season in a new studio, Britney Spears (Nicole Parker) makes an appearance similar to her lackluster performance at the 2007 Video Music Awards; On "24 with Bobby Lee", Bobby Lee and Carlos Mencia try to stop a terrorist on an airplane who isn't a Muslim; 50 Cent (Jordan Peele) cries over being famous in his latest music video; a teen girl's (Arden Myrin) new boyfriend is Master Chief (Jordan Peele) from the video game Halo; two-part parody of To Catch a Predator where a crazy black man named Melvin Dufrane (Jordan Peele) and Master Chief from Halo (also Jordan Peele) get in trouble for soliciting sex from a minor; Arden Myrin goes on the red carpet for Family Guy's 100th Episode Celebration.	Johnny Sanchez's first episode
#1306	November 10, 2007	Joey Fatone	iPod commercial parody features Leslie Feist (Nicole Parker) singing about Apple constantly changing their iPods to the tune of her hit "1, 2, 3, 4"; a bloodied Crista Flanagan tells Keegan-Michael Key how she killed a pack of feral little girls just to get tickets to a Hannah Montana concert; Joey Fatone stars in a reality show about air guitar musicians looking to hit the big time; parody of NBC's "The Bionic Woman" has lesbian undertones; tabloid news show "Hollywood Lip Service" highlights instances of older, more established celebrities exposing themselves; Jordan Peele, Bobby Lee, and Johnny Sanchez show racially stereotypical takes on a pancake commercial.	Anjelah Johnson's first episode
#1307	November 17, 2007	Mo Collins, Debra Wilson	Lorraine Swanson (Mo Collins) visits Universal Universal Studios. Whitney Houston (Debra Wilson) performs "Pulling Through", Gotcha! Action News (Jordan Peele, Nicole Parker), Rice and Beans: The Heartland Tour (Bobby Lee, Johnny Sanchez); parents (Nicole Parker, Jordan Peele, Michael McDonald, Crista Flanagan) discuss bizarre ways of getting high without the use of illegal drugs.	300th episode special; With this episode, Mo Collins and Michael McDonald become the only two cast members in history to appear in the 100th, 200th, and 300th episodes.
#1308	November 24, 2007	Kathy Griffin, Jon Reep	Music video parody of Rihanna's "Umbrella" has Hillary Clinton (Nicole Parker) madly in love with Barack Obama (Keegan-Michael Key); new feature player Dan Oster reads a snippet of a romance novel he wrote himself. Bobby Lee and Johnny Sanchez show the third part of their film, Rice And Beans: The Heartland Tour. Bon Qui Qui (Anjelah Johnson) suffers customers gladly at King Burger.	Dan Oster's first episode; last episode to air at the Music Box Theater until the end of the 2007-2008 Writers' Guild of America strike
#1309	February 2, 2008	Serena Williams	Parody of Avril Lavigne's music video Girlfriend, which reveals that Li'l Mama (Daheli Hall) was only called to give Avril Lavigne street cred and that Lavigne's song is a rip-off of Toni Basil's "Mickey"; Bobby Lee gets in over his head when he does motion capture for a fantasy video game; an unseen viewer watches a Spanish variety show instead of news about a meteor coming to Earth; Prison Break promo reveals how repetitive the show is; 24 parody where Jack Bauer (Dan Oster) uses his brutal interrogation skills on an old man, an orangutan, and a little boy; parody of Criss Angel's Mindfreak has the illusionist use Flava Flav (Jordan Peele) in his act. A Native American drug addict (Keegan-Michael Key) runs for President in 2008 (three part sketch).	Because of the 2007 WGA strike, this episode was mostly sketches from past episodes and prerecorded sketches scheduled to air in episodes that were cancelled. No scenes were taped at the Music Box Theater; Daheli Hall's first episode
#1310	February 9, 2008		Crista Flanagan and Bobby Lee train to be surfers. Spoof of Disney's Hannah Montana where Miley (Crista Flanagan) tells her friend Lilly (Arden Myrin) about attending a late night private party after her concert with Amy Winehouse (Nicole Parker), Matthew McConaughey (Dan Oster), Lance Armstrong, and P. Diddy (Jordan Peele) where she eventually gives in and gets addicted to drugs. Two friends (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) get involved in a knock-knock joke contest. A Chinese man (Bobby Lee) is hired to test toys for traces of lead.	Because of the 2007 WGA strike, this episode was mostly sketches from past episodes and prerecorded sketches scheduled to air in episodes that were cancelled. No scenes were taped at the Music Box Theater.
