My eyes! My eyes!

It'll come as no surprise that writing about television is normally a pretty fun job. Getting to see all the shows before they air, not needing to pay for HBO or Showtime, getting paid to watch TV -- it doesn't suck.

But there's a downside. Oh yes.

They don't call it the idiot-box for nothing. America's television studios, producers, actors and writers are capable of coming up with some dreadful dreck. Case in point: A new NBC summer series called "Thank God You're Here."

It's supposedly an improv comedy show, just like "Whose Line is it Anyway?" except not, you know, funny. Actually, excruciatingly not, you know, funny. And, oddly, much of it seems to be scripted. Weird. The gag is that every skit begins with a guest improv actor walking cold into a scene that begins, "Thank God you're here!" And that's as close to comedy as the show gets.

Anyhoo, host David Alan Grier is evidently out to prove that he's the least-funny man in showbidness and normally funny guest actors like Wayne Knight, Jennifer Coolidge, Bryan Cranston and Joel McHale (OK, not exactly A-listers, but still, funny), embarrass themselves in front of a bemused studio audience. Dave Foley judges the results.

I spend this much time telling you about it so that you can steer well clear. Or have only yourself to blame if you don't.