The Downer Channel

"The Downer Channel" features an unfunny cast, unfunny skits, and bears absolutely no direction. At times we are thrown unrecognizable "skits," dare I say, that have no significance to the other skits.

Steve Martin co-produced this show, which made me think it would be hilarious...wrong!

"The Downer Channel" proves that trying to cash in on the fabled success of "Saturday Night Live" is not at easy task.

1/5 stars --

John Ulmer

I know from the things that they have done earlier, that the members of the downer channel are all very funny. Steve Martin was involved, and the it was brought to me by the people who brought me 3rd Rock from the Sun, and That 70's Show! This show, as a sum of the parts going in, should be funny.

But, for the most part it isn't. Instead of making it a pure skit comedy show, it turns into a "concept show" where they interrupt skits with slips of people complaining. Not only does this interrupt the flow of the show, it makes it so the skits are really only :30 second blasts of silliness.

Another problem is there are too many writers for the type of show it should be. It should be a skit show, so it should be written primarily, if not completely, by the members of the troupe. You can tell that there is a distance between the actors and the writing, something that shouldn't happen in skit comedy.

It does have funny parts, though. I just wish they could hold on to them for the full half hour.

Despite the obvious comic talent in its cast - particularly Jeff Davis of Whose Line is it Anyway, and stand-up comedienne Wanda Sykes - this show was doomed to fail from the beginning.

It's hard to list all the things wrong with it. First, it assumed that the audience had a two-second attention span. Think of Saturday Night Live, but with 25 scenes in a show. That's how quick the "jokes" were. Second, most of the scenes or gags that they gave a huge set-up to were just not funny. For example, there was a mini-documentary about a woman's fear of clowns that was just ridiculous. Third, the idea of using real-life interviews and turning them into humorous scenes is simply unlikely to work with any American audience.

There were a few good things about the show, however. The Walter character was quite funny with his sagas throughout the show. An occasional situation or joke worked quite well. For example, the Relationship Roadshow bits were original and fairly amusing. And finally, the theme song was catchy - this holds little relevance to the show's quality, but should still be noted.

Overall, the show was definitely an original idea, but a bad one. The positive could come nowhere near balancing the glaring negative. There's a reason this show only ran five episodes. However, those fans of the cast members who taped it will be happy with their little piece of cult trivia.

This show had some of the best belly laughs outside of THE SIMPSONS on network TV.

Some sketches were stupid and felt like filler (the rule of thumb on comedy shows) but some bits were so inspired you couldn't believe they were on NBC.

This show died too soon--it was totally worth the time you spent on it.

If you like TV that's not dumbed down, try to find these episodes.

You won't be disappointed.

The humor on this show aimed higher than most of the pap that goes on television. Some sketches were absolutely hilarious, others much more conventional and obvious, but it was always worth tuning in.

Don't be dissuaded by bad reviews of this program--it just shows that THE DOWNER CHANNEL aimed higher than the lowest common denominator, and if it left slower, denser viewers behind, so be it.

If you can catch it anywhere, it'll be worth it.