Too Funny to Fail (2017)

Now streaming on Hulu
Director: Josh Greenbaum
Starring: Dana Carvey, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Robert Smigel

Hulu’s original documentary Too Funny to Fail is an oral history of the creation and ultimate demise of ABC’s The Dana Carvey Show, which, despite a big advertising push, aired for only 7 episodes in 1996.

The Dana Carvey Show is perfect fodder for a documentary, so naturally this is an entertaining film. Carvey, at the height of his stardom from SNL and Wayne’s World films, got his own sketch comedy series at ABC, penciled in for the 9:30 slot right after Home Improvement. He built a staff of relative unknowns, but they’re names which now dominate the comedy world: showrunner Robert Smigel, stars Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert, writers Louis C.K., Charlie Kaufman, and Jon Glaser. It was a veritable dream team of comedy minds, yet it proved way too subversive for prime time audiences tuning in to Tim Allen’s toothless brand of family humor.

Too Funny to Fail does a nice (but incomplete) job of interviewing the principal players in the entire affair, both from the show side and from ABC’s. I’d like to have seen more – they get Louis CK’s thoughts via a clip from an old interview from a late night show, while Kaufman is hardly mentioned aside from the “building the team” segment. Still, Carell and Colbert are giant enough to carry the doc, and they’re so clearly still in love with their time on the show, their effusiveness transfers to the viewer. Smigel is a great interviewee, and Dana Carvey Show superfan Bill Hader also shows up to rave about his devotion to the show due to sketches like “Waiters who are Nauseated by Food” and “Grandma the Clown”.

It’s these big personalities that make Too Funny to Fail work. It’s a legitimately funny film. It highlights some hilarious sketches, but the interviews also provide laughs. Seeing Carvey, Colbert, and Carell react (along with you) to an old ABC dual promo for Home Improvement and The Dana Carvey Show alone makes this worth the time investment. At that point, you realize director Josh Greenbaum has done what he needed to with the doc – pay some service to the greatness of The Dana Carvey Show while also illustrating why it absolutely never stood a chance of being an adequate fit for prime time TV.

Is it Watchlist-worthy? Yes – Grandma the Clown would tell you kids to watch it before it’s too late.