Seriously? OMG! WTF?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6cmCYa46vI
If you look at Bill Lawrence’s resume, you will see it is very impressive. It includes writing, producing and/or creating Friends, Spin City, Scrubs, Cougar Town, Ground Floor and most recently Undateable. When he worked on Scrubs, he filmed a musical episode, which was a high note for his career. Tonight at 9p on NBC his co-Exectutive Producer Adam Sztykiel and him are going to try live television with Undateable. How does Lawrence feel about it, “I love live television; I’ve never tried it before.” But he elaborated, “It’s hysterical how hard it is for the people that truly have to work it. I don’t think I will ever do it again.”
Was it their idea to do a one-hour live episode? Bill Lawrence said the idea came from the Head of the Network, Bob Greenblatt. He is a fan of live television (hence the live musicals every December), and he’s also fan of the four comics on the show and thought they could do it. Lawrence added that it also came about because of the way that they tape the show. He explained, “The first scene they do as scripted and the other one they do anyway that they want.” If someone comes up to Bill and/or Adam after that show and says that they loved the line that Chris or anyone else says, the two Executive Producers will say is, “Thank you!”
Now we know how it came about, what can we expect from it? Lawrence described it as, “The show is half scripted, half variety. A lot of music, a lot of standup, a lot of Improv, a lot of fear from us of what those guys are going to do.” Adam hinted what they’re afraid the actors might do, “Very blue, that can become very expensive on a live show.” Then he added, “Nobody wants to see a perfect show.” Lawrence on the other hand, says, “Part of the fun of this show, we don’t mind these guys doing what they will with it. We have talented performers who aren’t comics that can ride the wave with them and that is part of the fun.”
Besides the 7 series regulars (Chris D’Elia, Brent Morin, Bianca Kajlich, Ron Funches, Rick Glassman, David Fynn and Bridgit Mendler) taking part on tonight’s episode, there are a slew of celebrities who are also going to walk into the bar tonight. Bill talked about the guest stars, “We got lucky! Some people from my past, some of these comics have such fan bases. We have some screwy giant guest stars, international recording stars, bananas.” Bananas is right, Ed Sheeran and Victoria Justice are going to sing on it and Zach Braff, Donald Fasion, Kate Walsh, Scott Foley and Christa Miller are some of the actors who are announced to also be part of it.
But having guest stars on tonight’s episode kind of scares him. Bill explained in the past, “If the comedians say something and people don’t laugh hysterically they will never say it again. No matter what you do, so maybe next time we did a scene in front of the audience they will say something different and the guests actors line will no longer make sense and they are like huh?.” Adding, “He’s not sure Bob (Greenblatt) is ready for that.” Although with several rehearsals leading up to tonight’s show, the guest stars might be more prepared for it.
Lawrence in a way is prepared for tonight because he shared with me that he grew up with Saturday Night Live. He loves when a cast member accidentally slips up a little bit, but when they slip up a lot it becomes like come on. He said that Undateable is different because, “While on most shows the actors have your back, he says the comics want to see if they can make the non-comics mess up. The comedians will be like I am going to make you laugh and there is no possible way you are getting through this. Their goal is too screw each other up!” Although two of the comedians told us, they were not planning to do anything tonight. We shall see.
When it comes to what we see on taped nights, Bill spoke about those episodes too. When you watch those episodes, you might see the actors laughing at each other. He explained that happens because the laughing actor had no idea what was coming out of the other person’s mouth. Some people think it is a choice, but the producers have no choice but to go with that take because they don’t have time to do it over and over again. Tonight, the actors have scripted lines, but they also have parts when they can Improv. We, the viewer, won’t know which is which, but we might have a clue when you see an actor suddenly break into laughter.
After an hour of singing, comedy, giggles, and mayhem, Lawrence feels, “People are either going to like it or think it is insane.” And if they think the latter, Adam said, “It’s a win either way for us, that’s kind the strength of the show, is our tape nights. They are riotously funny because they are unpredictable.”
The only words, I take away from those final two quotes are insane, riotously funny and unpredictable. That is enough to get me to tune in, is it enough to make you watch?