On the same day that I encouraged all of you out there to not be depressed by the television season ending, I watched some shows last night and was depressed that the season hadn’t ended yet. Frankly, what I saw looked awfully tired and made me think that the people behind the scenes need a rest.
First up, NBC’s “improvisational” comedy Thank God You’re Here. Allegedly, this show drops an actor into a situation with a comedy troupe, the actor has no idea what’s happening and has to, therefore, do some improv. Well, Jason Alexander walked out onto a starship set last night and started to improvise, and kept being forced in one direction by the troupe. His improv led him to state that the show they were working on had been canceled (making the troupe into actors working on a show rather than the crew of a starship). One of the troupe said something along the lines of “what he means is…” and thereby dismissed the idea of a show within a show that Alexander put forth and put him on a path they wanted him to travel, not the path he was going down.
It quickly became clear that Alexander’s idea was dismissed so that the show could introduce an alien on a videoscreen. Eventually the alien boarded Alexander and his crew’s starship, and then proceeded to start a duel with Alexander. Conveniently, the alien’s choice of weapon just happened to have a counterpart next to Alexander’s captain’s chair. Alexander, upon having the weapon pointed out to him, stated “oh, is that what that is.” If it hadn’t been readily apparent before, it was now -- it was going to make no difference what Alexander said or did to that point in the improv sketch, the members of the troupe were going to force this duel to occur, even if that meant gainsaying every remark from Alexander.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Sun's reaction was a touch odd, and it wouldn't have been that hard to give a reason for it. Kate saying something, or an odd comment from Sawyer, or something.
2 - Rocket
Oops, I believe you missed the premise of "Thank God You're Here". The idea is that the actor walks into a scene for which there is already a script; he just has not been privy to said script. The other cast all know the script. It is not the participant's scene to do with what he pleases. It's not so much improv in a free-flowing sense, but more in the sense that the actor has to fly by the seat of his pants to get through a scene he did not practice. The cast is not stifling improv, but rather guiding and laying the framework within which the actor can ad-lib. Most of the contestants get it, but not all. It is certainly not slapstick hilarious, but it is clever and subtly funny. The audience gets to see who the actor is and how they deal with uncomfortable situations, not the normal characters they portray.
3 - TV and Film Guy
Rocket, I get that the troupe has a place where they would like everything to go. But, as with the Alexander sketch, he could've said anything and it would've made no difference, no one adjusted to what he said, they just negated it. They said stuff like "I think what he means is" when he didn't say what they wanted or go where they wanted him to. That's not clever. They have to reposition him subtly, not just negate what he says. There is improv there, or, there should be.
4 - Emma Ortiz
The show could be much better without David Foly.....they don't need him judging if you will! Get rid of him...it would be good. The main crew/actors are great!
:)