NewsRadio: Season 04 (1997) Reviews

There's a bit of unanticipated irony in the opening episode of NewsRadio's fourth season, with Jon Lovitz cast as a would-be suicide who perches himself on the ledge outside the office of radio station WNYX's news director Dave Nelson (Dave Foley). One year later, Lovitz would join the cast as a regular, replacing the beloved Phil Hartman, who was murdered shortly after filming wrapped on Season Four. A quartet of subsequent episodes feature a story arc with Lauren Graham guesting as a manic efficiency expert. The abrupt departure of series regular Khandi Alexander obliges the writers to come up with a "Rashomon"-style episodes wherein everyone has a different story as to why abrasive news anchor Catherine Duke has left WNYX. Also, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross of Mr. Show fame, joined by one of that series' writers, Dave Posehn, show up as three members of the singing quartet to which Dave had once belonged; news reporter Lisa (Maura Tierney) becomes one of the guys--almost literally--when the station's other female staffers call in sick--and in a two-parter, pompous anchorman Bill (Phil Hartman) proves to be jaw-droppingly efficient when he briefly takes charge of the station. Best of the fourth-season batch is the fantasy finale "Sinking Ship", wherein the cast finds themselves on the deck of the "Titanic" way back in April of 1912, with resourceful maintenance man Joe (Joe Rogan) endeavoring to repair the iceberg damage with his ever-present roll of duct tape. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi