Cinemax Comedy Experiment is an

anthology series An anthology series is a written series, radio, television, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different ca ...

broadcast on

Cinemax Cinemax is an American pay television network owned by Home Box Office, Inc., a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched on August 1, 1980, as a "maxi-pay" service to complement the offerings of its sister premium network, HBO (Home Box ...

throughout the mid-to-late 1980s. Every episode was written and directed by a different standup comedian. The series was known for giving full creative freedom to those comedians for their episodes, with Cinemax executives giving few to any notes against anything presented outside of remaining within the time slot. The series came out of a time in the history of

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

when comedy programs were considered premium content due to the high grosses of comedy films at the box office. The program was also an attempt on Cinemax's part to compete with the rising popularity of video stores which affected the network's subscription base and retention. Individuals who created "Experiments" include

Harry Shearer Harry Julius Shearer (born December 23, 1943) is an American actor, comedian, musician, radio host, writer, and producer. Born in Los Angeles, California, Shearer began his career as a child actor. From 1969 to 1976, Shearer was a member of The ...

Chris Elliott Christopher Nash Elliott (born May 31, 1960) is an American actor, comedian and writer known for his surreal sense of humor. He was a regular performer on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' while working as a writer there (1983–1988), created ...

, and

Gilbert Gottfried Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried (February 28, 1955 – April 12, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian and actor, best-known for his exaggerated shrill voice, strong New York dialect, his squint, and his edgy, often-controversial, sense of humor. Hi ...

; occasionally, non-standups were invited to contribute to the show, such as

Garry Trudeau Garretson Beekman Trudeau (born July 21, 1948) is an American cartoonist best known for creating the ''Doonesbury'' comic strip. Trudeau won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1975, making him the first comic strip artist to win a ...

and

Elizabeth Swados Elizabeth Swados (February 5, 1951 – January 5, 2016) was an American writer, composer, musician, choreographer, and theatre director. Swados received Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Book of a Music ...

, who rewrote their

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

show ''

Rap Master Ronnie ''Rap Master Ronnie'' is the name of several musical theater, musical comedies developed by Garry Trudeau and Elizabeth Swados throughout the 1980s, including a 1984 off-Broadway "partisan revue," a music video, and a made for TV movie starring The ...

'' as an episode of the series.Television Reviews: Atkinson, Terry. Cinemax Grades Slump With 'Rap Master Ronnie'. The L.A. Times. 12 February 1988
/ref> The

Firesign Theatre The Firesign Theatre (also known as the Firesigns) was an American surreal humour, surreal comedy troupe who first appeared on November 17, 1966, in a live performance on the Los Angeles radio program ''Radio Free Oz'' on station KPFK FM broad ...

adapted their album '' Eat Or Be Eaten'' as one episode.

Episodes

References

1980s American comedy television series 1980s American anthology television series American English-language television shows Long stubs with short prose {{US-comedy-tv-prog-stub