User:Winner TV Madison

Winner TV was a 30 minute sketch comedy TV show produced by middle school students and aired for 21 episodes on WYOU in Madison, WI from 1995-98.

Originally titled "Express Yourself," the first 9 episodes were hosted by the show's creator, Justin Riley. Original cast members were Ian Park, Neil Pohl and Riley. Segments ranged from scripted/improvised sketches to TV and commercial parodies to walk and talks with a camera to mundane activities such as sledding or vacation footage.

Sketches often included 2 Oregami paper puppets, Ms. Nice and Mr. Nasty, both voiced by Riley. Ms. Nice was said to be Riley's secretary. Mr. Nasty had no official title.

Episodes sometimes included segments in which a cast member or guest on the show would be interviewed (as themselves) by another cast member, usually Riley.

As of Ep. 10, "Express Yourself" began transitioning to a new format and was given the title "Winner TV." The show's format was similar to Canada's "SCTV" or "Second City Television" in that each episode followed the broadcast day of a local TV station, WINR-TV, from Bobb, WI--said to be near Green Bay. The call letters were taken from the names of the original cast: "W" for Wisconsin, "I" for Ian Park, "N" for Neil Pohl and "R" for Riley. Sketches became mostly TV show and commercial parodies.

After Episode 13, Park and Pohl had left the show and were no longer listed in the opening credits, however, they were listed in the end credits for episodes 14-17 as Creative Consultants. Despite this, neither Park nor Pohl had any affiliation with the show at this time.

Episode 13 introduced Pat Aspinwall as a guest performer and by Episode 14, Aspinwall was both a full-time cast member and Associate Producer. Episodes 18-21 saw the biggest expansion of cast members and the promotion of Aspinwall from Associate Producer to Producer.

New cast for episodes 18-21 were Aspinwall, Joe Brown, Beth LeMay, Sean O'Loughlin and Riley.

LeMay had been listed as a cast member in previous episodes but did not make any appearances in the show until episode 19.

O'Loughlin only appeared in Episode 18 and Brown only appeared in Episode 21.

The show ended in 1998 as Aspinwall and Justin decided to pursue other interests. Two "best of" episodes were made, neither of which aired on TV.

A "spin-off" of Winner TV was produced in 1999 by Aspinwall and Riley that told the back story of Pat "Aspiwall" and Qualo Dow A. Semino, 2 characters first appearing in Episode 15.