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Mr. Show with Bob and David

television series

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ257643 ↗
Source-derived summary

Mr. Show with Bob and David, also known as Mr. Show, is an American sketch comedy television series starring and hosted by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. It aired on HBO from November 3, 1995, to December 28, 1998.

Cross and Odenkirk introduce most episodes as semi-fictionalized versions of themselves, before transitioning to a mixture of on-stage sketches performed in front of a live audience and pre-taped segments. The show features an ensemble of actors and of alternative comedians as both cast members and writers, including Sarah Silverman, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, Karen Kilgariff, Tom Kenny, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Brian Posehn, Scott Adsit, Jill Talley, Scott Aukerman, Jerry Minor, Jay Johnston, and Dino Stamatopoulos.

It was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards and one Golden Satellite Award. The show is currently available on HBO Max.

Format

Each episode of Mr. Show consists of a series of sketches, at times surreal, each one transitioning to the next by a link in a manner reminiscent of Monty Python's Flying Circus or The State.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Mr. Show with Bob and David” is television series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Show, David and television, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1995, 1998—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Show, David and television is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “television series” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q257643. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1995 and 1998.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Mr. Show with Bob and David”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Mr. Show with Bob and David primary sources, Mr. Show with Bob and David archive and Show research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mr. Show with Bob and David”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Mr. Show with Bob and David” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.