Thanks to the folks from the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB), improvisational sketch comedy is no longer limited to the formulaic humor of such short comedy improv shows as ABC's Whose Line Is It Anyway?

With a television show, a newly released DVD, a theater in New York City and a couple movies under its belt, the UCB has proved that its defiant interpretation of long improv comedy is turning heads.

Originated in 1996, UCB formed to make up for the lack of an existing improv scene in New York City.

"When we first got there, the main focus of comedy was mostly stand-up," UCB performer Matt Besser said. "There wasn't a lot of good improv construction going on."

After two years of working to create award-winning improv sketch comedy, UCB found success in establishing a show on the Comedy Central network.

"Being on Comedy Central really legitimized us as a group," said Matt Walsh, another longtime performer. "The show allowed us to reach a larger audience."

The show, which was simply self-named, allowed the group freedom to expand its comical horizons.

"Once you have funding and production for something, you can have more potential to do better," Walsh said.

Besser also acknowledged that Comedy Central allotted a lot of creative freedom to UCB.

"It was the right place for us because they let us do what we wanted, and really only censored us very little," he said.

Creative freedom also meant the opportunity to parody a wide spectrum of topics, from the topical to the left field.

"We were basically commenting on cultural obsessions, be it Michael Jackson or the president," Walsh said.

After three seasons, the show was canceled, but not before collecting quite a large fan base. Tired of having to download UCB episodes off the Internet, fans wrote in, demanding a release of the cult hit to video. A few years later, Comedy Central complied with the release of a new DVD entitled 'Upright Citizens Brigade' The Complete First Season.

"We're really excited about the DVD," Besser said. "Especially since our fans have been asking about it for three years."

Walsh said the DVD features not only all 10 episodes from the first season, but also a lot of additional material.

"We threw in a bunch of good extras," he said. "There's the pilot, live audio commentary, deleted scenes and even some dusty gems from our stage performances."

The stage seems to be the place UCB keeps coming back to. After the cancellation of its show, UCB moved into a larger theater in New York City, where members started to teach improv workshops in addition to producing a UCB original show, ASSSSCAT 3000.

Chad Carter, a performer and UCB Theatre tour manager, said he sees both fans of the UCB Theatre and Comedy Central show coming out to see the new production.

"There's definitely fans of the show that travel to New York to see ASSSSCAT, but the theater also has its own crowd."

Carter also added that he felt the UCB Theatre is putting improv on the map because of the attention it gets for high quality shows.

"We just keep teaching and putting out the best shows," Carter said. "We're going to continue to establish improv as an acceptable art form."