#1311	February 16, 2008		Parody of the Women's Murder Club has the women gossipping during an investigation; an all-new installment of Bobby and Johnny's Rice And Beans: The Heartland Tour, plus the classic John Madden popcorn sketch. Three-part claymation sketch where unlikely actors try to do a romantic scene with a beautiful actress. A husband (Jordan Peele) thinks his wife (Crista Flanagan) hired a teenage babysitter (Arden Myrin) to come over for a threesome. A spoof of BBC news, featuring a group of ugly British anchors. Bobby Lee's wilderness vacation goes awry.	Even though the 2007-2008 WGA strike ended the week this episode premiered, this episode (much like the previous two) still contained pretaped sketches that were scheduled to air on episodes that ended up getting cancelled and sketches from past episodes. No scenes were taped at the Music Box Theater.
#1312	March 29, 2008		A parody film trailer for a sequel to the film Juno shows the title character (Crista Flanagan) kidnapping and killing a hobo to harvest his organs. A two-part parody of the reality show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew appears parodies of Ashley Tisdale and Aaron Carter. In a thinly-veiled parody of the Eliot Spitzer scandal, press conference reporters criticize a deposed governor's (Michael McDonald) cuckolded wife (Crista Flanagan) for being oblivious to his infidelity.
#1313	April 5, 2008	Kat Von D, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Cedric the Entertainer	Sketches include a parody of the E! reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians, a parody of Snoop Dogg's video, Sensual Seduction about paying taxes, a commercial parody for the board game version of Grand Theft Auto, and a new NBC game show that's been affected by the Writer's Guild strike and the dumbing down of American audiences.
#1314	April 19, 2008	Neil Patrick Harris	Parody of Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious; a former Vietcong (Bobby Lee) appears in a political ad attacking John McCain, followed by an attack ad for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton; parody of will.i.am's (Jordan Peele) video "Yes, We Can" with Kim Jong-Il (Bobby Lee); The Mannequin Killer (Michael McDonald) returns, with Neil Patrick Harris as a fellow mannequin trying to stop him; parody of The Moment of Truth with Connie Chung (Bobby Lee) and Maury Povich (Michael McDonald); a still-frame phone conversation about a VCR repair (two parts); Melvin Dufrane (Jordan Peele) calls the cops about a missing bag of marijuana; a salesman called The Rude Jew sells mattresses; a fashion makeover show where the hosts (Nicole Parker; Jordan Peele) kidnap and torture a fashion victim (Dan Oster); a fat woman (Crista Flanagan) doesn't understand a simple diet plan; Melvin Dufrane (Jordan Peele) accuses a woman of running down his friend.
#1315	April 26, 2008	Dominic Monaghan	The show opens with an American Idol parody called Albanian Idol; Bobby Lee performs Shakespeare with Dominic Monaghan; Bobby Lee and Dominic Monaghan star in a Lost parody with even more plot twists, flashbacks, and flash forwards; Jordan Peele records a YouTube video message in response to a Star Wars parody; Johnny Gan (Bobby Lee) and Pongo return to review superhero movies; three-part T-Mobile commercial parody where Charles Barkley (Keegan-Michael Key) calls Dwyane Wade (Jordan Peele) about covering up a death; a FOX News anchor (Arden Myrin) interviews Latino hoodlums on the 2008 Presidential election; a fantasy film trailer about a boy who goes to a magic wonderland while his father (Michael McDonald) is accused of murdering him; Arden Myrin and Dominic Monaghan close the previous sketch with a PSA about kids disappearing into magic worlds; a potential employee (Keegan-Michael Key) gets tested by his would-be boss (Michael McDonald); a heartbreaking commercial featuring abused dogs in a kennel is really a commercial for chain-link fences.	Nominated for Outstanding Art Direction For A Variety, Music Or Nonfiction Programming at this years Emmy's
#1316	May 17, 2008	Dave Navarro	On this installment of 24 with Bobby Lee, Dave Navarro discovers that Bobby Lee has a boil he got from lying to a blind girl. Parody of hearttouching ghetto breakthrough films, "Spin Up"; Sesame Street parody shows the fun side to living on the brink of economic collapse when Big Bird is forced to live at home after his nest foreclosed and The Cookie Monster (voice of Dan Oster) has to cut his foot off after revealing that he's a diabetic with no health insurance; hyper gym teacher Coach Hines (Keegan-Michael Key) returns to teach his class the art of war while on a paintball course. Spoof of the FreeCreditReport.com commercials where the teenaged singing spokesman's (Dan Oster) life goes downhill after not paying his credit card bill.	Season finale; last episode for castmembers Dan Oster, Daheli Hall, Anjelah Johnson, Jordan Peele, and Michael McDonald.

DVD releases

Season thirteen of MADtv has not been released on DVD.

External links

• MADtv - Official Website
• MADtv at the Internet Movie Database
• MADtv at TV.com

Preceded by Season 12

MADtv Season 13

Succeeded by Season 14