Seriously? OMG! WTF?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2G4KgMjYmc
Back in 1992, Fox did the unthinkable and aired all live episodes during the second season of Roc. Now 23 years later, NBC will be doing the same thing with their only returning sitcom Undateable. That’s right for Undateable’s third season Chris D’Elia, Brent Morin, Bianca Kajlich, Ron Funches, Rick Glassman, David Flynn and Bridgit Mendler will do what they did on Tuesday night and go live for every episode.
No matter what religion you are, please pray for Kajlich, Flynn and Mendler because they are going to need them to get through those 13 episodes with D’Elia, Funches, Glassman and Morin. Also pray for Bill Lawrence and Adam Sztykiel, they might currently be the best looking television producers out there in the TV world with their full heads of hair, but after next season they might have a whole new look.
Seriously, if any sitcom could handle going live, it is Undateable. They have the best team to handle the pressure and bring the craziness week and week.
Now I get what Bill Lawrence was talking about when he told me last week that the network’s President Robert Greenblatt loves live television. This was probably always in the cards and I am glad Greenblatt played this hand.
Lastly, NBC also renewed The Mysteries of Laura and Night and Night Shift.

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?

How do they feel about going live?
Ron Funches is excited. Bridgit Mendler said, “I think it is ambitious. I am curious what they are going to accomplish with that format. They really tried to spice it up as much as possible.” Then she added that the writers did a great job of acknowledging that show is live.
Victoria Justice, who was the only guest star at the press day said, “I think it is a little intimidating to come on to a show that is live, but at the same time that is what kind of made it exciting. She then explained, “I could’ve just come and guest starred on the show, but the fact that it is the live episode is exciting. Makes it more of an event sort of thing.”

On the event front, they are going to have almost as many celebrities on the show that were at Saturday’s boxing match.
NBC announced a few of them yesterday. They are Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Neil Flynn, Christa Miller, Kate Walsh, Victoria Justice, Dr. Drew and other they could not announce. The press release also stated that there will be a “Superstar Surprise Musical Guest.” I know who it is, and all I can tell you is that they have ties to Taylor Swift. Then again who doesn’t? Update, since the news is out there it is Ed Sheeran!
What I can tell you is that Executive Producer Bill Lawrence asked Kate Walsh to guest star on the show via Twitter and as you can see she said yes.

We know that a chart topping singer is going to perform on the show, but what about the cast that normally sings on the show? Will they be singing tonight?
Medler and Justice will be singing a duet tonight, I know the song but I can’t tell you. I can tell you that it was a spontaneous decision. Medler said that Bill Lawrence told her she’s doing a song and then said it was going to be a duet with Victoria. Both girls were surprised but up for the challenge.
When I asked Morin if he would be belting out a tune, D’Elia said, “Yes, because it is an episode.”

Who will be the first one to mess up, mess up the most and the worst?
All but two people said Brent Morin for every answer. The two people, who said otherwise, said that Rick and Bianca would mess up the most. We will just have to see what happens when it airs.
How will Morin control his laughter? His secret is that will be thinking of his dog that drowned when he was boy. Sad, right?

Undateable is known for the actors Improvising during their tapings, will they do it during the live show?
Ron Funches told me, “They are scripting in places for us to improvise. Which I guess is kind of frightening.” Although Chris D’Elia feels differently, “Improving doesn’t make us nervous, but knowing the lines does.”
How does Bianca Kajlich feel about the comedians Improvising tonight? She said, “I personally feel better with them. If something is going to go wrong we are in great hands to have people that are great at Improv and great at picking up the pieces.” She added, “It feels more freeing I think to be with people who are capable of jumping in at the last second and helping out.” Her co-star Bridgit Mendler feels differently because she told me she is a little nervous about that. She said, “I am hoping with enough practice, we will be able to go over that element of it so we know at least what that feels like.”

On that note, when did they get the script?
Three weeks ago, Chris was on TBS’s Conan and he said they had not yet gotten the script for tonight’s show. In fact, they didn’t get it until last Monday. Before you fret, Bent says that is the longest they have had one. Plus, extra rehearsal time was made to make sure tonight goes off flawlessly.
Something Rick Glassman commented on, “The four of us have much more experience working in front of a live audience than doing this. Which makes me very comfortable with this. I am guaranteeing that it will be flawless.” Ron just laughed his loveable laugh. Although I will say Rick sounded pretty confident about his statement.

What are some of the things that will be different tonight?
They have someone timing them into scenes, but there is something you can look out for tonight. Glassman explained, “We have to do some costume changes and get from one set to another within four seconds with music playing in between. So we’ve been practicing taking off shirts and putting stuff on and running upstairs.” Then he added, “We are starting out with multiple layers, t-shirts sewn into hoodies and we’ll take them off as we go. Scenes are going to start with us breathing heavily.”

Is there anything they can’t they do?
Funches says that the cast is constantly being reminded that it will cost them a lot of money if any of them curse. Rick says that is the only thing they can’t do. Which means at least one of them will accidentally do it. Right?

Why you should watch?
Funches summed it up, “There’s a lot of fun guest stars that we cannot talk about. There’s a lot of fun music we cannot talk about. It’s just more, it’s a super-sized show. If you like Undateable; but you are like it is over now (because it’s a half hour), it’s nice to be able to go here’s a double dose of what you love and also it’s live so we could mess up.

What more do you need to tune in? It’s live! It’s full of great guests! It’s got singing! There’s a chance they’re going to screw up! And most importantly, it is going to be FUNNY!!! So tune in tonight at 9p for an experience only the cast of Undateable can conjure up!

On May 5th at 9p, Undateable is doing a live episode for the East and West Coast. Anytime a sitcom goes live it is awesome, but Chris D’Elia made it sound even better than all those other ones when he was on Conan yesterday.
The live episode is airing in just 3 weeks from tonight and D’Elia said they don’t even have the script for it yet. He added, “In fact, the writer emailed us, Brent (Morin) and I, ‘Hey, just so you know the show is on in two (three) weeks and we’re going to shoot it. If you have anything you wanna add into the script, feel free to just throw it out to us.'” Then he added, “It’s just going to be horrible.” No, that is what is going to make it fantastic!
Not only are they scriptless, but D’Elia, Morin, Ron Funches and Rick Glassman are all professional comedians, so they are all ready to mess up on the big night. Although those four are used to improvising, I feel for their co-stars David Flynn, Bianca Kajlich and Bridgit Mendler because they are not comedians. I don’t know how they are going to keep a straight face, and more importantly continue acting as all the madness takes place. Actually, that is what is going to make those live episodes ever more fabulous.
So mark your calendars for May 5th at 9p on NBC because you are not going to want to miss Undateable’s live episode as it happens.
If you’ve never seen Undateable, you can get a taste of it tonight and every Tuesday at 9p on NBC. I promise you are going to love the taped episodes as much as the live one!

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