Spontaneity: Part 1 - The Show

Jessie comments on the value of NOT knowing when it comes to what's on TV...

I remember, once upon a time when I was in university, sitting in front of the communal tv with the rest of the people I lived with as a then-popular tv show came on one Sunday night. It was almost a tradition amongst us, though no one could say who started it. But at the time, X-Files was very hot and very popular - and very new.

The reason I remember this night, more than any episode, is not due to the content. It's because, after having watched that teaser that occurs before the credits, I made a joke about it being obvious. When challenged on that joke, I spieled off my guess on what would occur during the episode; the entire plot summed up in a few sentances.

And then watched as everything I had guessed happened.

That was the last time I seriously watched the show, and not because the people I lived with claimed they wouldn't watch it with me anymore because I ruined it for them that one time. It was because there was no surprise, there was no shock. I knew what was going to happen before it did. Which isn't a claim of my own psychic powers, but the curse of many a long running tv show. Predictability.

The exact opposite of predictability is spontaneity; the inability to predict what happens next, what will be the next step taken. Good writing on a tv show can do this; X-Files did at first, and occasional shows that come along have the ability to do that with written scripts (my current pick in the fiction? stick with the fantastical and watch a bit o' Buffy, but back to our show now). You can find these shows on the internet; just look for anything that actually has a very strong 'spoiler' base for the people who can't stand the wait, who can't handle the surprise. Those are the shows that surprise, that have people on the edges of their seats waiting to figure out what on earth they'll do next, what twist they'll add.

All but one, of course. One of the most spontaneous types of shows will never have a spoiler base, because there is nothing to spoil. Spontaneity is the very heart of improv, it's even the source of it's name. And the concept of Whose Line is it Anyway was based on that. Even more so than the comedy or the humour, the things most associated with, that is the key to it all.

You don't know what's going to happen next. What joke they'll crack, what spin they'll put on a game and throw you off balance. Half the time it seems that they themselves didn't even know what was going to happen next! And that's the charm, that's the catch that hooked many a fan the first time they saw it.

Wild and off-the-cuff, improvised in a moments notice, surprising and unexpected. That is the nature and heart of improv, the cue they took to make a television show that crossed nations and oceans, both in it's own incarnations and in it's fanbase.

Spontaneity. Admit it, it's why you love it ... don't you?

(Stay tuned for Spontaneity: Part 2 - The Fans. Coming soon!)

Posted 30/01/2003

---

Do you think Whose Line is spontaneous? Or do you find you can tell what's going to happen next nowadays? Or perhaps you think this has nothing at all to do with the show's success. Write a letter to the editor & tell us your opinion!

---

Return to the main Articles page | Return to the main Whosers Page