If life hasn’t been the same since Drew Carey’s “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” went off the air, if you harbor distant memories of Jonathan Winters going nuts in his attic, you’ll welcome a successor to those improvisational comedy series.
“Thank God You’re Here!” makes an entrance at 8 p.m. Monday on KUSA-Channel 9.
Comic actors, some more obscure than others, walk through a door into scenes in progress. The opening line to each five-minute sketch, “Thank God you’re here!” is the only constant.
Whether they find themselves portraying a British explorer in an Egyptian tomb, a contender in a beauty pageant or a rock star in a record studio, they launch in with no script and only open-ended cues from supporting players.
The studio audience seems thrilled as the celebrity contestants play along, displaying varying amounts of quick thinking, inspiration and acting ability. The fact is, it’s easy to fumble through an improv scene; it takes a real gift to elevate improv to an artful, surprising and genuinely funny scene. That happens only rarely.
David Alan Grier (“In Living Color”) serves as host; Dave Foley (“NewsRadio,” “Kids in the Hall”) is the judge. The judging is purely ancillary/arbitrary, and Foley’s contribution to the proceedings is negligible.
The sketches are wardrobe- and prop-dependent, displaying occasional bursts of inventive dialogue. It’s cute, but is “cute” enough?
The opening episode features Jennifer Coolidge (“American Pie”), Bryan Cranston (“Malcolm in the Middle”), Joel McHale (E!s “The Soup”) and Wayne Knight (“Seinfeld”).
We’ve learned never to bet against the producers of “American Idol,” FremantleMedia North America, who introduced this show in Australia in 2004. Like “Idol,” the hour is padded but family-friendly.
Certainly “Thank God” is more creative than the other unscripted NBC shows, “Deal or No Deal” and “The Biggest Loser.” The network has more unscripted, “reality” programming coming up, including a dating show called “Age of Love” for late spring, but none is improv-comedy attempts.
BBC America revamps
“Benny Hill” is outta there. Instead, modern British drama and comedy are getting a big push, with theme nights like “Murder Mondays” and “Wicked Wednesdays” (soap operas).
Among the changes announced for BBC America this week is a Saturday-night comedy block. A notable addition is the BBC America co-production, “The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle,” written by and starring Jennifer Saunders (“Absolutely Fabulous”).
Talk show host Vivienne Vyle (Saunders) is joined by Oscar-nominated Miranda Richardson as her producer. It’s billed as “Ab Fab” meets ‘The Larry Sanders Show’ with a bit of Oprah thrown in.” We can hope.
Garth Ancier, newly installed president of BBC Worldwide America, announced an increased emphasis “on our world renowned news coverage.” BBC World News will air a three-hour news block weekday mornings and weeknights.
Say goodbye
Two shows airing tonight, “Wedding Bells” on Fox and “Six Degrees” on ABC, are about to be gone for good, their respective networks announced this week. Additionally, “The Black Donnellys” on NBC will be cut midstory, wrapping up after just eight episodes on April 16 (unless the plug is pulled even sooner).
The dark Paul Haggis-Bobby Moresco drama about an Irish- American family of thugs has struggled in the ratings. It will be replaced by a reality show, “Wedding Crashers.”
“7th Heaven” will sign off the CW (again) on May 13. “Hidden Palms,” the not-bad teen soap previously announced as a late- winter contender, debuts May 30 on the CW.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
