The Masterson Inheritance

The Masterson Inheritance (1993-1995, United Kingdom)

The Masterson Inheritance was a programme based on the experience of The Comedy Store Players, group of improvisational comedians who perform at The Comedy Store in London since 1985. The radio show was basically what they did (and still do) on a weekly basis in the club, but the one difference was that The Masterson Inheritance was slightly directed.

Each show was a separate "story" regarding the Masterson family throughout the times, the audience was providing the performers with few details that would fit into the era of that episode and the rest was improvised by the cast. Of course, since the episodes were narrated and had pre-defined settings, it gave the whole show a bit of direction, but taking under consideration that the "story" was usually a loose set of scenes that barely created any coherent plot, it was still mostly improvised material.

And what made The Masterson Inheritance so unique, the improvisation, was at the same time the Achilles’ heel of the whole idea. Of course, with talents like Paul Merton, you can count that some jokes will eventually land, overall it was a messy business and most of the entertainment came from the mistakes the cast made or the traps they were trying to set for each other. Unfortunately, that is hardly enough to fill the 30 minutes of an episode, not to mention a full season.

Improvisational comedy is a tricky business, it requires a lot of skill and a lot of luck to produce anything that will be worth noting. The Masterson Inheritance was an interesting idea, but it just proved that improvisational comedy has a limited potential to create a long-form entertainment.

history-themed shows comedy shows about saga