User reviews

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.

This show reminds me of SCTV with John Candy and Catherine O'Hara, only... funnier. Variety, sketches, oddball humor, I love that stuff. I like this show. I'm not terribly fond of the real people on the street, but I really liked the takeoff on Antiques Roadshow. I like Jeff Davis from "Whose Line is it Anyway" (he's quite ripping, by George, spiffing great stuff, that), and Wanda Sykes is quite the goofball herself.

This is a corking good show, chaps. I'm glad it's on, and I wish there was more of the likes of it on TV.

Have a crummy week!

This show is pretty funny, but it's different; a sort of man-on-the-street, guerilla-comedy, sketch-comedy, variety-comedy, sort of show. The only reason the reviews have been mostly bad is because it's different; if you give it a chance, the show is actually pretty funny, especially Jeff Davis and Wanda Sykes.

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.

"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 loved this show. It was too bad they made so few episodes. It was the kind of humour you don't see much of these days, where sad and maddening things happen to people and they just have to take it on the chin. This is definitely comedy for the little guy. It wasn't so much sketch comedy as a collection of short movies. There were no recurring characters as far as I remember; perhaps they would have appeared over time. It reminded me somewhat of the Ben Stiller Show, in that both were quite short lived and quite sophisticated and full of promise that never got a chance to develop. I don't know if we'll ever see this on DVD and I've never seen it rerun. Too bad.

This show is so stupid it's not even funny. I mean come on, are we supposed to laugh at a bunch of slackjawed people crowding around a pan of hot cookies, then trying to eat them and realize they're too hot? This would be funny for toddlers but not for teens and adults. I'll also have to agree that this show get the rating it deserves. 0.000000001/100000

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.

This show is awful. I can't say awful enough times. The previews for this show made it look as tho it was the funniest show ever made, but I watched it the other night-and wow this stuff is bad. This is the oddest humor I have ever seen, and I can't imagine anyone finding it funny. As far as I have heard, almost everyone hates the show, and I have to wonder, how did this ever get on tv in the first place? There is SO much great tv that gets canned without a chance (Freaks and Geeks for example), yet garbage like this makes it on the air at all, it amazes and shocks me! NBC is becoming the worst channel on tv, and I don't even watch it at all anymore. I used to watch NBC all the time, but it definitely losing it's crown as king of the networks. This show is horrible...Spy TV is a gem compared to this show, and that means The Downer Channel HAS to be awful. .000000000001/10--is that possible?