(S01E01/S01E02) I'm about to give you fair warning. In addition to being a husband, father, writer at TV Squad, and Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist I have also been in improv for 5 years. So, my review is may be slightly tainted.
That being said, I didn't think Thank God You're Here was an utter disaster. I also didn't think it was a laugh-until-you-pee hit, either. It was interesting to watch and mildly entertaining, even in those scenes where you knew the actors were waaaayyyy out of their element. And there was plenty of that.
In my opinion only three actors really showed what improv acting was all about -- Bryan Cranston, Kevin Nealon, and Edie McClurg. Nealon seemed the most at ease with his role. There was very little hesitation with his answers when the straight actors would push him for lines. Plus, he pulled two of the actors out for a little girl-on-girl CPR. Edie was also extremely confident and I felt her scene (marriage counselor's office) was the best because she was really trying to interact with the other actors (and I'll talk about those 'improv' actors later). It felt like a scene my troupe would do at one of our shows. The one who had the most fun with his scene, and the one that interacted most with the rest of the players, was Bryan Cranston. As soon as he stepped into the scene he was right in the role as a over-pampered rock star.
Wayne Knight was also pretty decent, but I just didn't like the talking-head scene he was in. He did shine though during the slide show presentation. The worst at improv? Well, I'd have to give that to Jennifer Coolidge. She was just not funny and seemed to take a very long time to come up with responses. Mo'nique was also weak and she wasn't listening to any of the suggestions that were given to her. I was surprised that Richard Kind wasn't good in his scene. Out of all of the actors he seemed the most lost with what he was supposed to do.
Now, with that out of the way, let's talk for a moment about the issues I have with this format. First, I don't know if I'd call Thank God You're Here an improv show. I'd probably call it "scriptprov." Sure, the stars were performing without scripts, but the straight actors were definitely working off of something. Everything they said seemed to have been written previously, including the little pushes to get the scriptless actors to come up with something amusing. In addition to that, the straight actors just seemed to be placeholders, rather than really interacting with the stars. To me, it felt very stilted.
Which brings me to my two biggest pet peeves when it comes to improv: questions and denials. There were a ton of these during the two hours that the show was on, and they brought many scenes to a halt. I can think of two scenes where the denials really ticked me off. The first one was with Richard Kind. In the scene, which took place at a morning radio show, the straight actors want to know what Richard's character name is. He yells out 'Steve!' and gets a big laugh. Ten seconds later the straight actors go 'No your name is . . . ' , give him a different name, and ruin the scene for me. The other example was the game show scene with Mo'nique. The host of the game show is askng Mo, who's portraying the Vanna White of the game, what the contestants names are. After she names one contestant the host goes 'No, that person's name is . . .' Aaaarrrggghh!
There was a third scene where the denial was a bit more subtle. It was marriage counselor scene with Edie McClurg. In it the counselor asks Edie if she knew why she was there, and Edie came up with something funny. Then the straight actor playing her husband said something like 'don't you think we're here because of your affair with the gardner?' Now, Edie was able to come back with a quick and funny answer, but it changed the
whole tone of the scene to the one that was probably pre-determined before the show.
As I said at the beginning of this review, I found Thank God You're Here interesting to watch. I'll probably tune in during the upcoming weeks (if it stays on the schedule that long) just to see if the show gets any better or worse. On the scale of 1 to 7 (worst to best) I give this show a 3.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-10-2007 @ 10:41AM
Alex Davis said...
It's a mixed bag. It's easily the best improv show since Whose Line. Nothing has come remotely close. Don't get me started on the horrible Green Screen. However, it just seems like something is missing. Constantly prompting for questions gets grating after a bit. Just let them interact more and the funny will pump out. However, I think a 3 is a bit harsh. For the first few episodes (I don't know what episode number this is), I was very impressed. I remember when ABC Whose Line started out, and it was really really bad. It took about 2 or 3 years for the show to finally get good. While it won't ever be better than Whose Line, it can be pretty damn close pretty damn quickly if they can clean up a few things.
NBC has a habit of getting good comedies. I'll never understand how or why, but this is another good one. Better than 90% of the comedies on TV now.
