‘Andy Dick Show’ Returns to MTV

In the Mel Brooks film “The Producers,” a get-rich-quick scheme hinges on developing a Broadway play so awful that it closes on opening night.

Instead, the seemingly success-proof musical “Springtime for Hitler” is the smash hit of the season.

“The Andy Dick Show,” which returns to MTV tonight at 9:30 for what is billed as its “third cycle,” has “Springtime” written all over it. Train wrecks of this magnitude don’t happen by accident. Do they?

The jaw-dropping half-hour of edgy-to-a-fault comedy takes guerrilla TV to places actor Tom Green couldn’t see with a telescope. Green even appears as a guest tonight in a sketch in which he and Dick attempt to trade identities for a meeting with an MTV executive.

The exec isn’t fooled and asks why Dick is at the meeting.

“We’re doing more episodes,” Dick explains.

“Wow.... Why?” the exec asks earnestly. “I mean, speaking as a fan, why?”

The answer may be that the subversively savvy Dick knows exactly what he’s doing here, and the comedian is clearly reveling at the chance to push the envelope so violently at every turn that it’s ultimately ripped into confetti.

Actor Jack Black also appears tonight in his Tenacious D incarnation, and future guests include actor-writer Luke Wilson and musicians Dave Grohl and Master P.

It’s dark, it’s crude, it’s borderline lewd. Would anyone expect anything less of Andy Dick?