Thank God You're Here, an improvisational show in which celebrities must walk into the middle of a scene and try to ad lib their way through it, will air on NBC April 9, but you can check out a few clips of the show on YouTube right now, courtesy of NBC. I've placed a scene with Tom Arnold after the jump for your harsh judgment.
While I'm a huge fan of improv, having seen more than a few Second City performances, not to mention both the British and American versions of Whose Line is it Anyway? (the British one is better), I have to say that, based only on these short clips, Thank God You're Here lacks the cohesiveness and professionalism that made Whose Line so enjoyable. When I watched Whose Line, I knew the performers were professionals and could handle anything, but watching Jason Alexander and Tom Arnold struggle through their scenes just pulls me in too many directions: one moment I'm laughing and the next moment I'm worried the actors are just going to freeze up.
I think the show will be worth a look, but something tells me it won't be the most consistent comedy on television.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-30-2007 @ 2:55PM
verdana said...
Tom Arnold isn't funny even when he haas a script.
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3-30-2007 @ 2:49PM
Akbar Fazil said...
wow, that was painful. I couldn't even watch more than a minute.
I hope this is not indicative of the whole thing since I feel the concept has potential.
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3-30-2007 @ 3:40PM
Kevin O'Shea said...
You know it's bad improv when you say "Yes" as your only response to things for the first two minutes. That was painful, even Whose Line isn't that bad.
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3-30-2007 @ 3:50PM
Rich Keller said...
It was that and the questions. If you've done any type of improv you know that asking questions is bad form because you relying on the answerer to provide somthing funny. If that doesn't happen then the scene rapidly goes down from that point. Having said that, Tom did seem to get a bit better as the scene went on.
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3-30-2007 @ 4:01PM
MacGuffin said...
Improve can be either really, really funny or really, really bad. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground. I'll probably check out this show, but I am not expecting much.
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3-30-2007 @ 4:05PM
Gavin said...
So, this is supposedly an adaptation of an Australian show? No matter, this looks just plain awful and I guarantee you that in a few months (if that long) you'll be saying "Thank God It's Cancelled". Anyone remember the travesty that was Drew Carrey's Green Screen Show? Man, that was just as awful.
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3-30-2007 @ 4:27PM
David said...
This show sucks.
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3-30-2007 @ 7:20PM
indraunt said...
Wow, that was pretty bad. Unfortunate really, the original aussie version is pretty damn good.
Like most improv shows it tends to have low-points, but on the whole its excellent. Look around on youtube, I'm sure there're other clips. Segments which star Frank Woodley tend to be particularly good.
Try the real thing - its much better than this remake.
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4-01-2007 @ 3:04AM
Tamara said...
That was quite poor. The Aussie version is great, and also one of the most watched Australian programs each week(but as anyone who has seen Australian programs would know, that's not saying much)
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3-30-2007 @ 8:20PM
Bill said...
Yeah that was not so good. But Tom Arnold isn't a great choice for this anyway. I'm not that down on him as a performer in general, but I don't think improv is really his thing. They do have some people lined up (like whatshername, the tall blonde with the short hair from all the Christopher Guest movies who played the mole on Arrested Development) who are probably quite good at it.
My main complaints with the production end are that I thought it went on a little too long, and we didn't really need the Dave Foley reaction shots.
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3-31-2007 @ 8:55AM
nug said...
Half the reason I watch TGYH is to see who sucks. The struggling, the freezing....it's great tv.
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