I am – Hercules!!
I love improvisational theatre; I surely do. I’ve been to Los Angeles’ Groundlings Theatre – which nurtured Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Laraine Newman, Lisa Kudrow, Conan O’Brien and Pee-wee Herman – a hundredy zillion times, and never had a bad night, I swear. But I’ve always hated “Whose Line Is It Anyway” – the televisonized improv half-hour starring the grotesquely overvalued Greg Proops and Ryan Stiles and Wayne Brady – and I don’t like the episode I saw of “Thank God You’re Here” any better. It makes me sad to say so, because I harbor great fondness for Chris Guest regular Jennifer Coolidge and “The Soup” host Joel McHale, two of the four guest stars of the "Thank God" episode forwarded our way. But the show is pure nonstop tedium. For what it’s worth, you will grow to suspect that “Malcolm in the Middle” star Bryan Cranston believes that kissing every other player on the lips makes for good improv. But what matters Herc’s opinion? Variety says:

… Hit-miss in the way improv almost invariably is, the show feels flabby at an hour ("Whose Line" was half that and paired with sitcoms), leaving a premiere that yields a few of the cheapest kind of chuckles on just about every level.…

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… There are clever moments in NBC's new improv series "Thank God You're Here," but you can get awfully restless waiting for them. Mostly, it is because of the unpredictably hit-or-miss nature of the improv form. It nearly is impossible to be consistently funny with the first thing that comes into your head. Comedy club audiences understand and give actors leeway; TV viewers probably won't. … NBC is under a mandate to cut production costs for some of its primetime shows. "Thank God" will certainly help do that. Whether it does anything else for the peacock network is unlikely.

9 p.m. Monday. NBC.

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