How Many Of These Sketches Were Originally Rejected By SNL?

After a build-up including appearances on her former SNL castmate Jimmy Fallon's late-night talk show and several cameos on her former SNL castmate Andy Samberg's first hosting appearance on SNL, Maya Rudolph has finally premiered The Maya Rudolph Show. And I have some questions.

What was...what?

I fully admit that I was too young/too living in Canada without cable to have experienced the golden (or "golden") age of TV variety shows. But if this is an example of what they were like, it might be one of those things where your nostalgic memory of the thing doesn't actually match up to how good the thing itself actually is. In fact, I think I've seen more spoofs of variety shows -- their clumsy segues, self-consciously "glamorous" costuming, and corny jokes -- than I have actual variety shows. So was this weird, unfunny, awkward affair a totally on-model example of a variety show or a diabolically acid parody? Is there maybe no difference?!

Was this a Tim & Eric-style anti-comedy joint that snuck onto a broadcast network?

From what I understand, the premise of Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job! is that its unfunniness is what makes it funny...for people who find it funny, which I don't. But is that maybe what's happening here? Is it an experiment in how much of a throwback to the days before humour a variety show can be and still get on the air? Was The Maya Rudolph Show less trying to entertain me than make some kind of point about comedy?

How many of the sketches were originally rejected by SNL?

Some segments definitely felt like old-school variety show staples, from the backstage handoff to Blake Shelton, babysitter to the opening production number and the one mid-show in which Maya spells out her name, or tries to. But "Dee's Nuts/Pam's Clams" and "the Garmyn family" both could have found homes in the post-Update chunk of SNL after half the audience has turned off the show -- and not only that, but the joke of how bad GPS voices are feels like kind of an elderly observation at this point. Maybe Rudolph submitted it as a sketch back when she was still a cast member and put it in a drawer for just such an eventuality.

How is this likely to affect Neil Patrick Harris's chances to get a variety show of his own?

As I said up top, I don't know if the issue here is that this show was bad, or that all variety shows are bad. If it's the latter, watching this last night reminded everyone at (presumably) CBS why they shouldn't try to take their own bite at the apple. Given that former SNL cast members are currently dominating TV and movies (seriously, has there been a week yet that neither Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show nor Seth Meyers's Late Night had at least one former cast member on to plug something?), if this very likable one can't make the format work, maybe it's because the format went extinct for a reason.

This lady: does she or does she not represent us all?