Comedian and Saturday Night Live alumnus Dennis Miller is known for his allusions, not illusions.
He may want The Dennis Miller Show, his new syndicated late-night talk show, to be different. That doesn’t mean he’s going to abandon everything that has made talk TV what it is today. Give him a little credit.
“This town is about business, and I recognize that,” Miller said this week. “I don’t think you want to say, ‘Listen, I know you’ve got T3 coming up, but I don’t really want to talk about that. OK, Arnold?’ Right. I’ll be sitting there two months later doing interviews with the third lead from Escape to Witch Mountain.”
So The Dennis Miller Show might not be completely revolutionary when it makes its debut today from Los Angeles. (In Central Florida, it will be seen Monday through Friday at 11:30 p.m. on WOGX-Channel 51 and Tuesday through Saturday at 12:30 a.m. on WOFL-Channel 35.) By combining elements of The Tonight Show, Nightline and The Arsenio Hall Show, Miller nonetheless hopes to prove a viable threat in the post-Johnny Carson era of late-night television.
“Dennis Miller is the only one who scares me,” Hall recently told the Los Angeles Times.
And why not? Miller is very good at what he does. His comedy tends to reflect his audience: slick, quick, smug and smart. His routines have been veritable cultural literacy tests for yuppies, full of references and allusions to such pop landmarks as Alvin Ailey and Elsa Lanchester, F Troop reruns and Leo Buscaglia.
“Miller has an excellent chance because he’s very, very funny,” said Dick Ebersol, a former SNL executive producer who runs NBC Sports. “The breakthrough element for him will be whether the persona we’ve never seen publicly before will come out on the show.”
Even Miller’s longtime fans may be taken aback to discover that beneath his cocky on-stage presence is an introspective man for whom the arrival 19 months ago of a son, Holden, proved epiphanic. “I know this is going to sound maudlin . . . but something about the birth of my child reignited this urge to try something new,” he said.
Miller contends the material in his stand-up routines and as anchor on SNL’s “Weekend Update” simply did not lend itself to showing off his vulnerability the way this show will.
“That was a job where they paid you to be a smart (aleck),” said Miller, a 38-year-old who grew up in Pittsburgh and resides in Studio City. “I’m not an ambusher. I don’t want to bring people out, invite them onto a show and then (dump) on them and what they do. I’m just not about that.
“I’ll agree, I haven’t had to show that side of me. But, as of Jan. 20, I will and I think I can. . . . I think you’ll see I’m not a completely misanthropic figure. I can coexist with my fellow man or at least feign co-existence.”
Whether his quick wit and unpredictability will be appreciated in a time period where repetition and gestures have been hallmarks remains to be seen. But it was Arsenio’s success in bringing new viewers to the late-night mix that encouraged Tribune Entertainment to want its own syndicated late-night talk-show franchise last year.
Tribune already had found daytime talk-show success with Joan Rivers and Geraldo Rivera and, according to Miller, went to the Brillstein-Grey Co. in the hope of getting client Garry Shandling involved in late night. But Shandling wasn’t willing to commit to a series, so the opportunity was offered to Miller, also represented by Brillstein-Grey.
“We knew there was going to be some void to fill,” said Brad Grey, who will be Miller’s co-executive producer on the show. “We didn’t know when. But we knew an institution was going to be leaving shortly, whether it was going to be within six months of our discussions or two years. Obviously, I’m talking about . . . (Pat) Sajak,” Miller said.
It doesn’t really matter. Miller professes not to be overly concerned with the competition (“I’m not as gregarious as Arsenio, and Jay (Leno), who’s a good friend of mine, has cautioned me that I probably shouldn’t be as cranky as I am”). But there admittedly was some relief around the office when Carson announced last year he would be leaving Tonight in May and NBC named Leno over David Letterman as his successor.
“I was thrilled,” Grey said. “I love Dave, and I’m a huge fan of his show. But, for that reason alone, I was thrilled he wasn’t going to be on at 11:30 p.m. and isn’t going to be on at 11:30 p.m. for the foreseeable future because he’s about to sign this new NBC deal (reportedly to extend his contract past 1993). I have great respect for what the Letterman show has done.”
Like Late Night With David Letterman, Miller’s show is expected to be writer-driven, and Miller’s wry sensibility is similar to Letterman’s. So, it has been suggested Miller’s show will appeal to Letterman fans who don’t want to stay up quite so late.
When Miller distills this to mean “cynical narcoleptic people,” however, he makes a compelling case that this may not exactly be a prime demographic.
Among Miller’s staff are former Late Night With David Letterman writer Kevin Rooney and Nick Bakay of Comedy Central. Ken Ehrlich, who has made a name for himself in variety and music shows, will be the show’s producer. Andy Summers, late of The Police, will lead the house band.
The band will set up at one end of the studio, a sprawling hybrid of a standard talk-show venue and the old SNL set. Separating the musicians from where Miller will interview guests is a large performance area.
This will include a retractable proscenium, upon which Miller will deliver a monologue Monday through Thursday and a mock newscast a la “Weekend Update” on Friday nights. The content will not be entirely what one would expect.
“There’s going to be a heavy emphasis on mime,” Miller said. “No, look, I realize we’re in Los Angeles and it’s a celebrity-driven town. I’m not going to fight that. People love their stars.
“In addition to that, though, we’re coming into the presidential campaign. I like political figures. I like authors. . . . I think there’s a place out there for a more eclectic mix. But I also want to have Joan Van Ark and find out how much she’s jogging this week.”
To that end, the guest list for a dress rehearsal taped a week and a half ago not only featured such late-night talk-show regulars as veteran comedian Larry Miller (no relation to Dennis) and actress Sally Kirkland, but also author/movie director Clive Barker and CNN political observer Michael Kinsley.
Tom Hanks, Christian Slater and Bonnie Raitt are scheduled to show up on the official opener. But Grey said future shows will include Sen. Albert Gore, D-Tenn.; and Israel Deputy Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hard to imagine Arsenio getting busy with a posse like that.
It’s even more difficult to imagine what Arsenio might ask them. Miller isn’t worried.
“We might not give celebrities enough credit in this country,” he said. “From the time they become famous to the time they decide to quit, we throw them the slow curve. And you know what? I don’t think they mind really being queried if they come across like they’re blowing smoke.
“Maybe I’m naive. Maybe I’ll get my (behind) kicked. Maybe you’ll see me simper back into my hole and find out they did want the lobs. I just don’t believe that.”
Miller figures he’ll know in four weeks whether he’ll need to send out fresh resumes, although Tribune has a nine-month commitment to the program. He thinks people either will embrace him quickly “or they’ll want to slap you and you’ll be gone.”
“I’m OK with that,” he said. “I like it when the litmus test tells me early on if I’m pregnant or not.”
It’s not like he’s never said “I’m outta here” before.
