The Trevor Moore Show (partially found comedy series; 1997-1999)

Title card, featuring a 16-year-old Moore.

Status: Partially Found

The Trevor Moore Show was a short-lived American public-access show that aired in Charlottesville, VA, from 1997-1999. Notable for being the first television effort of the late comedian Trevor Moore (who later became known for founding the sketch comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’ Know), the show supposedly ran for 16 episodes. Moore shot the show with his friends and acted as producer, writer, creator, and actor. A total of eight clips have surfaced, but not any full episodes.

Content

The show was a sketch series, similar to that of the much later Whitest Kids’ self-titled cable series. It was known for its dark humor (which later led to its cancellation), and provided sketches based on social commentary and general absurdity.^[1] Many of the sketches were filmed in public, with unwitting strangers as the butt of the jokes. Many other sketches parodied elements of pop culture, such as one that parodied COPS and a scene that parodies the famous Rocky training montage.

Of the recurring segments, some of them featured a character known as The Giant Walkin' Talkin' Box, played by a person with a box over their head.^[2] One of the found segments involved taking the Box around town and trying to get him on the cover of a local newspaper.^[3] Others involved prank calls, such as “Dialing Shiffletts”, a recurring segment in which Moore would go through the phonebook and dial-up (mostly rural) citizens with the last name Shifflett. One sketch, “Heaven”, was later recycled into The Whitest Kids U’ Know.^[4]

Broadcast History

The show began production in 1997, when Moore, at the age of 15, went to Charlottesville Public Access Television and began working on it with a few friends. The show became a hit with local college students at the University Of Virginia, and developed a dedicated cult following (though its edgy humor also led to its fair share of critics). The show’s popularity led to it being picked up by PAX-TV (now known as Ion Television) in 1998, and was aired every week on its Virginia affiliates.

PAX was a family-friendly network, but Trevor and his friends (who dubbed themselves the “Eat Muffin Productions" crew)^[5] continued to produce the show with its signature dark humor, under the impression that it would only air late at night. However, Moore later found out that the network had been re-airing the episodes at 9 a.m. on Saturdays, leading to an influx of complaints. In addition, some sketches were deemed too dark to be let on the air at all, such as two relating to roadkill and homeless people, respectively. In 1999, the PAX incarnation of the show was finally cancelled for being too offensive, after 11 months on the air.

Status

No full episodes of the show have surfaced from the PAX run, or from the original public access run. A total of 7 sketches were uploaded to YouTube in 2009, by a user who reportedly received a VHS tape of the show from one of Trevor’s relatives. When asked in a Reddit AMA about whether or not he had the old tapes from the show, Moore stated, “I do. I'm embarrassed by them. I'm 16 and my sketches are kind of weak,” implying the chance that he will ever release them is incredibly unlikely.^[6] Moore would later tragically pass away in 2021, and it is unknown if his relatives are still in possession of the tapes

Though there are undoubtedly many more that are not accounted for, the list of all known lost sketches is as follows:

• All of the “Dialing Shiffletts” segments (one known segment involved thanking the recipient for donating to a gay pride organization, and telling them their name would be in the local paper)

• “What's in the Bag?”, a sketch where people had to guess what animal was in a bag by hitting it with a hockey stick

• A sketch featuring Trevor going door-to-door in low-income neighborhoods and singing Kwanza carols

• A fake documentary about a newly discovered colony of people who explode when exposed to cameras

• “I Wonder Who Died Today?”, a fake newscast filmed in a senior citizens’ home

• Sketch involving recreating scenes from Hamlet using roadkill (unaired)

• Sketch involving standing next to a homeless man with a sign reading "Will work for less food than this guy" (unaired)

• "Hiding from a Blind Guy" (nothing is known about this sketch, aside from the title)

• Sketch involving a contest-winner guest star making up German words