Robin Williams was predictably manic at the panel for the upcoming CBS comedy "The Crazy Ones" at the Television Critics Assn. press tour on Monday, launching into a variety of comical voices, leaping out of his chair and firing off a number of one-liners.
He even managed to get off a joke about recently scandal-plagued New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner.
"Hold on, I'm getting a text from Carlos," Williams cracked at one point during the panel, referring to Weiner's nom-du-sexting, Carlos Danger. "Do you think he has something on his phone where even the phone goes, 'No More?'"
See video: Anthony Weiner's Sexting Partner Sydney Leathers Revealed – No It's Not a Porn Name
In "The Normal Ones," from former "Boston Legal" honcho David E. Kelley, Williams plays an advertising executive building a relationship with his daughter, played by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" alum Sarah Michelle Gellar. As with any Robin Williams endeavor, some amount of improvisation can be expected. So how much unscripted hilarity can one expect from the upcoming series.
Also read: TCA: 'Hostages' Panel Promises It Will Answer the Pilot's Central Question
As it turns out, quite a bit — but as Kelley sees it, the show pulls off a satisfactory mix of planning and improv.
"We do both," Kelley told the assembled reporters. "He says my words perfectly, then he uses his."
Also read: TCA: 'The Millers' Panel Talks Fart Jokes, Seniors With STDs
"[Williams] very much likes the box, he manages the box, he gets the box down, and then we give him a few takes where he gets to break out," Kelley continued. "What you have in the end is the architecture of the script … but you've got the ad-libs and the spontaneity and the joy of those moments on top of it."