Kelsey Grammer Presents: The Sketch Show

Network: Fox; Genre: Sketch; Content Rating: TV-PG (for adult content and dark comedy); Classification: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Season Reviewed: Complete Series (6 episodes)

It may have been slight, shallow, short-lived and a overseas concept anyway, but "Kelsey Grammar Presents The Sketch Show" solves one of the biggest problems that come with the sketch comedy series. Many sketch shows present us with a funny idea and then stretch the life out of it trying to get it to full sketch length. "Sketch Show" keeps things alive with a unique format that packs several unrelated sketches into 22 minutes - with a different sketch every few seconds, some of which connect.

"Sketch" was the 2005 British remake that wasn't "The Office". Produced and lending his credible appearance to some of the skits is sitcom legend Kelsey Grammar himself. The show is fast enough to keep up with the attention of the MTV generation but the jokes feel at least 30 years behind the times. The sketches are made of quick one-liners, puns or a stupidly funny piece of slapstick. Two knights show up at a hotel asking for a room for two nights, an astronaut locks himself out of the lunar rover, two cops give news that a man's wife has died through song. A low point comes in a psychiatrist (hot Kaitlin Olson) who whines back at her patients. It is all intensely lame stuff, but done as such a fast pace it becomes watchable, even addictive. If only to see what will come next. Proving the shorter-the-better theory with sketch comedy, it is usually the longer sketches that become the most tiresome.

The biggest attraction is the inclusion of Mary Lynn Rajskub. Fans will be interested to see Rajskub outside of her role as socially dysfunctional Chloe O'Brien on a hiatus during "24's" 4th season and in her comic element. A bit in which Rajskub plays a wedding photographer is a series high. Which also says a lot about the show's limits.

There is no satire, no parody here, no desire to appeal to the kids and nothing that can be identifiable as coming from this decade. I'm sure Grammar was going for a timeless quality, which is rather refreshing on an American network. Grammar has succeeding in bringing something that is distinctly British to American shores once again. It's almost karma that "The Sketch Show" lasted about as long as the average British TV season.

* * / 4

This show is a hark back to the halcyon days of sketch-variety-show TV--all the way from Laugh-In and The Smothers Brothers to the early Saturday Night Live. There's nothing like it on TV today. No, they don't hit one out of the park with every sketch, but neither did SNL every time, did they now? And no, maybe it's not cutting-edge or avant-garde or whatever y'all seem to be looking for who don't like it, but you know what? It's darn funny. It's simple humor, and if there's not an audience out there these days for simple humor, well, that's just their loss. I for one thank Kelsey Grammar for taking a chance. And Lee What's-His-Name, the British guy, is the next big thing or I'll eat my hat. (And when was the last time you heard somebody say THAT?) Just sign me...Somebody Who Still Reads Robert Benchley For Laughs

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Fox doesn't know what they are doing. A good sketch show, canceled so they can load their station in with more stupid reality shows. Anyway, I liked this show because it had nice, short, punchy sketches that lasted no more then ten seconds. It was good for a laugh or a chuckle, not laugh on the floor funny, but still it was okay. It was a good way for Kelsey Grammar to go in entertainment after Frasier. I think somebody who would have been great for this show but wasn't on it is Jerry Minor. He was great on Trigger Happy TV and Mr. Show with Bob and David. To bad for this sketch good show.

This show has it's moments, but in general the show is kind of corny and unfunny. The quick puns and one-liners are occasionally predictable as well. I really don't see this show lasting over 6 episodes, and I'm quite surprised that FOX even gave a show like this a chance. I have recorded every episode that has aired so far just so I can say that I have them, but this show really only appeals to a certain type of person I guess. Either you will love it or you will hate it. My guess is that the show will go down the same route as many other FOX shows such as Oliver Beene and The Pitts, which really weren't bad shows, they just umm...

this show was awful, it was

a complete copy of the

British sketch show which aired in 2000 which actually had lee mack in it. they completely copy all of the sketches which were used in the British version, and is a lot less funny. The acting is poor and the dialog is cheap. i expected a lot more from Kelsey grammar who really isn't that bad at acting. the actors are not natural enough, and it is evident through their body language and the way they deliver their lines that it has been over rehearshed, it basicaly lacks the spontinaety that the original British version had. lee mack was also a lot funnier in the British version, i feel that his American co stars are bringing him down to a certain degree. i know that this may sound harsh but i see no need for this show to be remade as it was