Upright Citizens Brigade - Television Series

Television Series

The group formed a television series dedicated to their sketch comedy on Comedy Central that aired for three seasons from 1998 to 2000. Each season contained 10 episodes, which included sketches inspired by their live shows and new material. Each episode was centered around a theme, to be tied together in some way by the end. The progression of each episode essentially followed an improv format known as the Harold, which was invented by Del Close, improv teacher and mentor to the UCB (who also contributed the voiceover in the show's opening title sequence). Additionally, episodes in each season would make reference to a fictitious element within the show's world and would culminate in a season finale that would focus exclusively on this element. The show avoided overused staples of sketch shows, and rarely used pop culture parodies or celebrity impersonations (with some notable exceptions: the Unabomber, Albert Einstein, Harry Truman, and Jesus).

The four main actors rarely appeared as themselves. They each took various roles throughout the sketches, which were linked by segments featuring Adair (Besser), Colby (Poehler), Antoine (Roberts), and Trotter (Walsh), the Upright Citizens Brigade.

The show centered on a group called 'The Upright Citizens Brigade', an underground organization "with no government ties and unlimited resources" dedicated to creating and monitoring chaos from their secure underground base. The sketches depict chaotic or bizarre events in the world, events which shown to be often directly engineered by the UCB.

In the Season 2 finale, the DEA invaded the UCB lair as part of a raid to find a Supercool smuggling ring. As a result, in the third and final season, the UCB had set up operation in a bakery delivery truck. The UCB characters also had less of a presence in the episodes, appearing frequently in cut scenes.

Another defining feature of the show was a series of real-world pranks, which tied in with the show's theme. Usually run at the end of each episode, these hidden-camera pranks featured the cast (as either the central UCB characters or other characters from that day's episode) interacting with strangers. These segments featured such concepts as attempts by UCB cast to buy the fictitious drug "supercool" from real drug dealers in shady dance clubs, a UCB mother trying to convince a real store clerk to let her put up flyers advertising "baby fights," Roberts dressed as Santa Claus standing outside a department store offering free samples of his "Santa Liqueur", and the UCB at a sidewalk stand attempting to sell "poo-sticks" (sticks with dog feces on one end) as defensive weapons to passersby.

The show was not renewed by Comedy Central after the third season. Its players have since moved on to other projects while still performing in various combinations at their weekly improvised show, ASSSSCAT, which can be seen once on Saturday and Sunday nights in Los Angeles, and twice on Sunday nights in New York. In Los Angeles, the Sunday night show is free, as is the second show in New York. One of the show's running jokes involves cast members explaining that "it's free to get in, but you have to pay to leave." A version of the show's Bucket of Truth is passed around and donations are taken. Both Poehler and Sanz went on to perform on Saturday Night Live. Comedy Central released a DVD containing the episodes of the first season in 2003. The Season 2 DVD was released on September 18, 2007 in the United States. In the fall of 2005, Bravo showed a one-hour special of ASSSSCAT Improv with guest stars like Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, and Andy Richter. Then in March 2007, a performance of ASSSSCAT was recorded at the LA Theatre with all four original members and also Chad Carter, Sean Conroy, Andrew Daly, Horatio Sanz, as well as guest monologists Will Arnett, Ed Helms, Jen Kirkman, Thomas Lennon, Paul F. Tompkins and Kate Walsh. This was released on DVD in March 2008 and features the full ASSSSCAT show and some bonus clips and interviews.

The show's motto was "Don't think."

The show opened with this narration, voiced by improv legend and UCB guru Del Close: "From the dawn of civilization, they have existed in order to undermine it. Our only enemy is the status quo. Our only friend is chaos. They have no government ties and unlimited resources. If something goes wrong, we are the cause. Every corner of the earth is under their surveillance. If you do it, we see it. Always. We believe the powerful should be made less powerful. We have heard the voice of society, begging us to destabilize it. Antoine. Colby. Trotter. Adair. We are the Upright Citizens Brigade."