Thank God You're Here.

Mark Evanier does a review of the new show that aired on NBC last night called "Thank God You're Here". This is an Australian import where famous actors such as Wayne Knight and Jason Alexander are thrust into a sketch and have to improv their way out of it. I will add a little to what Mark said.

The show claims to be completely improv. It isn't. Or if it is, the "house cast", or the ones who appear with the guest stars each week are some of the worst improv-ers on the planet.

I have done a little improv in my life, nothing Second City level, but mostly murder mysteries, Tony and Tina's Weddings and the occasional "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" kinda stuff. I like doing improv. I might not be good at it, but I'm better at improv than I am at straight shows.

One of the cardinal rules of improv is "never say no to another improv-er". Saying no to someone doing improv is the equivalent of whacking a stick on the back of the knees of a player in a hockey match--it takes them right out of the game.   

Not once but twice, once in each show, a member of the house cast contradicted what an improv-er said. This annoyed me so much that I couldn't watch it anymore. It seemed like they had a script and when the improv-er varied from the script too much, it was the house cast's job to say "No, what you really mean is this..." Which kind of violates the whole spirit of free form improv and scripted improv as well.

Free form improv is just that, free form. Anything the actors come up with is what the story is. Scripted improv is when you have a skeleton of a plot to work with and you can improv all you want in that confines. You can take any route between A and B you want, as long as you get to B.

Thank God You're Here isn't truly free form because you have people holding a script (or just imposing their will on their cast mates). It isn't a scripted improv either because the guest stars don't know the script, therefore do not know the parameters of the plot.

This is my own personal reason for not liking the show. You might like it.