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4-10-2007 @ 10:42AM
Pierce said...
I was very excited when I saw the previews for this show, and tuned in accordingly. I agree with much of the commentary given above. I found the show to be luke-warm, but still worth watching. I'm more interested to see how Jason Alexander does next week...
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4-10-2007 @ 11:25AM
Guido said...
I agree with the "question" and "denial" .. especially with Monique. It killed the whole flow of the segment, which could have been pretty funny.
Kevin Nealon was my favorite, it's not hard to tell being on SNL all those years helped out.
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4-10-2007 @ 11:24AM
Julia said...
For me the big difference from Whose Line was that in Whose Line the actors were actually improv actors. These people are famous for script acting, so you don't end up with any fantastic improv people, who are usually the funniest, I think. I was kind of bored with Thank God You're Here.
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4-10-2007 @ 10:55AM
gwangi said...
I turned it off after the 2nd skit. Just wasn't funny enough.
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4-10-2007 @ 10:58AM
Walt said...
I was expecting this show to tank, and was very much surprised. Pleasantly surprised. Hell, I laughed a lot. Sure, it's not pure improv, so it's kind of cheating, but nobody's ever accused television of hosting anything pure. Yes, the straight actors weren't allowed to go off script -- I guess for the reason that this was still some sort of competition and we couldn't have the actors helping or hurting those possible funny moments. I say the hell with that. In both hours, I turned off the show and did other things when the wrap up section was on.
A few suggestions if the network gods ever decide to keep this around -- One week there should be a "grab someone off the street and stand him/her up to interact" bit, akin to the "Who's Line Is It" bit with the person on the chair. Us at home want to get that feel of that random someone put in front of the audience dripping flop sweat and then perhaps recovering. (hint: it doesn't have to be a _completely_ random person) Alternative: a random person who gets to adlib in one of those short pre-filmed segments
Prediction: This has a high burnout rate. Meaning, it'll get old pretty quickly, and they'll be accused of recycling bits.
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4-10-2007 @ 11:05AM
Daniella said...
I still pissed that this show was on instead of the Black Donnelys...come on...
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4-10-2007 @ 11:26AM
Guido said...
There is a "what's the point of this show" element to it as well
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4-10-2007 @ 6:56PM
Thomas said...
I've seen one sketch of this so am perfectly willing to accept that I may have seen a duff one. That said, it appeared to be just like Whose Line but with costumes/sets and people who weren't as naturally funny or gifted at improv in general.
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4-10-2007 @ 11:39AM
Eligio J Rosa said...
I saw some of the Australian version of show and they have the same setup as the Jennifer Coolidge's skit (Miss Caicos) as the lady who did that was so funny. Also I though that Joel Mchale was good with his improv.
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4-10-2007 @ 1:41PM
Louise Perez said...
This show is funny! I don't agree with the comments about Monique - she was supposed to be a forgetful "Vanna". That was too funny! She did overdo it at times and you could tell she wanted to go over big, but had to be held back due to time and script constraints. Nealon was excellent. Edie McClurg seemed very comfortable with improv. And, I loved Jennifer Coolidge's beauty pageant contestant. She was supposed to a slow, dumb blonde and she got it perfect! I definitely will continue to watch this show and I, for one, am glad the Black Donnelly's took a night off. Too dark, too intense for TV.
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4-10-2007 @ 12:47PM
Whitney said...
I agree with most of the review. The first episode was way better than the second. It seemed to me that the second episode was actually the first one filmed, because they didn't do any of that "no, you're actual name is..." in the first ep. The scripted actors were much better at going along with the improvers.
I was actually really surprised when they started shooting down Mo'nique in the first skit of the 2nd ep. Did they expect her to read their minds?! Isn't the first rule of improv to go along with your fellow players and see where it will take you?
All in all, I really enjoyed it, and if they had only shown the first episode, I would have enjoyed it even more. Joel McHale was probably my favorite: "I'm going to body-check the mummy!" and his schtick with the deaf big-eared superhero were priceless.
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4-10-2007 @ 11:49AM
John said...
