Maya Rudolph brings the variety show back to NBC with 'The Maya Rudolph Show'

NEW YORK, May 20 (UPI) -- Maya Rudolph's variety show, The Maya Rudolph Show, premiered on NBC Monday night to mixed reviews.

The show featured a series of sketches and musical numbers starring former SNL stars Andy Sandberg, Chris Parnel and Fred Armisen, as well as other television and film actors like Sean Hayes and Kristen Bell.

While reviewers praised Rudolph's efforts in the show calling her "gutsy" and "prodigious," but the series itself seemingly failed to achieve exactly what it was meant to do.

"Is not exactly like anything else on TV right now. And that in itself is pretty gutsy." Vulture's Margaret Lyons wrote about the TMRS. "Unfortunately, that's not quite the same thing as being good."

"The show presents an amiable but not especially interesting or entertaining piece of television, a curio rather than the renaissance of a format," notes the AV Club's Emily L. Stephens, later adding that "The Maya Rudolph Show relies more on the audience's affection for the performers and a nostalgic embrace of their antics than on carefully crafted comic writing."

While speaking to reporters about the show, Rudolph said her ideas are often "deep-rooted in the '70s or somewhere that has nothing to do with what's going on now."

"I think people want to watch TV and feel good and laugh. And that they were just simply receptive to me doing the show was a really nice welcome, a nice feeling," the Bridesmaids actress at the time.

The one-night special was taped last month in Los Angeles. Rudolph told USA Today that if the series its successful she hopes it'll air every few weeks or months.