NO LINES, NO WAITING FOR IMPROVISED SITCOMS 'FREE RIDE,' 'SONS & DAUGHTERS'.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

After achieving modest success on cable, improvised sitcoms are making their way to network television.

Following HBO's notorious ``Curb Your Enthusiasm,'' created by and starring world-class kvetcher Larry David, and ``Significant Others,'' a comedy about couples therapy that was widely admired by critics far more than it was by its network Bravo, two ``Significant Others'' alumni have created sitcoms requiring just the slimmest of scripts, allowing their casts to create most of the dialogue while they shoot their scenes.

``What's going on with comedy is, reality television opened the door to a thing like this, and what's funny is that as reality TV is getting less real, comedies are starting to use realism - I don't think people buy the proscenium shows'' shot before live audiences, says ``Significant Others'' creator/director Rob Roy Thomas, whose new series, ``Free Ride,'' debuts tonight on Fox.

``Free Ride'' concerns Nate (Josh Dean), who, having recently graduated from UC Santa Barbara, finds himself without any goals and returns to his Midwestern hometown, where he moves back in with his dismayed parents (Allan Havey and Loretta Fox).

Improvised comedies save money on the large writing staffs usually hired by traditional sitcoms: In addition to Thomas, ``Free Ride'' features four other writers, who, after creating a narrative spine for each episode, scribble down ideas while watching the cast work out scenes.

``The low cost of production and the element of surprise - at this money, it's worth the experiment,'' Thomas says. ``There's this void in comedy where things don't seem to be working. ... The networks have been saying we need something different, and this is a manifestation of what that might be. This is something tangibly different that you can relate to.''

Meanwhile, next Tuesday, ABC will premiere ``Sons & Daughters,'' a comedy about an extended dysfunctional family, also in the Midwest, created by Fred Goss, who stars as the well-intentioned but hapless Cameron.

``The genesis for this show stemmed out of me being on 'Significant Others' and wanting to do something different,'' explains Goss. ``Rob's style is so fast. I'm more about the reactions; I like things slowed down a little bit. We try not to go for a big finish or to wrap up things with a neat bow. Our family will hopefully resonate with viewers. It's not the funniest show on the air, but viewers will be able to relate to the characters and what they're going through.''

Goss says ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson asked him to create a show after seeing a pilot for a Goss series rejected by another network. ``He said, 'I'm not a big fan of improv, to be honest, but (the pilot) didn't feel improvised.' The idea is, you wouldn't know. That's our process, and that it's improvised is not what it's about. He let us take chances and left us alone to sink or swim.''

Both series represent personal projects for their creators. Goss says of ``Sons & Daughters'': ``The show is about my family experiences. Like my character, I'm married to a Jewish woman, and my children are being raised Jewish, while before my wife, many of my relatives in the Midwest had never met a Jew.''

Thomas based the town Nate returns to in ``Free Ride'' on his own Missouri hometown and, before the show began shooting, took his writers there to soak in its ambience, such as it was. In his North Hollywood office, Thomas shows off the fruits of their anthropological scavenging: photos of local businesses such as Redneck Trailer Supply and the Kum & Go convenience store, a 100-ounce refillable cola mug almost the size of a pony keg and ``Cut'n and Strut'n,'' a DVD featuring four guys hunting turkeys for 3 1/2 hours, which Thomas bought at a sportsmen's megastore he declares to be ``the size of five Wal-Marts.''

Both shows are also produced similarly. Each begins with a threadbare script of about 10 pages, relating the plot and perhaps a line or two of dialogue from which the action will spring. The casts develop the material with improvised dialogue as the cameras roll. There is no stopping while shooting scenes; both Goss and Thomas keep the cameras rolling while they tweak details, asking actors to focus on specific ideas devised that find favor with the shows' creators.

``They have a clear idea of what bullet points they need to hit,'' Goss explains. ``Once we start shooting, it's in a nice, long take that allows us to throw them lines. We're improvising as much behind the camera as they are in front. We shoot all kinds of crazy stuff and decide what we want.'' For each episode, Goss cuts down at least 10 hours of material into a 21-minute show.

``The trick is painting yourself into a corner on set and then getting out of it - and we painted ourselves into a lot of corners,''Thomas says. ``As a director, if I say just a little to the actors, I get a lot back, and if I say a lot, I only get a little back. If you load 'em up full of stuff, they'll feel constrained in their performances, but if I just say something like, 'You feel awkward,' all kinds of things come back.''

Performers on the series find the seat-of-one's-pants approach to making sitcoms exhilarating.

``It's a workout for a different part of your brain,'' says Alison Quinn, who stars on ``Sons & Daughters'' as Cameron's neurotic sister. ``You try to turn a phrase in a more witty way than you would normally.'' She adds that one of her show's hallmarks is that ``a lot of the characters all think that they're the black sheep of the family.''

``I actually enjoy this type of working more than memorizing lines,'' says Eden Sher, a 14-year-old scene-stealer on ``Sons & Daughters,'' playing Quinn's acerbic daughter, whom she describes as ``the only smart one in a room full of idiots. She's not bratty, but she definitely gets to say things back to my mom. It's fun to get to say 'Cut the crap' a lot.''

``There's no bible on this show,'' says ``Free Ride's'' Havey, referring to the term for a text detailing each of the main characters' traits and eccentricities. (Series bibles are created for scriptwriters to maintain consistency in character development; as these shows require no writers, bibles aren't necessary.) ``I don't even know what my character does for a living yet.''

Havey appeared on an episode of ``Curb Your Enthusiasm,'' where he developed an enthusiasm for sitcom improv. ``I was only there for a few hours, and when I was done, I didn't want to leave - I wanted to stay and play,'' he recalls. ``The idea of having an opportunity to play like this for five or six seasons really blows my mind.''

David Kronke,[phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

FREE RIDE

What: Improvised sitcom about a college grad (Josh Dean) returning to live with his parents in his Midwestern hometown.

Where: Fox (Channel 11).

When: 9:30 tonight; thereafter, 9:30 p.m. Sundays.

SONS & DAUGHTERS

What: Improvised sitcom about the levels of dysfunction in an extended Midwestern family.

Where: ABC (Channel 7).

When: 9 and 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays beginning March 7.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- cover -- color) Josh Dean of ``Free Ride'' and Dee Wallace of ``Sons & Daughters.''

(3) ``SONS & DAUGHTERS''

(4) ``FREE RIDE''