Talkshow With Spike Feresten (2006-2009)

Tom Green makes an appearance on Talk Show with Spike Feresten. (Photo: Fox)

Starring: Spike Feresten, Jerry Seinfeld, Andy Richter

Comedy writer Spike Feresten was the first to admit that he was an unlikely candidate for talk-show superstardom. Having gotten his start with David Letterman, the slight, bespectacled Feresten achieved prominence as the author of the notorious "Soup Nazi" episode on Seinfeld. On the first episode of the weekly, half-hour Talkshow with Spike Feresten, the self-effacing host referred to his new gig as "on the job" training, and bent over backward to prove how eager he was to please the crowd. In hopes of setting himself apart from other laborers in the chat-show genre, Feresten saw to it that his show had no band, no sidekick and no announcer. Otherwise it was business as usual, with celebrity interviews and recurring features such as "Idiot Paparazzi" (in which a camera crew wandered around taking photos of everyday folks who looked like celebrities--sort of), the on-the-spot reports by a local newsman (Jeff Wichter) who eternally showed up at the wrong place at the wrong time, and other segments bearing names like "Unfair Target" and "Unknown." Debuting September 16, 2006 on the Fox network, Talkshow with Spike Feresten was seen in most markets as a companion piece for the network's Saturday late-night sketch series MAD TV. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide