When looking at today’s television landscape, it’s difficult to find shows that feature unique and unprecedented themes.
Ray Romano continues to make a living off his interpretation of the suburban white family; dramas like “ER” still rely heavily on week-to-week cliffhangers, and “The Sopranos” will continue to mix plot benders with mafia violence. While these formats have their strengths (longevity obviously being one of them) they often take decades to tread new territory in their respective styles.
Sitcoms, dramas and violent thrillers have secured their place in TV history as some of the most reliable ways to entertain Americans and will continue to do so in the future. The tendency to stick with what works, however, can sometimes hamper creativity.
When looking at a sitcom from the ’70s, such as “All in the Family,” and comparing it to something more current, such as “Everybody Love’s Raymond,” little has changed in the style. Colloquial references and Archie’s racism aside, the two sitcoms are the same in that they both chronicle the white family in an at-home setting. While both of these shows have enjoyed success, the amount of new ground being broken was and is minimal. This pattern of recyclable television could also justify reality television’s newfound reign atop the ratings. While the amount of intelligence gained from watching a show like “The Swan” or “American Idol” may be minimal and the show may at times be excruciatingly awful, they do have an undeniable entertainment value. Yet, even reality TV has been around for more than a decade if you count “The Real World,” as the birth of the young genre. Naturally, the medium continues to grow, and improvisation, a comedy theatre technique that relies on spontaneity and wit, is quickly making a noticeable impact in both film and television.
Improvisation, or improv, calls for an actor to work with a basic premise of a scene and exchange dialogue through a stream of consciousness, depending on the situation the actor and their ensemble has created. What results is the most real and honest response possible. With no set script or cued dialogue, the actors rely on their own sense of the moment in a scene to determine its end result.
While improv is a relatively new concept on TV, it actually has roots dating back to the ’50s. Second City, a prominent comedy stage based in Chicago, opened as a form of experimental theatre. As the form became more established, it was clear that open minded and quick-witted actors were needed for it to entertain an audience. With this necessity naturally suiting the mindset of a comedian, improv then found its niche in comedy and began to produce revues based off the ideas that stemmed from improv sets. With the revues garnering attention for their ingenuity, improv became a popular form of comedy and boosted the careers of future stars such as Robert Klein, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner and John Belushi. With new influential theatres opening in Los Angeles (The Groundlings) and New York (Upright Citizens Brigade), improv continued its growth in the theatre community. Its transition to TV was only a matter of time.
While other shows may have experimented with improv first, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is the true pioneer of television improv in that the show encourages actors to improvise and is shot with few re-takes. Starring and written by Larry David (executive producer and co-creator of “Seinfeld”) and Jeff Garlin (a Second City Alumni), the show has a basic idea for each scene and the overall direction of an episode and leaves the rest to the actor’s improv skills.
Because of their reliance on natural human reactions, the show has a sense of natural interaction that cannot be duplicated. While reality TV boasts of its realness, often times it ends up being the opposite. For instance, seven college kids thrown into a mansion and forced to party every night while being videotaped 24 hours a day is something none of us would consider a normal life. The presence of a camera or audience simply does not allow for pure and unfiltered emotion. Improv realizes this and compensates by giving their performers no time to react and forces them to use what is innate in a scene, giving the audience the most authentic feedback a form of entertainment can allow. Other shows such as Comedy Central’s “Wanda Does It,” starring “Curb Your Enthusiasm” cast member Wanda Sykes, and “Reno 911!” utilize this new technique to guide them through the scene.
Perhaps the best evidence for improv’s impact is the growing success of former Groundlings and Saturday Night Live cast member Will Ferrell. Besides bringing improv back to SNL as a means of writing sketches, Ferrell now stars and sometimes writes feature films using improv. “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and “Old School” are two well-known showcases of Ferrell’s knack for improv.
While sitcoms, dramas and thrillers will remain popular and stable forms of TV entertainment, their level of freshness is continuing to plummet. The predictable plot lines and stale dialogue are wearing thin, and perhaps TV is ready for a new era. Give improv a shot. Watch shows like “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Arrested Development,” “Wanda Does It” and “Reno 911!”. It’s not for everyone, and the form continues to grow and change every day, but at least it gives hope for creativity on the television screen.
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