What happens to old TV shows when they die? Do they go to some kind of video heaven? Or get gently composted, spread around to return in some new concept?
Thoughts of the great hereafter and fertilizer came to mind while watching snippets of “Make Some Noise,” hosted by Sam Reich. Now in its third season, “Noise” streams on a service known as Dropout, which first appeared as CollegeHumor way back in 2018.
Dropout specializes in improv humor and game shows where talented young comedians make it up as they go along and play by rules that are very loosely defined. Presented as a game show with breathless enthusiasm that recalls “Match Game” episodes of yore, or forced “ironic” variations like NPR’s “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!”, “Make Some Noise” has three budding talents challenged to act out completely absurd scenarios. In each episode, a winner emerges with a trophy known as a Golden Ear.
For the record, Reich doesn’t just host shows on Dropout, he seems to own the network. Or the app, or whatever you call it.
Thoughts of compostable television came to mind while watching “Noise,” because it seemed both clever and amusing while at the same time a variation on the old British import “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” that has been in steady rotation on cable and the WB and CW since at least the second Clinton administration.
As mentioned, a subscription to Dropout may cost you a few dollars a month, but episodes of “Make Some Noise” can be found on YouTube, that great loam of old shows once considered dead and buried.
Other improv-based series found on Dropout include “Play It by Ear,” where players put on a musical based on prompts from their host; “Very Important People,” where comedians are given costumes and character prompts in order to create a fake talk show; and “Game Changer,” a game show where the rules are unknown to the contestants. Of course “Game Changer” sounds a bit like “Numberwang,” the absurd game show played on the British sketch series “That Mitchell and Webb Look,” the show (and the show within a show) that introduced some of the world to comic actress Olivia Colman.
So we’ve now learned that TV never dies. Like Old Man River, it streams forever. In case you’re curious, old episodes of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” can be found on Pluto.
— Netflix imports the Japanese animated series “Rising Impact.” Based on a manga by Nakaba Suzuki that was very popular at the end of the last century, “Impact” is aimed at children and young adults, imparting lessons of friendship, discipline and talent.
Growing up in the remote mountains of Fukushima and raised by his grandfather, third-grader Nanaumi Gawain loves baseball and practices diligently in the hopes of becoming the world’s best player. A chance encounter with a female professional golfer named Kiria Noshino sets his sights on a different game with a smaller ball.
Using all of the strengths and skills he learned from baseball as well as some mountain magic, Gawain hits a golf ball 300 yards on his first drive. Sensing something special, Noshino sees that Gawain is enrolled at the Camelot Academy, a prestigious golf school in Tokyo, where the country bumpkin rubs shoulders with more urbane students and ruthless competitors from around the world.
Netflix promises us that this Arthurian anime adventure will stream a second season in August.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— After claiming that her confections mimic Cupid’s arrows, a chocolatier gains media attention in the 2023 romance “Sweeter Than Chocolate” (7 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— “U.S. Olympic Trials” (8 p.m., NBC) features track and field.
— The Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers meet (if necessary) in Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
— As budgets are blown, vacation house plans get a little less elaborate as “Battle on the Beach” (9 p.m., HGTV) continues.
CULT CHOICE
The ground shakes as giant monsters clash in the 2021 shocker “Godzilla vs. Kong” (8 p.m., TNT, TV-14).
SERIES NOTES
On two episodes of “The Neighborhood” (CBS, TV-PG): concert tickets (8 p.m.); growing pains (8:30 p.m.) … “Name That Tune” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … A sudden killing spree on “NCIS” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … “The 1% Club” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … A Marine’s wife vanishes on “NCIS: Hawaii” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Snoop Dogg, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Wie West and Young Miko on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts “After Midnight” (12:37 a.m., CBS).
