The Chris Gethard Show: Public Access

The Chris Gethard Show defies categorization. It's a talk show, a variety show, an improv comedy show. It's the saddest comedy show. It's the funniest sad show. At it's best, it has more creativity, energy and passion than anything on TV. At it's worst, it still has all those things but becomes a spectacular failure, sort of like the time a fireworks show accidentally set off all their fireworks at once, in one huge, chaotic explosion: It's not what you came to see, it's not what anyone planned, but in a way it's even better than it would have been if things had gone right.

Mostly what The Chris Gethard Show is is incredibly personal. I remember watching the first episode of Nashville and thinking that the people who made that show (producers, directors, writers, actors) could have gotten together just as easily and made an hour-long network drama about lawyers or doctors or detectives; the show was well made but bland. TCGS is the opposite of shows like that - literally no one else could put on this show and that personal heart inspires well earned adoration and appreciation.

The Chris Gethard Show has earned a following of die-hard fans from all over the world. I'm just one of those many fans. I had heard about Chris's public access show in Weird New Jersey magazine. He seemed like a cool dude. I started watching the show last July and immediately fell in love. I think the first episode I watched was one where Chris invited a man of experience onto the show to answer questions about life and what young folks can expect from it. It was such a real and genuine show. I had to watch the rest of them.

I went back to the very first show that was filmed at MNN and watched that. That first episode began with a promise to its audience which makes the show so endearing to me. That was that the show will be outrageously funny or that it will fail so hard that the failure will be funny. They haven't broken that promise in any episode. The stunts and jokes they fail at are made up for with heart. Chris and friends aren't afraid to laugh at themselves and can see humor in every situation. I continued to watch all the episodes thereafter and haven't missed a single one. There's always at least one moment in an episode where I laugh so hard for a solid 20 seconds.

It's not just me that has similar feelings about the show. Many young adults feel that the show has helped them through some tough times. Chris isn't afraid of delving into and discussing his own mental health for his viewers. In that way, he makes it so his viewers aren't as afraid of their own mental health and can perhaps find some trace of humor in their situation.

There aren't many shows on TV nowadays where the host and cast have as much heart invested in their show as The Chris Gethard Show. That's enough for me to keep watching.

The Chris Gethard Show is the best live TV show ever made. In fact as far as I'm concerned it's the first live TV show that matters.

TV is generally a crass medium. Even publicly funded television is often anxious to please everyone, and in doing so sinks to the lowest common denominator. The Chris Gethard Show never does that. It only strives to connect to the viewers in an honest way. It doesn't really matter if the viewer is brought to laugh, to boredom, to reveal personal emotions or to impersonate a dead celebrity. As long as people call in and bring something interesting to the table, the show is considered a success.

Chris Gethard and his enormous team of volunteers achieve this by letting their own creativity flow in various unexpected ways. There's an episode where the whole panel is blindfolded and other people come near them to freak them out. There's an episode where various experts talk about high culture while Colt Cabana demonstrates wrestling moves. There's an episode with guest host Alyssa about how awesome Beyoncé is. And there's multiple episodes in which Gethard is a human crane, because the first one was a genuine disaster so of course it had to be done again.

Special consideration should go to the music. The house band the LLC is essential in creating the atmosphere, and the musical guests are phenomenal. Acts like the Stumblebum Brass Band, The Debutante Hour and the Dolchnakov Brigade are an amazing eye opener into the talent of the underground New York music scene.

Through the internet TCGS is creating connections now between people worldwide. It will doubtless serve to inspire creativity everywhere it's watched. Gethard's magic is making people see that they have something to contribute, no matter how weird or sad they might consider themselves to be.

Calling The Chris Gethard Show a television show on public access almost seems a little misleading. You tune into TCGS you immediately notice is this a show like you've never seen before. It's full of chaos, weird characters, advice and hilarity. As you watch you start to realize that there is a whole community that's based around this show. They don't just watch the show, they are apart of the show. They contribute. The fans play as big of a part as any of the cast members of the show.

Community aside, The Chris Gethard Show is just a hilarious show. It's definitely weird but that's what makes it so great. It may take you a few episodes to get into it. But stick with it. I promise it's worth your time.

There are a lot of TV shows out there. Plenty of them are great, many of them are terrible but none of them are what TCGS is. TCGS is a movement. It's a place where people who are cast aside in this current "Nerd" fad. We call ourselves losers. We don't mean it in a divisive or insulting way. We are a community as one review has said. I've never heard of a show that is as close net with it's fans as TCGS is. This is the only show I've ever heard of that I know the audience coordinators are. I love this show for so many reasons. This is the anti-talk show. It is the jolt of positivity that television needs. It's an earnest and real show. Plus it has a man in a banana suit who likes to party, a human fish, a guy who is on vacation all the time, a guy who masturbates beasts, and a guy who likes cream but not to much cream.