Then, of course, there’s the issue of The Weird Place being a family business. Back in 1992, Carvey was famously in the running to become the next host of Late Night on NBC, a job that went to his new benefactor Conan O’Brien, but he turned down the gig because he was worried about such a demanding job turning him into an absentee father for his newborn son, Dex. Now, Carvey is bringing both Dex and Carvey’s youngest son Thomas with him on the newest entertainment adventure as the father and his two sons make up The Weird Place‘s development team, and the brothers serve as co-creators.
Everyone knows that nepotism is rampant in entertainment, but usually these stars just stick their kids in front of the camera and make the rest of us accept that Hollywood is basically a gated community. With Carvey’s two sons writing the podcast, The Weird Place is going to feel like a father-son trip that probably didn’t need the rest of us to third-wheel the bonding moment.
Finally, why are they doing a Twilight Zone parody in 2022? The nostalgia market for spooky sci-fi stories with gravelly narration dried up last year when the reboot series developed by Jordan Peele was canceled after two seasons. We’ve already mined every last bit of parody potential from a series that first ended almost sixty years ago – the comedy community should have outlawed any further Twilight Zone spoofs the moment Futurama introduced “The Scary Door.”
Nevertheless, Carvey and his supporters at Team Coco are all smiles going into the podcast’s launch. Said O’Brien about the upcoming series, “Dana Carvey is superhumanly funny and one of my comedy heroes. Getting to work with Dana is the comedy equivalent of being handed the keys to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.” And Carvey is no stranger to the podcast format – he and fellow SNL alumnus David Spade co-host Fly on the Wall a nostalgia-soaked behind-the-scenes story factory from their time at 30 Rock.
We hope to be proved wrong by the Carvey family when The Weird Place releases on Monday. We also hope that they show restraint with the inevitable pooping and farting sound effects – we don’t need another Devlin Bowman.