Improv

Maybe it was just the novelty then. I remember seeing an improv group called Omlette Broadcasting Company around 1985 (including Jim Sweeney and/or Steve Steen and thinking it was the funniest, most original thing I'd ever seen; around 1987 in London there was a group called the Ruper Pupkin Collective which performed on Friday nights at the Donmar Warehouse. I enjoyed that too, but even then was beginning to be aware that there was a core of good performers and the occasional guest simply couldn't crack the code.

It could also be that improv is more reliant on the indulgence of a live audience and their ability to participate and so is less suited to TV or radio. I found the recent R4 series with Jim Sweeney and Josie Lawrence not terribly amusing and don't much like the Masterson Inheritance.