But I’d Rather Be Elsewhere
Last night was the premiere of NBC’s “Thank God You’re Here”, an import of an Australian show. The premise of the show is that one of the four guest actors enters a room in costume with no idea about what’s inside and is greeted with the line “Thank God you’re here!” From there the scene continues until the judge (Dave Foley) rings a buzzer to end the scene. It’s hosted by David Alan Grier who will occasionally jump into a scene himself. The scenes are filled with a varying number of regular cast members that one would imagine were pulled from actual improv troupes.
There were two episodes aired last night back-to-back (not a great sign of confidence from the network). The first episode featured Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle’s dad), Joel McHale (The Soup, aka Who??), Jennifer Coolidge (Stiffler’s Mom), and Wayne Knight (Newman!). The second had Richard Kind (Spin City), Mo’Nique (The Parkers, aka Who??) , Edie McClurg (Ferris Bueller’s secretary) and Kevin Nealon (SNL).
The scenes are pretty clearly defined by the set decor and costuming. For example, Cranston walked into a music studio wearing Spinal Tap attire so a good deal of the “where are you” work is already done. However, a great deal of the “who are you” was very rarely left in the hands of the guest actor which I think undermines the whole show. If the guest made an offer, it was more often than not blocked by the cast of the show. It seems that a good deal of each scene is scripted for various gags and forcing the scene down a straight path makes for some terrible viewing.
This was especially painful for Richard Kind and Mo’Nique. When asked what his name was, he replied with an enthusiastic “Steve!”. The players then went on to say, “No, you’re name is Bob.” Why is that worth overriding?? It totally deflated Kind who was then left floundering about a radio scene amongst a zillion music and sound effect props that he had clearly never seen before. Mo’Nique was asked to present several guests at a game show. She named each one and where they were from. The gameshow host blocked and negated every single one of her offers when it would have cost the scene nothing to accept what she had said. Mo’Nique was clearly out of her element to begin with but you could see her spirit implode when she realised that she was going to have to guess the “right” answers in her scene. Poor teamwork makes for poor scenes and the decision to put the scene “on rails” (to borrow a gaming term) would stifle and unnerve an experienced player let alone actors without any improv experience whatsoever.
Some actors were much better than others. Bryan Cranston was easily the best. He was one of the few to take on a character that wasn’t himself both physically and verbally. He played along and contributed to the scene while working around the massive pimping by the players pushing the scene forward. Edie McClurg and Kevin Nealon were passable. They played along and had some funny contributions. Though neither of them were particularly fleet of toungue, at least they could keep up. Joel McHale played right into the “setup+0ne-liner” format and demonstrated why I find that type of improv so lacking. McHale had some funny one-liners but they ultimately don’t add up to the kind of sustained scene that I like to see. It’s definitely a personal taste but I prefer the higher level of difficulty of building a scene than the simple gag-joke-gag, bada-bing-bada-boom. Did it make for some fun TV, sure, it was fine. The rest of the actors were simply out of their comfort zone and out of their element. It was very difficult to watch at times . I give major credit to the players for sticking to it and giving it a go in the first place when they clearly had no idea what was going to be expected of them.
The final scene of each show featured all four guests and this one worked reasonably well. While there was little listening going on, the structure of the scene was similar to the Jeopardy game where one person functions as a moderator for the wackiness and allowed only one person to speak at a given time to prevent all-out chaos from exploding.
Interspersed between the scenes are improv snippets of the guests being interviewed (by a customs agent, by a taxi inspector, etc.) that had been filmed earlier. I imagine the best bits are then edited together but this part is as hit and miss as the rest of the show with some obvious setups leading to obvious answers.
The regular cast is passable and move the scene along with good energy but with little room for inventiveness and clear directions to make the star look good without upstaging them. For the most part, they’ll accept whatever is thrown at them except for when they are mandated to hit the plot points. They act as little more than shepherds for the star to shuffle them along blindly from point A to point B and if the guest tries to deviate from the path, a whack on the nose sets things right. I feel pretty bad for these players who, by dint of their being cast, must have at least some improv qualifications.
David Alan Grier would pop into a scene here and there but he’d barely get out a line before the scene ended. Most his laughs come from the jokey costumes he’s given. I’d really like to see more of him since he actually seems capable of working with the format. Dave Foley’s unfortunate role as judge is relegated to giving ego-soothing commentary (though you can tell he’d rather say what was wrong with the scene and did in fact call out some of the bad decisions in one scene). Perhaps it’s just the editing, maybe he does say all sorts of insightful stuff and it’s all on the cutting room floor. What’s left in the end is his pressing the buzzer to end the scene and lessons from the Paula Abdul school of constructive criticism.
At the end of the show, an award is presented to the guest who “wins” or is the “outstanding performer” or whatever. Why improv shows are presented as a competition is beyond me, I think it’s a bad idea but that’s a topic for another post. In any case, not a lot of time is spent here as it’s little more than a chance to end the show on a sense of closure and some applause.
Overall, the show is not that good. The guests are left hanging in the wind in scenarios that are simply a series of massive pimps with no room for exploration or deviation. The premise sounds like it would have a lot of promise but in the end it’s a mundane exercise in one-liners not unlike Nick Cannon’s show (reviewed here) but without the put-downs, gratuitous innuendo and oh-no-you-di-in’ts. I’ll still watch hoping for more actors who can actually play around the situation and because I’m still in the camp (but wavering) of “bad improv on TV is better than no improv on TV”.
Another similar review here.
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By marc, April 10, 2007 @ 1:25 pm
My major problem with the website is that it only gives the bios for the “celebs”. I want to know about the other people.
By gilbonzo, April 10, 2007 @ 8:59 pm
I agree with your review. I watched it to, and often cringed.
I thought Bryan Cranston was good at first, but when he played a similarly oversexualized character with not-so-sublte gay undertones in both the final scene and in the small side scenes , it made me realize that what seemed like good improv was more likely just a crutch.
I really liked Edie McClurg and Kevin Nealon for their fluidity and confidence. Edie had a great moment when she explained very well without hesitation what they were in counseling for…of course this was immediately denied by her scene “partner”.
Anyway, I too will cross my fingers hoping for improvement/the elimination of an unnecessary Dave Foley.
By thegirl, April 10, 2007 @ 9:36 pm
I only caught the end of the show and I was horrified by the plight of Dave Foley. He’s just shown fake smiling and nodding a lot of the time. Painful to watch.
By b.j.swank, April 11, 2007 @ 11:37 pm
This sounds awful. Was it a bit like a manipulation, then?
By vinnyfrancois, April 12, 2007 @ 11:47 am
It has elements of a manip in that the guest does not know the setting of the scene (like pretty much any game) nor do they know the pre-determined questions or actions that are coming. The questions are unrelated to one another and are based off the setting while the actions are simply pimps for getting the guest to perform the requested action.
By HBC, April 12, 2007 @ 8:08 pm
I specifically avoided watching this. I’ve seen (and done) enough shitty improv to last 50 lifetimes. I’d rather there wasn’t bad ANYTHING on TV, be it scripted or improvised or semi-improvised. In terms of bad improv on TV helping improv in general, would you rather that someone’s response to improv be, “What’s Improv?” or “Oh…. improv is shit.” ?