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July 19, 2006

the lost episodes of dave chappelle

bomani thinks Charlie Murphy and Donnell Rawlings are sellouts.

I dunno if I'd go so far as to say dudes were sellouts. I watched the so-called "Lost Episodes" of the Chappelle Show and mostly felt sad. It's an ugly end to a great era in television. As far as the conduct of the folks who remained behind after Dave jetted, I don't really see much reason to indict them. Charlie and Donnell just worked there, it's not like they were all some big happy comedy family or something. I think the feeling of disappointment with dudes (on my end, at least) had to do with how their being the hosts of those bullshit "lost episodes" punctured a fantasy I'd created of the Chappelle Show as some kind of black media utopia where a bunch of incredibly talented folks came together to do some amazing work (and get paid boocoup $$ for it to boot.) Every time I saw one of the really great episodes I'd mumble to myself that THAT was where I needed to be working, that THOSE were dudes I wanted to spend 10 hours a day with chasing deadlines. Turns out it was a bullshit office full of the standard mix of idealists, hacks, cynics and check-cashers, a run-of-the mill workplace just like any other locale.

I will say that the sketches in the Lost Episodes did have powerful forensic appeal for me, adding up as they did to a map of Dave's creative crack-up. Every single sketch (including the pixie sketch)was about the problem of being post-50MM dollar Dave. The actual pixie sketch didn't strike me as worth quitting over. It was, in the end, just not too funny the way a lot of things are kinda unfunny. I think Dave was just too tired to fix the thing by that point so he just recoiled from the whole, increasingly disgusting scene. From what I understand of his process he rewrote and reshot and reedited things until struck him and his team as right. The pixie sketch seems like something he would have been able to punch into shape first season, but by the time it was shot he had run out of steam, not to mention out of trust that his co-workers shared his vision. It really does happen every day of the week, just not on TV for all to see.

Posted by ebogjonson in screened, on July 19, 2006 11:47 AM