Starting late Winter Quarter, Ohio State students will be able to see a new comedy show on Buckeye TV, courtesy of Fishbowl Improv.  

Matt Schlichting, a third-year in English and one of the group’s original inductees, said the new program will be less like Fishbowl Improv’s stage show, and more like a sketch-comedy show.

“Do you remember the show ‘KaBlam!’ on Nickelodeon? It will be kind of like that,” he said. “Quick five- or six-minute little skits, with a little Monty Python channeled in, as well.”

Fishbowl Improv vice president Tyler Davis compared the show to more recent programming.

“The best thing to compare it to would be a live-action ‘Robot Chicken,'” he said.  

Davis, a third-year in marketing, said the group is still writing and shooting material for the show, but fans of improv-comedy should not worry about a lack of free wit.

“We are writing an actual script,” Davis said. “But I’m almost positive we’re going to be improv-ing a large amount of the material on the show.”

David Fisher, faculty adviser for Buckeye TV, said he is excited to see the finished product.

“Assuming it meets our broadcast standards, it will air within a day of getting the episode,” he said.

Fisher said he wants the show to air when students are most likely to be watching TV.

“I would say between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.,” he said with a laugh.

Davis said pitching the show to Fisher was easy.

“We just talked for 10 or 20 minutes, and he said he would love to have us,” Davis said. “He was really open to the idea of having content from outside Buckeye TV.”

Fisher said most of the ideas for shows come from students in his Theater 300 class, in which students work for Buckeye TV. But he is always looking for more.

“Everything on Buckeye TV — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — is produced by students,” he said. “That’s a lot of time slots to fill.”

Fisher said students who enroll in Theater 300 or Theater 405 and sign up for Buckeye TV have access to the studio and equipment, and all other students must produce the show on their own.

“Television is a lot of work,” Fisher said. “A lot of kids are really optimistic and say ‘We’re going to do 10 episodes,’ and I just say, ‘That’s great, but let’s just take it one at a time.'”

Schlichting said he thinks the group has enough content to start on a second episode, but they are focusing on finishing the premiere.

“I’m ambitious, but I’m also just keeping my fingers crossed,” he said.

Davis said the amount of work involved in producing the show is slowing them down.

“He wanted content outside of Buckeye TV, but we all have … classes, jobs and especially the [performance] aspect of Fishbowl, and we have to do all of the post-production tasks ourselves,” he said. “We have to factor that in as well.”

For those who can’t wait for the premiere of “Fishbowl TV,” the working title of the program, Davis said they are still performing and will be posting finished sketches for the show on the group’s YouTube channel, thefishbowlfilms.