I have a confession to make. I watch Life With Bonnie semi-regularly. On purpose. And think it’s occasionally pretty funny.
That said, I have to ask: Does this show have actual scripts, with lines and stage direction and things? Or is there just an outline of a scene, and the actual dialogue is improv? The manner of the line readings feels like ad-lib to me half the time. And the emphasis on guests who are known to work way off-script (Jonathan Winters, Robin Williams, Carl Reiner) seems to be an indicator of improv status as well.
If the show is run as an ad-lib shop, it would also explain the hit-or-miss quality of the comedy. Sometimes the jokes work, sometimes they don’t.
So does any industry insider know the scoop here? Thanks!
I’m not exactly an industry insider, but I did cover the ABC Primtime Preview Weekend held at Disneyland last August. At her press interview there, she said that the talk show scenes were mostly improv’ed and that the others were scripted as normal.
Whether this formula has held, I don’t know. I’ve never seen the show.
But I can tell you that Bonnie Hunt, in person, is hot hot hot. She never did anything for me on screen or TV, so that surprised me.
Thanks, obfus. Thinking about it, that makes a lot of sense. It’s usually in the talk show scenes that Ms. Hunt seems the most startled by the things that actually happen (as during the Robin Williams “psychic chef” interview and the Jonathan Winters bit).
Early in the show’s run the energy just died during the scripted family scenes. Either they’ve gotten a lot better at writing and acting these scenes or (more likely, I think) the actors are now doing improv throughout the “off-camera” segments. I believe this is the case not only because the off-camera scenes are a lot funnier than they originally were, but also because the children sometimes step over one of the other actors’ lines. (Although the fact that the kids can hold their own while Hunt, Mark Derwin and David Allen Grier are riffing off each other is impressive as hell.)
I agree with Cliffy on both points. I think they’ve loosened up on the off-camera scenes. I see the adult actors (Hunt, Derwin, and the housekeeper) biting their lips at times as if they are trying to hold a straight face for a line they weren’t expecting. And I agree the kids do a pretty good job of holding their own.
I don’t see admitting that you watch the show as a confession. I’m not ashamed to admit I watch it. I look forward to it. I consider it a normal pleasure, not a guilty pleasure.
They are scripted, they’re just scripts from 50’s and 60’s sitcoms. I ranted a couple a months ago here about the “pretend I’m your boss for my new boyfriend” hack.