Temporary Insanity grew from the producers' experiences as temps. Instead of just complaining about their lot, they decided to exact the best revenge they knew how: writing a comedy show about it. At first, producers Mike Hoban and Henry Harvey met with skepticism when they first discussed the concept of a sketch comedy show all about temps with colleagues several years ago. But Temporary Insanity got off the ground, first at the Actor's Workshop in Boston, Massachusetts, and then at Little Flags Theater in Cambridge, MA.

The cast of characters includes Western hero "Johnny Temp", who "rides the range, sleeps under the stars, and performs data entry and word processing on a temporary basis" and Sam Diamond in "Temp Noir" the story of a hard-bitten private dick who can't see his way to making a committment to any woman, least of all a fiery, fast-talking temporary secretary.

The sketches were written by Hoban and Harvey with additional material by Scott Stiffler, Michele Markarian and Terry Yanulavich. The show's original director was Scott Stiffler, while the second run was directed by Jason Taylor.