Thomas himself served as head writer, while the writing staff included Hollywood scriptwriter Ed Solomon and Mike Myers.
In addition, the series usually featured big-name guest stars (John Candy, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Martin Short and Catherine O'Hara) Thomas knew from The Second City and other previous projects—although the musical guest for the series finale was actually a fictionalized version of Johnny Cash played by Dave himself.
In addition to sketches, the show featured semi-scripted interview segments on the set of "Fran's Diner," where Dave and his guests would chat over coffee or a meal.
In these segments, the punchline would typically involve Fran somehow knowing the content of Dave's daydream, or breaking the fourth wall with references to the fact that they were on a television series.
Critics from such publications as Entertainment Weekly[1] and TV Guide applauded a trio of sketches in which Thomas impersonated notable personalities in absurdist situations -- Edward Woodward as his Equalizer character reimagined as "the Humiliator" (who uses insults rather than guns to incapacitate criminals), Jack Palance miscast as a creepy sitcom star (who still uses his catch-phrase from Ripley's Believe it or Not!