TVSquad

I think I'm one of the very few people - maybe not even David Letterman himself - who remembers the very first David Letterman Show with a real fondness. No, not NBC's Late Night with David Letterman, I'm talking about his morning show, which ran on NBC for a very short time in 1980. I'm not quite sure how I watched this show. I would have been in high school in 1980, so I don't know if I skipped school to see some episodes or what (it was way before I had a VCR). Anyway, I thought it was quite good and had some real style, fun regulars (Edie McClurg!) and great guests (Steve Allen, Andy Kaufman). It's interesting to see how much this show resembles later Letterman. I wish he'd bring back some of these segments (like viewer mail and videotaped humor) on his current show.

After the jump is the first part of the September 12, 1980 episode (with original commercials!). After you watch that check out the other three parts here (on the right). If you've never seen this particular show it's quite intriguing.

I've been thinking . . . yes, yes, you smell something burning. Ha, ha. Done laughing? Thank you. After watching a few episodes of Thank God You're Here, I got to thinking about some of the commentators on my review of the premiere episode who said that the Australian version of this program was much funnier. So, using our trusty pal YouTube, I was able to turn up a plethora of clips from the Down Under version of TGYH. And, after viewing a number of them I can truly say that it is funnier. Well, in most cases, that is.

Once again, it comes down to how the unscripted actor reacts to his or her unknown environment. Most of the Aussie TGYH clips I watched had performers who took control of the situation and messed with the scripted actors. Then there were others who just seemed to be thinking for the right answer to the question the scripted actors were giving them. In the American version of the show it seems the improvising actors are not grabbing onto the whole scene. They're still thinking as actors rather than going with the flow of everything. There are exceptions, though, like Kevin Nealon in the second episode, and Harland Williams this past week.

Don't take my word for this, though. View these two clips from the Australian version of TGYH and let me know if you think they are funnier or not. Both scenes were used in the American version of the series, with Edie McClurg and previously mentioned Harland Williams.

(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.