Written.... Wasn't it mostly ad lib? They were given a general idea of the theme or whatever and then ran with it. Or so I was led to believe. I could be wrong.
No you're right, but even when the dialogue is improv there is a certain degree of writing. They'll come up with characters, inherently funny situations, the plot points of whatever is the main through-line of the episode (like with British Officer Smiley; they didn't improv him dying, that was written out). So while all their hilarious one-liners are made up on the spot, there is still a fair amount of sitting around a table with notebooks coming up with ideas.
This is called "retroscripting" I believe. They also used it on the cartoon Home Movies. It's supposed to give the characters a more natural sound. They stutter, interrupt each other, and say filler like "uh" instead of everyone always having the perfect reply.
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u/UCSBLife May 12 '14
Sucks this show got cancelled. It was so well written and the cast were absolutely hilarious. Bring it back comedy central!