TVSquad

When Michael and Michael Have Issues premieres tonight at 10:30 PM on Comedy Central, it'll be a return to sketch comedy of sorts for Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter. The pair started out with The State on MTV, as this week's boxed set release reminded us. Their most recent TV project, Stella, the show, with former State member David Wain, wasn't really sketch as much as it was an exercise in absurdist slapstick.

Comedy Central has been showing episodes from the single season the show lasted in the run up to Michael and Michael Have Issues, and it has been a pleasant reminder of Stella's brief experiment with a half-hour TV comedy. It's hard to imagine keeping that premise going - Wain, Black, and Showalter free associating with different guest stars season after season. But it's been fun to watch it again.

Comedy Central has also tossed in an occasional episode of The State, which reminded me of how funny Showalter and Black can be when they dive into a variety of characters. I'm looking forward to Michael and Michael Have Issues for that reason. The frame of it is that the two Michaels are part of a sketch show, so you get to see them in sketches and as "themselves" in between, bickering about production problems or performances. That's the part that Comedy Central has been playing up - you can see it in the clip below. But the commercials have shown a glimpse or two of the actual sketches, and I'm hoping there's a generous helping of those on the show, as well. We'll see tonight.

Greg the Intern clip:

Michael & Michael Have Issues	Premieres Wed, July 15, 10:30pm / 9:30c
Preview - Greg the Intern
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