Dave Itzkoff interviews Dana Carvey for the Times today. Dana talks about The Dana Carvey Show, which has just been released on DVD. The show’s staff included Robert Smigel, Dino Stamatopolous, Louis CK and Charlie Kaufman, and the stars included Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert.
Besides sketches like “Nauseated Waiters,” “Skinheads from Maine,” and “Grandma the Clown,” it included this tour de force from Heather Morgan, “First Ladies as Dogs.”
I watched every episode of The Dana Carvey Show — from the first to the last. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t a smash hit, and when it was cancelled I was devastated. My high school buddies Dan Kurtz and John King and I talked about it at lunch the next day every week. Carvey’s right, though, maybe opening a sketch show in the family hour with a sketch featuring then-President Clinton suckling barnyard animals at his teats to prove how nurturing he was wasn’t long for the network TV world.
Here’s what Dana says about the show getting canceled, and about his career now:
The two things that can hurt you are if you need money or if you need fame. Those are the things that can be your Achilles heel. But if you don’t need money and you don’t need fame, then you’re free. You see how that works?