“Lateline”
Wednesday at 9 on WNBC/Ch. 4
Returning this week is the show that is everything “Sports Night” would like to be and never will.
Which is to say that “Lateline” is inspired, silly, smart, topical, loopy, fast-paced, occasionally sexy, often taking no prisoners, always irreverent.
Oh, and funny.
Very funny. Without being preachy.
“Lateline” hit NBC’s lineup like a blast of heliumated oxygen last 075 . 0000.00spring. Critics loved it. Viewers liked it.
NBC, in what passed for infinite wisdom last May, did not put it on the fall lineup. Probably because (a) it wouldn’t know a truly funny comedy if it bit “Just Shoot Me” on the butt, and (b) because neither “Lateline” creator, Al Franken and John Markus, has a development deal that guarantees good timeslots for offal shows.
NBC, in what passes for infinite wisdom now that it has a sinkhole for a prime-time comedy lineup, is finally bringing “Lateline” off the bench – and scheduling it opposite ABC’s biggest comedy, “The Drew Carey Show.”
Memo to the TV gods: You know how you fixed it so “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Ally McBeal” could both thrive at 9 Mondays?
Well, could you do that trick again?
“Lateline” is a keeper.
Franken doesn’t have to stretch 075 . 0005.07much to play Al Freundlich, the fatuous chief correspondent for a “Nightline”style news program.
The show is anchored by Pearce McKenzie (Robert Foxworth in his best TV role ever), who could teach Brian Williams and Forrest Sawyer a thing or two about self-important huffing.
As Vic Carp, executive of the show within the show, Miguel Ferrer proves he’s no flash in the deadpan.
Megyn Price has one of the ripest women’s roles on TV: producer Gale Ingersoll, who gets to be competent without busting you-know-whats and cute without being slutty.
Rounding out the ensemble are 075 . 0001.05Sanaa Lathan as a booker whose character is the least defined, Catherine Lloyd Burns as Pearce’s martinet of a personal assistant, and Ajay Naidu as an intern whose quest for perfection makes him the butt of a cruel and hilarious prank in the first new episode.
“Lateline’s” most effective conceit, especially with the Impeachment Follies grinding on long enough to make clowns out of everyone who’s anyone inside the Beltway, is getting unexpected guests to have a bit of fun at their 075 . 0000.00own expense.
Whether they want to or not.
Wednesday night, Peter Jennings’ name is taken in vain, William F. Buckley has a droll walk-on, Regis and Kathie Me Gifford kick in a host-chat cameo, and Conan O’Brien and sidekick Andy Richter appear perhaps a bit too extensively as themselves.
The plot calls for Pearce to get too funny for his own good when he contributes mock news items “Charlie Rose pees in the shower!” 075 . 0005.07to Conan’s “Late Night,” a caution Brian Williams might well remember the next time he yuks it up with Jay Leno.
Jim Watkins makes a fleeting appearance as the anchor for an alphabet-soup cable network.
Jim Who? Jim Watkins, the quintessential blow-dried local anchor who obviously taped his cameo before he left the NBC family for WPIX’s anchor desk.
You gotta love a series that tosses in a bonus joke for New Yorkers.
