2/5 ~Groan~ A few cute moments, but overall a big disappointment
  by Mad Max (Seattle, WA USA)
I was very much looking forward to the reprisal of SpaceBalls as an animated series. I'm a Futurama fan, and enjoyed the Family Guy Star Wars spoof (called Blue Harvest). In fact, I like most of the sci-fi comedies and spoofs, animated or otherwise.

But this animated series (13 episodes) was, for the most part, a disappointment. I must admit I enjoyed the characters Lone Star & Barf, and I would have much preferred a show about the adventures of the two of them - traveling through the galaxy, getting into trouble.

This series relied much too heavily on the old Yiddish jokes from the original movie ("Use the Schwartz!"), but it added no new humor. And the toilet humor and boob jokes were simply overwhelming. (This show is probably not a good idea for kids)

For example, I was particularly looking forward to one episode, called Hairy Putter, which I had hoped would spoof both Harry Potter and Star Wars at the same time. But except for one or two brief references to Harry Potter, the show was mostly toilet humor. In the episode, Lone Star uses a special golf club (the Hairy Putter) against President Skroob in a golf tournament. Instead of doing anything creative or witty, the entire episode focused on genital jokes - he swings his "hairy shaft", he grabs his "balls", etc.

I don't mind a few "base" jokes from time to time, and I am by no means a prude. But this comedy lacked any substance - it was basically childish, school yard humor. It didn't make sense to have so many sex jokes, when there is soooo much material within the sci-fi canon to have fun with!

In fact, none of the episodes seemed to remember that the show is a Star Wars parody. Nothing here (except for the characters) reflected Star Wars or the original SpaceBalls. All of the episodes seemed to spoof other popular shows - American Idol, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic Park, Grand Theft Auto, etc. But none of the plots were coherent or entertaining, and it never really made sense why Star Wars characters would now be spoofing something else. Did he just run out of ideas? It came off as a cheap trick to try to ride on the coattails of anything/everything that is popular.

Beyond the poor execution, it was really sad that no science fiction/futuristic elements were used in the show. In fact, because the show was spoofing current themes (like American Idol), the show almost seemed like it was set in the late 20th Century. I kept waiting for aliens, space ships, unique/creative technology... and it never came.

More importantly, the show didn't seem to understand that updating a show means to make it fresh - and it falls flat here. This had such huge potential, but throwing in a few contemporary cultural references (like Grand Theft Auto or American Idol) didn't add anything to the show. It is no surprise to me that this never made it on any US cable channel.

One of the primary reasons for this show's failure is that Mel Brooks was so involved in the production - writing, acting, and even the music. I can understand nobody wanted to say this to Mel Brook's face, but he is simply unable to update these jokes and characters for a new era/new audience. Mel Brooks also wrote the theme song, which is ~terribly~ annoying.

I don't want to be too harsh, because some of the episodes were mildly amusing. Basically, Brooks developed this idea 20 years ago which resonated with a lot of people -- now it's time to let it go! Let someone else update & develop it into something fresh and relevant to audiences today.

As it stands, this show is a "series of unfortunate events" and bad ideas, which converged. I wish that after one season of bad writing and directing by Mel Brooks, he would pass the torch to somebody else (perhaps development teams at Cartoon Network or Comedy Central). I'd really like to see something fun come out of these concepts and characters. But I'm sorry to report that this series appears to be a commercial complete flop, and it doesn't look like anyone will pick up this series.