The TV IV:IVy Awards/2006/Best Talk, Variety or Sketch Series

Candidates to be considered the Best Talk, Variety or Sketch Series which first aired one or more episodes in the United States between June 1, 2005 and May 31, 2006. Please read carefully the Definitions and Guidelines before putting a candidate up for nomination.

Definitions

talk, variety or sketch series

Any series which fits the definitions of either talk show, variety show or sketch comedy as they are defined in the TV IV Glossary, excluding those shows produced by network news divisions for the purposes of discussing current events, sports or weather (e.g.: Meet the Press, Crossfire, The O'Reilly Factor, SportsCenter, Inside the NFL, etc., none of which are eligible.) Note that fake news is not news, even if it is sometimes more informative and insightful than the news.

Guidelines

Please feel free to propose as many or as few candidates as you like in each category. If you change your mind or wish to retract a candidate, don't worry about editing the page, as it could cause some confusion down the road. (If you propose one unworthy enough, it will most likely not make it past the nominating process, anyway.) Feel free to discuss yours or others' proposals as much or as little as you choose. Tell us why you feel a candidate should be considered, or why someone else's candidate is a horrible choice and should not be considered. (Just remember to follow standard TV IV discussion rules regarding civility.)

Please mark all proposed candidates in bold, and link the show titles, even if the linked articles are empty or stubs. Try to avoid using bold elsewhere in the discussion. (To mark a candidate in bold, surround the name with two sets of three apostrophes, and use double brackets for linking, '''[[like this]]'''.)

Candidates Discussion

• The Colbert Report and The Daily Show: These two seem so obvious I don't really see the need to belabour the point.

Seconded. --Lampbane 23:30, 9 June 2006 (EDT)

• Late Night with Conan O'Brien: Hot on the heels of the announcement that he would be taking over the reins of The Tonight Show on Jay Leno's departure, Conan had one of his best, most memorable years yet. There was his trip to Finland, his sell-out trip to Chicago, his week-long visit from Neil Young and his show-long visit from U2 (complete with "U2 Secrets"). He was even reunited with Andy Richter in Chicago for a driving around and an "In the Year 2000" piece, reminding everyone of the magic that was that pairing.
• Real Time with Bill Maher: Bill Maher has always been at his best when he had something to be snarky about, whether it was the O.J. Simpson trial or the Monica Lewinsky scandal. This year, he had plenty—not just the continuing War in Iraq, but the Hurricane Katrina debacle was a field day for him. Maher more than rose to the challenge and put forth the best season of his series yet.
• Saturday Night Live: A year or two ago, it would have been, for me, unthinkable to seriously suggest putting this series up for nomination. But this year, something changed. Or rather, four things changed—specifically, Andy Samberg (king of the digital shorts), Bill Hader (master of impressions, including ones which aren't clichéd), Jason Sudeikis and Kristen Wiig (aka, the "Two A-Holes"). These four new cast members are more than just a breath of fresh air; they are a veritable wind gale blowing the doors and windows out, and they finally gave Chris Parnell and Amy Poehler someone new to play with rather than having to lug the whole show around on their backs. For the first time since the late 80s/early 90s cast of Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Mike Meyers, et al. left, it really seems like the old SNL warhorse might have some fight left in it, and future contributions from these four promise to perhaps return the series to being worthy of its institutional reputation.

JCaesar 06:14, 3 June 2006 (EDT)

• Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. DCEdwards1966 | Talk 19:52, 4 June 2006 (EDT)

Moved from The TV IV:IVy Awards/2006/Best Comedy Series:

• Wonder Showzen - I hated the last two episodes, but the first 6 were as brilliant as the first season, proving that you can go really far on apparently a very low budget, all you have to do is make kids say funny things and have some puppets piss people off.

--Boco_T 02:35, 4 June 2006 (EDT)