What a bland, pointless, and creatively empty endeavor, one that wastes two of our most talented comic performers. The idea of putting these exceptional improvisers and sketch artists together on a “Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour”-type show is appealing. The reality, alas, was oddly vacant. “Maya & Marty” played like a thoroughly mediocre episode of “Saturday Night Live,” with fangless and stubbornly unfunny sketches.

The show premiered Tuesday night at 10 p.m. And if you watched it, I probably don’t need to tell you it aired on NBC. The hour seemed to be sweating NBC product, with goofs on “Chicago Fire” and “Little Big Shots,” and with Jimmy Fallon showing up to play the Sizzle Twins and maybe remind us of his “Tonight Show.”


Produced by Lorne Michaels, “Maya & Marty” pushed “Saturday Night Live” extra hard, in case we plan to forget about it during its summer break. “SNL” cast member Kenan Thompson is a regular player, Kate McKinnon was a guest star, and Larry David, currently the “SNL” Bernie Sanders, appeared in an interview with Short’s Jiminy Glick. Next week, by the way, Tina Fey and Steve Martin — two extremely “SNL”-identified performers — will guest, so I’m betting the NBC junket will continue.

The opening pre-taped bit wasn’t bad, with Tom Hanks as a lying astronaut desperate to get time away from his wife. But almost everything that came after it was close to worthless. Thompson mugged up a storm, as usual, as Steve Harvey, with Short and Fallon clowning around for far too long with fake bad teeth as the Sizzle Twins. Short was, as always, perversely fascinating and funny as the inane host Glick, but David was unwilling to play the foil and left him with little room to insult. Rudolph, Short, and musical guest Miley Cyrus tried — and failed — to send up the children’s book “Goodnight Moon,” with Rudolph as a drunk woman interrupting a tender bedtime scenario.


Rudolph is generally entertaining when she does impersonations; she’s so watchable. But her bit as Melania Trump eating diamonds and talking in a heavy accent went nowhere, and slowly. The lesson was abundantly clear, as it so often is on “SNL”: No matter how charming and personable Rudolph and Short can be, no matter how gifted they certainly are, they nevertheless need good writing to back them up.

Television Review

Maya & Marty

Starring Maya Rudolph and Martin Short. With musical guest Miley Cyrus. On NBC, Tuesday at 10 p.m.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.