10 Items or Less is a partly scripted, partly
improvised American comedy series created by
Nancy Hower and
John Lehr. It starred Lehr as a less-than-successful businessman who returned home to run
Greens & Grains, the family-owned supermarket, upon the death of his father.
The series debuted on
TBS on November 27, 2006.
During its first season, the program aired Monday nights at 11 p.m.
ET/
PT. The second and third seasons aired on TBS Tuesday nights at 11 p.m.
ET/
PT.
In November 2009, a blog posting stated the show had been cancelled, and would not be picked up for the fourth season.
Summary
The series stars
John Lehr as a struggling
New York City actor who moves back to his hometown of
Dayton, Ohio to take over the family supermarket following the death of his father. The show is set in the fictional supermarket known as
Greens & Grains, located at 5th Street and Tiberius.
Filming
A detailed script is written for each episode outlining the overall story arc. However, this script is not shown to the actors; instead they are provided with a loose outline of the plot, often finding out about it as they film. All dialogue is
improvised spontaneously by the actors on the set. A typical 22-minute episode will be edited-down from roughly 30 hours of raw improvised dialogue and scenes. John Lehr describes their production style as "similar to
Spinal Tap."
The series is...
Read More