Comedians Who Went Too Far

Dana Carvey's eponymous 1996 variety show on ABC remains an important piece of television for something with such a short run. Salon called the premiere episode a "rousing blast of kamikaze satire, much of it in borderline-questionable taste." It was a launchpad for Steve Carrell and Stephen Colbert, and the writers' room was arguably one of the greatest in TV history. Despite this, the show only lasted seven of a planned 10 weeks. This has often been blamed on one sketch that went too far... and what's even worse is that it was the very first one.

Each episode saw the show renamed after a brand in the style of vintage TV variety shows, and the premiere episode was called the "Taco Bell Dana Carvey Show." The show followed Home Improvement and led into NYPD Blue, but nobody working on the Dana Carvey Show had actually watched Home Improvement and didn't know it was family-friendly.

This became an instant problem due to the opening sketch, which saw Carvey as Bill Clinton, addressing the nation from the Oval Office. He spent much of the bit making fun of the 1996 Republican primary field, but in the last two minutes, to prove he was a "nurturing" president, he pulled his shirt off, revealing several teats; a series of babies, dogs, and cats started breastfeeding from him. 

ABC had a minute-by-minute breakdown of the show from Nielsen, and found out that several million viewers changed channels after the shirt came off. Everyone immediately knew they were in trouble. Taco Bell and Pizza Hut pulled the advertising, saying some sketches went "too far." The show only lasted a few more weeks, but we're still talking about the Bill Clinton breastfeeding sketch to this day. Ahead of its time, indeed.