I hate to say this, but I was thinking when I saw this, it would be better with a (my stomach turns as I type this)....audience vote-off format. I know, I know, I'm not jumping on the AI/DWTS bandwagon, but when the actors are bad, it's just uncomfortable and you want it to be over - there's no vindication. At least if they were bad, you'd know you could try to vote them off.
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4-10-2007 @ 12:58PM
4ham said...
The prompting got on my nerves. This whole "scriptprov" just lays flat as a pile of 2x4s. I tuned in and out over the hour just because I wanted to get a fair estimation, but every time I caught a bit I would cringe and tune out. This wouldn't be so bad if it regular actors(handers more like it) were allowed to do, well improv back at the actors/guests/whatever.
I think this was pitched to NBC as all the wackiness of improv with the safety and stability of scripted TV. Ugh.
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4-10-2007 @ 12:23PM
Barry said...
I remember when Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg were "special guest" improvisers on "Whose Line" - and they both seemed just so out of place. Because they're not true improv artists. They're former standups and script actors, like the others on "Thank God.."
I wonder if in future episodes they might go with two actors being pushed into a scene on either side of the stage and having to figure out together what's going on.
Part of the fun of "Two Worlds" type improv is trying to come into a completely alien situation - on the show there are sets and costumes pre-prepared, so you know what's coming ahead of time and the second you walk in the door. Coolidge knew she was going to be a beauty pageant contestant, and the groups of four knew they were going to be superheroes or knights - what would be funny if Coolidge went into the medieval castle and the knights or superheros ended up on the beauty pageant. That's comedy :)
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4-10-2007 @ 12:37PM
David said...
I completely agree with the part with the names, that drove me crazy! I think the gameshow one would have been loads of laughs if they didn't have any scripts at all. It really wrecked the show for me.
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4-10-2007 @ 3:58PM
Robert Phillips said...
I agree with most of the comments, but here's where I have a big problem. What is the point of having a judge? Whose line had it right "The points don't matter", they just picked a winner at the end however they wanted. By working in some kind of quasi-competition it doesn't make it as good as if they were just doing their own thing. Even the judge that they have is kind of useless, what is he going to tell someone that they sucked and should never try improv again? That wouldn't look so good.
So in summary, get rid of the judge and competition, randomly award someone as champion at the end of every show, and give them the trophy. Or have the studio audience vote on who they thought was best.
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4-10-2007 @ 1:07PM
wil said...
I agree with you, Richard. As an improviser, I was clawing my eyes out as they denied and blocked each other, and I really wanted more interaction instead of "question: joke, question: joke, question: joke."
I think this format can work, and the show can be really good if they do a couple of things:
1. Let the main cast really interact with the guests. Encourage them to "yes, and . . ." with each other so the scenes can grow naturally.
2. Quit blocking and denying offers because some writer wants to get their hilarious joke on the air. If it's an improv show, let them improv. The denying in the game show scene was worse than LA Connection on Tuesday nights.
3. Make sure the actors they ask onto the show have at least some improv experience; watching great comedic actors struggle because they don't have a script didn't entertain me as much as it made me uncomfortable.
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4-10-2007 @ 1:08PM
keepitreal said...
I agree with John (#10). At least in the fact that Dave Foley is worthless as a judge (nothing against him, but whats the point). Studio audience votes would at least be more honest. Monique was horrible (impeded by the "denial" aspect unfortunately).
Bottom line, I a) am pissed Donnellys got booted to show this b) didn't laugh more than 5 times in 2 hours c) think its lame when an improver jumps around a question to hide their inability to think of a response (it happened a lot) d) think the preparation is way off. for both scene with all 4 improvers, the sit down and state your name was just lame and a bunch of scenes didn't reach potential for a variety of reasons.
And how can nobody have pointed out of of the female "actors" is from the Cingular commercial talking to her boss about a promotion when the call gets dropped. Somebody is moving on up in the world.
If this show stays on the air long, a part of my comedic soul will die.
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4-10-2007 @ 3:31PM
Ytoabn said...
Good lord you people seem hypercritical. Yes that scene with Monique was painful, but over all, I thought it was just fun. It looked like quite a few of the actors were having fun. You're trying way to hard to analyze it and pick it apart for all it's flaws rather than just enjoy the show.
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