Seriously, I cannot watch this show again without wearing Depends!
The only complaint I have is that NBC gave away Jennifer Coolidge’s best line from her Miss Constellation skit. Other than that, the thing was more fun that I’ve had watching television in a very long time.
I didn’t realize how funny Bryan Cranston could be in an improv situation. They need to bring back “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” just so he can be in it. His take on the rock star was a scream.
The funniest sketch, of course, was the “all-in challenge” in the first show. When Wayne Knight’s green shorts hit the floor, I fell of the sofa laughing. Cranston was holding Coolidge’s cape up over her head so she could shoot golden doughnuts out her ass – well, that’s when the wetting began.
The second show wasn’t quite as funny – or I was already jaded from the first one. Although, when Monique stood up in the final skit to declare, “I am the Queen of Sheba,” I saw it coming a mile away, but her delivery hit me right between the eyes.
Anyway, I think NBC has a winner here – I hope it runs a good two or three seasons, at least.
Yeah, the Australian show is a hoot and a half. Just as a side question, does anyone know whether there are plans for the American version to be shown on Australian TV?
I was underwhelmed. Bryan Cranston was clearly the best, and I was disappointed in Jennifer Coolidge, who I thought was better at improvising. But everyone was trying too hard. In addition, it was hardly as daring as it pretended to be: the characters knew from their costume what the situation would be (except for Wayne Knight as the doctor).
I read somewhere online a few weeks ago that no, Australian networks have no plans to screen the US version. But you never know, if it’s a big hit they may yet decide to do so.
I really thought Wayne Knight was the best…even before the shorts hit the floor. And Bryan Cranston was great. But all the women, on both shows, seemed to be floundering. And watching Jennifer Coolidge try to walk was painful, though she did give some great answers in the beauty pagent thing…she just didn’t seem to be having a good time. I didn’t think Mo’nique was funny at all (but her response to the “prettiest woman in the country” was right on), and poor Richard Kind seemed to be in over his head. The rest were amusing, but not as good as Wayne and Bryan.
I missed the first show (didn’t realize there WAS a first show). The second one was underwhelming, but I’ll give it another try because when it’s done well, improv is hilarious.
Meh. I only found two of the five sketches in the first episode funny. 2/5ths entertaining isn’t a good enough ratio for me, so I ended up watching Family Guy reruns instead of the second hour. Much funnier even though I’d seen them several times already.
I didn’t see this but my kids told me it was on so I wanted to scan this thread, and your comment smacked my funny bone. In 1986 I got to go to Second City in Chicago and one of the nightly performers was… Richard Kind.
As an FYI, Second City does a LOT of improv.
(I don’t doubt that he floundered; I just thought it was funny (‘ha-ha,’ not ‘…ehhh?’) that he did.)
Yep. I didn’t think that Mo’nique was funny at all, except for her response to the “prettiest woman in the country” line. I also expected better of Kevin Nealon, who can be rip-roaringly funny in his standup routine. Bryan Cranston was clearly the best of the lot though, followed closely by Wayne Knight.
I was only half-watching this. I didn’t think it was that great from what I saw, but there were some good lines, especially Richard Kind: “All you have to do is call [looks at wall to remember station’s name] WP98 and say, ‘hey, how do I win something?’ Then we’ll tell you and you’ll call us again!”
I missed most of the first show so I missed Bryan Cranston’s solo but I thought he was hilarious in the pre-filmed bits and the group one. Although he did get a few minutes longer to think of his character’s name and persona, he was still much more into it than the others. It would be kind of cool if he could get a new series as “Lightning Rod”.
I thought Mo’nique was funny but I also thought she was just being Mo’nique. I’ve seen her on numerous talk shows and such and that’s pretty much her schtick.
Based on the general support here, maybe I’ll give it another shot. I only saw the last 15 minutes of the 2nd show (the “knights” sketch), and I thought it was painfully unfunny. I actually felt bad for Edie McClurg- she just shouldn’t have been there. Even some of the audience shots showed people sitting there emotionless, while others were laughing like they were plants.
Watched the first show. Loved Bryan Cranston and Wayne Knight. I didn’t watch the second show because I tuned in for The Riches. I thought it was very funny, but for me, it will be one of those shows I will catch from time to time when nothing else is on.
I watched the first show, and like pretty much everyone here I thought Bryan Cranston was funniest followed by Wayne Knight. (Notice that Joel McHale was barely in the clips from the “practice” rounds? And that the ones they did show weren’t very funny? Improv isn’t his schtick.)
What they did was take a half hour improv show and stretch it into a hour. That’s a half hour of dead tv before there’s a chance at good stuff, and the good stuff was less than half of that.
Joel McHale used to be a cute guy at Unexpected Productions in Seattle (the best known Improv troupe). And he was quite good - then. I expected way better from him…I’ve seen it.
From what little I saw, I thought the backing scripts were too hardened and pointed. There was no sense of the pseudo-celebs really getting into the scenes, just ‘Here’s a very specific question for you to answer in as funny a way as you can manage.’ And in ones like the game show with Mo’Nique, the script wasn’t able to accommodate her answers. It was purely a matter of ‘No, I’m sorry, that’s not correct. He’s what you should have said.’