Mad TV/Trivia


 * Hey It's That Guy and Retroactive Recognition - Alex Borstein (the voice of Lois Griffin on Family Guy) was a Mad TV cast member. In fact, she had a news reporter character on MADtv who sounded like Tricia Takanawa and always addressed Diane (Lawyer-Trabajo, not Simmons) in her reports, even asking where Diane was in a news sketch after Nicole Sullivan had left.
 * Phil La Marr also falls under this. Before he did voice acting in shows like Samurai Jack (as the title character) and Futurama (as Jamaican accountant Hermes Conrad), he was a cast member on MADtv (though before MADtv, he had a small, but memorable role in Pulp Fiction [which explains why in the show's parody called "Gump Fiction," LaMarr screamed, "Not again!")
 * Indeed, several of MADtv's actors have found successful careers in voice acting (with the possible exception of Taran Killam [Mad TV's youngest cast member at age 19], who, after a year on MADtv and eight years of bit roles and underground comedy, joined the cast of another late-night, long-running sketch comedy show). Unfortunately, many of the later performers (like Crista Flanagan and Nicole Parker) have found themselves stuck in the Seltzer and Friedberg movies.
 * Jeff Richards did the same thing as Killam (stay one year on MADtv before crossing over to SNL), only he joined SNL immediately after his tenure on MADtv.
 * Mo Collins is currently Recurring Character Joan Callamezzo on Parks and Recreation. Joan has a somewhat antagonistic relationship with the main character Leslie Knope, played by Amy Poehler. So essentially, a MADtv alum is playing the rival of an SNL alum (how apt).
 * Sibling Rivalry: Josh Meyers (a cast member on MADtv for the show's eighth and ninth seasons) is the younger brother of Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers in Real Life.
 * What Could Have Been - Seth Macfarlane (the man behind Family Guy, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show) was originally contracted to do cartoon shorts for this show, but backed out in favor of creating his own TV series for FOX. Had MacFarlane taken the offer, he would have created Family Guy for Mad TV before spinning it off into its own show, much like Matt Groening did with The Simpsons on The Tracy Ullman Show.