While the second part may be true, if you ignore things like the Edinburgh festivals, the first part isn’t really true. To get to the other end of the island from London is roughly the same distance by road as Chicago to Atlanta, and that’s nowhere near the longest journey you can make within Great Britain. There are only 8 island bigger than Great Britain. Comedians do go to remote places in Britain to perform from time to time, but you’re right in suggesting it doesn’t happen very often.
From following comedians on Twitter, it appears that panel shows are not the first choice of comedians. Dara O’Briain in particular has hammered on the point that what comedians want to do is stand-up, but what they get paid to do are panel shows.
That’s a little disingenuous, in that there are comedians who stick to touring stand-up and don’t do TV (e.g. Daniel Kitson), and comedians who only or mainly do TV when they film a stand-up show (e.g. Stewart Lee, Michael McIntyre)*. But generally, if you’re a comedian who wants to reach a TV audience (and why wouldn’t you?) then you have to do panel shows. There is one stand-up show showcasing different comics (Live at the Apollo) which comes on sporadically but the options just aren’t there.
And of course, they’re easy to do. I remember reading David Mitchell explaining his mid 00s ubiquity on them by saying that when he was single, it was really easy to go to three different studios on three different nights and more fun than sitting around the house (which, being David Mitchell, was his alternative plan). And even when they’re not totally improvised (i.e. always) they’re easier than writing a 60 minute stand-up set or 30 min sketch show.
*Putting those two in the same bracket gives me so much pleasure that I’m ignoring the new Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, on the grounds that it’s still not a panel show, and features him doing stand-up.
Stewart Lee would get a 30 minute routine on the fact that you put those in the same bracket.
Incidentally, I recently caught up with the full two series of “This morning with Richard (not Judy)” on YouTube. I had completely forgotten much of it but remember now where many of my wife and I’s running gags come from.
“listen to my question, the words in it”
“aaaaaahhhhhhhh!”
“then I got off the bus”
“28 years old I was”
No ‘aaaahhhh’!
Weak lemon drink (quiet cheer)
Man Corr
The salty dugs of the blue whale
Can they?
a panel show pays the mortgage and provides a tidy income. It’s basically money for nothing as its pretty much pub banter.
There really is nothing at all glamorous about touring a show, esp. when the tv company will send you a cab and it’s 20 minutes down the road to see your mates on the show.
Indeed; it’s recorded a few blocks away from my office, and I’ve looked into attending it. 
When I mentioned Saturday morning, I was referring to when the show is typically aired on NPR, as part of its niche appeal to listeners. (Its first airing on the national NPR schedule is at noon Eastern on Saturdays.)
If you have access to Game Show Network on your cable system, you should check out the 1970s version of Match Game. Six celebrities, most of them comedic actors or stand-up comics (often including Nipsey Russell, whom kunilou mentioned), riffing on each other and getting in as many double-entendre references as they can, under the guise of a game show. Also, it seems likely that they were all drunk or high the entire time.
Sadly, I’m not sure if there’s any outlet now where you can watch the older Goodson-Todman game shows, like Password, To Tell the Truth, or What’s My Line?
I’ve seen Peter Kay and Lee Evans listed as the biggest earners and neither do panel shows.
Not even details. I knew NOTHING (now know he’s “some British actor who did sitcoms”). Is he an actor, politician, historical figure, or some other celebrity?and if he’s an actor, is he known for dumb roles (surprised to discover that guy from Titanic is dead), documentaries (possibly filming his next work), or is he a random b-lister who’s only done minor supporting roles?
A joke like “Leonardo da Vinci, as played by John Goodman” doesn’t work unless you know that Goodman is best known for playing fat, poorly educated characters.
@fiendishastronaut Budget pressures aren’t as much of a problem with our advertising-funded model. You just can’t do a lot of special effects or travel, even in primtetime shows (Jerry Seinfeld was reportedly paid $1 million per episode by the end of his tv series).
There are quite a few episodes on YouTube. GSN used to show them at like 3 in the morning. In recent years, they’ve shown them in the wee hours for a couple of weeks around Christmas time. Check your TV schedules; there may be some coming up.
There have been occasional attempts to revive shows like this. For example, there was a remade version of To Tell the Truth on ABC the past two summers, hosted by Anthony Anderson. Even though it had Betty White as one of the panelists, it somehow failed to recapture the old magic. There have also been occasional revivals of I’ve Got a Secret here and there.
Those are Noel Fielding’s STREET CLOTHES?
Actually, I could believe that easily.
London to Thurso is only 676 miles. Sennen to Thurso (which is about as far as you can go without renting a boat) is only 826 miles. You can drive further than that from Brownsville, TX and not even leave the state. Chicago to Alberta is 1806 miles, more than twice that distance.
If you want to see a fantastic twist on typical panel/game shows, I recommend you all watch Taskmaster with Alex Horne and Greg Davies. It is glorious.
Pretty similar situation with Japan, which also has tons of comedian/celeb panel shows (and the comics do lots of stand-up club performances).
This justifies a comment about the UK being a small country, when compared with the USA and many other countries. It does not justify a comment about it being a small island. And which Alberta are you talking about? The one I know isn’t even in the same country as Chicago, so unless you’re suggesting that the the Americas form a single island, it’s not really relevant here.
Sorry for being picky, but I get irritated with this Great Britain being a ‘small island’ thing. It’s not, it’s a medium to large island.
Somehow I had stupidly misread Atlanta as Alberta in your post. (I like to blame things like that on my chemo, even though that ended about 6 months ago. And I was actually thinking more of England being a small country rather than an island. I actually think Great Britain is a little large to be considered an island, even if it is too small to be a continent.
Stewart Lee, a notorious critic of panel shows and panel show comedians says of them:
You need a lot of fresh new material to do a standup act. That takes time to amass I should think. Whereas the panel shows are mostly unscripted almost improv type situations. That keeps your name and face on people’s TVs without writing an entire new act. That’s not a bad gig, when you think about it.
Also, though of course I cannot be certain, it looks like it’s a jolly good time, hanging with other comics. And you get a paycheque? Sounds a sweet deal to me.
Richard Ayoade? Noel Fielding? Bill Bailey? David Mitchell?
Cariad Lloyd?