Fox’s Satiric Little Secret Finds a Growing Audience

Regis Philbin and his wife Joy watch it every Saturday night from their weekend home in Connecticut. Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins view it with their children--ages 8, 11 and 15--who choose the hour as part of the 90 minutes of TV viewing they are allotted each week. Among teens, a small piece of the total viewing pie but one that advertisers crave, Fox executives say it now tops NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”

So why is it that in its six years of spoofing pop culture, “Mad TV” has managed to elude most adults, many of whom don’t even know they have an alternative to “SNL”?

According to three-year cast member Michael McDonald, a staple of L.A.’s Groundlings comedy troupe from 1992-98, the blame lies in Fox’s lack of promotion.

“NBC knows how to promote their stuff better,” says McDonald, miffed that Fox avoids promoting the show during the network’s similarly edgy “Malcolm in the Middle,” “That ‘70s Show” and “The Simpsons,” which appeal to younger viewers. “Fox can’t do it. They just don’t know how.”

“We’ve told them that we feel like the bastard children of the network,” says original cast member Nicole Sullivan, who plans to leave the show at season’s end for her own ABC sitcom (“Me and My Needs”). “I don’t think any of us are afraid to make it clear that we feel legitimately ignored by Fox in many, many ways.”

David Nevins, Fox’s executive vice president of programming, acknowledges that the peeved cast voices some valid complaints.

“ ‘Mad TV’ is unfortunately always going to feel like the stepchild because it’s the one non-prime-time show [at the network],” says Nevins. “This has been a massive rebuilding year for Fox, and most of the focus of on-air promotion in prime time has gone to launching prime-time shows.”

But even with limited on-air promotion and a budget that’s been slashed from its initial seasons, “Mad TV” is gaining ratings and generating increasing buzz.

One explanation, from executive producer Dick Blasucci is the show’s famous fans, whom Blasucci says he’s helped recruit for cameos. In recent weeks, “Angel” star David Boreanaz, “Buffy’s” Seth Green and Freddie Prinze Jr. have appeared.

“My kids aren’t interested in seeing any of my movies at all, but they love seeing me on things like this,” says Sarandon, speaking backstage as a makeup artist transformed her into the tooth fairy for a skit that aired two weeks ago. “I don’t watch much TV, but once I saw ‘Mad TV,’ I thought it was so outrageous, inventive and fun.”

Tonight, Philbin returns for his second visit. His motivation (besides fun and a $700 paycheck): exposure to millions of teens. “Everybody wants that young demographic,” says Philbin. There’s also the privilege of working with his daughter J.J., who joined the show this season as a writer.

Philbin will do his second sendup of his hugely popular “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” spoofing the ABC game show’s celebrity edition with “Mad TV” cast members appearing as Lance Bass of ‘N Sync, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jay Leno.

Staying true to its magazine roots, “Mad TV” continues to unabashedly mock the world of pop culture, offering scathing parodies of movies, TV shows, music videos and celebrities. Famous for her less-than-flattering portrayals of Whoopi Goldberg, Whitney Houston and Oprah Winfrey, original cast member Debra Wilson says, “If you’re part of pop culture and you take yourself too seriously, we’re going to make fun of you.”

Sullivan believes the real-life antics of some celebrities, including Downey, Houston and Brett Butler, practically beg for spoofing, and for that she makes no apologies. But when “innocent” personalities are slammed, she attempts to cushion the blow. “I ask myself, if that were me, what would make me go, ‘Oh, they’re teasing me,’ and what would make me go, ‘Oh gosh, I want to cry.’ ”

Fellow cast member Alex Borstein believes that “Mad TV” at times crosses the line; she cites a skit from a few years ago that spoofed the film “Liar Liar” with Bill Clinton (played by Will Sasso) appearing in the Jim Carrey role. In the sketch, Clinton, unable to tell a lie, proceeded to tell daughter Chelsea how ugly she was.

Says Borstein, “Sometimes, for the sake of having edge and maybe getting some press coverage out of it, we take an easy angle and slam someone.”

Just how far to mock celebrities is becoming a topic of debate, now that celebrity guest stars are becoming a more frequent presence on the show. But McDonald warns that “Mad TV” must avoid becoming as overtly celebrity-friendly as “SNL.”

“On ‘SNL,’ if they have Tom Hanks or Robin Williams or Hillary Clinton come on and do their show, it’s hard to then turn around and make fun of those people,” says McDonald. “Whereas the fact that we’re just a bunch of peons lets us get away with more.”

Philbin admits he would decline to participate on a show that mocked him or his friends in a cruel manner. And “Mad TV” has reportedly already made an enemy out of Rosie O’Donnell, who was allegedly outraged by Borstein’s portrayal of her as a “closeted lesbian” who hits on her young female guests.

“The first time we did Rosie, she spoke about it on her show the next day,” recalls Borstein, describing the sketch (which she did not write) as overly cruel. “Apparently, [Rosie] was very offended and said to people on her staff that none of us were going to be allowed on her show.” O’Donnell denied any behind-the-scenes brouhaha.

But three-year vet Mo Collins believes “Mad TV” must continue to push the envelope to live up to its outrageous, edgy reputation.

Still, even she objects to some of the show’s occasional racial slurs. “When you hear [a slur] you can’t breathe for a second and you have to remind yourself what satire is,” says Collins.

When Sarandon was a guest on the show last year, she found herself in the middle of controversy by appearing in a sketch with Borstein’s Miss Swan, a character perceived by Asian viewers as a cruel ethnic stereotype. In Swan’s defense, Borstein claims the character is based on her Hungarian-Mongolian grandmother with the looks of singer-actress Bjork: not so much Asian, she says, as “a big mishmash of [stuff].”

“I think the Asian community is taking themselves much too seriously,” says Wilson. She claims the African American community has reacted positively to her ensemble of characters (including the wildly popular Bonifa Latifah Halifah Sharifa Jackson).

But some actors, according to Collins, have refused to perform material they found objectionable. For instance, 6-foot-3-inch Sasso, who lost 200 pounds during the last year to get to his current 240, often found himself, at his heaviest, playing “fat” characters: Clinton, Kenny Rogers, Elvis Presley, Steven Seagal and Liza Minnelli. Sasso says he has vetoed mean-spirited jokes.

An equal-opportunity offender, “Mad TV” also has a tendency to mock people who use wheelchairs and who have birth defects.

Philbin, the father of a physically disabled son, believes that these jokes provide easy laughs for teens but are unnecessary. “Sometimes it gets pretty harsh,” he says.

Harsh or not, it’s a formula that seems to be working. Beginning last season, Nevins says, “Mad TV’s” ratings in all demographic groups have been on the rise.

Nevins is seriously considering showing “Mad TV” specials in prime time “to build ‘Mad TV’ to that next level,” giving the cast the exposure it so desperately seeks.

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* “Mad TV” is shown Saturday nights at 11 on Fox. The network has rated it TV-14-DLSV (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14, with special advisories for suggestive dialogue, coarse language, sexual situations and violence).