6D
Monday. August 18. 1997
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
The Naked Truth returns to NBC
LOS ANGELES — By the curious logic of TV network programming, The Naked Truth should have been in a coffin long before now. Yet this fall TV viewers will find it on NBC's Monday Ladies' Night.
The Associated Press
To counteract ABC's Monday Night Football, NBC will offer two hours of female-oriented sitcoms: *Suddenly Susan* (starring Brooke Shields) *Fired*
Teá Leonl
Up (Sharon Lawrence), Caroline in the City (Lea Thompson), and The Naked Tea (Teá Leoni).
The Naked Truth began two years ago with a full season on ABC, but was not renewed. NBC, however, saw
promise in the show, ordered an overhaul and gave it a half-season run in one of television's greatest time slots, between Seinfeld and ER on Thursday night.
Naturally, the ratings were good. Still, the network ordered another overhaul under a new producer, Michael Saltzman. Now, Leoni, Mark Roberts and Holland Taylor are the only returning cast members.
"The show has had a very checkered history, and not altogether pleasant," Taylor said. "It has been a 'very bumpy night,' as Bette Davis would say."
The original executive producer was Chris Thompson, who worked with Taylor on Bosom Buddies, Tom Hanks' first big splash. Thompson and Leoni, who had just worked with Taylor on a film, Counterfeit Princess, simultaneously suggested Taylor be cast as the editor of The Naked Truth scandal sheet, the Comet.
HollandTaylor cast member
In the first NBC season, Taylor's character was demoted to gossip columnist. Now, she has been hired as editor of a rival tabloid, and she lures her buddy away from the Comet. Not playing an on-screen mother in
Not playing an on-screen mother in the series is a change for Taylor.
Admitting to having passed the
half-century mark, she can boast being the big screen mother to Nicole Kidman in To Die For, Kevin Bacon in She's Having a Baby, Michelle Pfeiffer in One Fine Day, Leslie Mann in George in the Jungle and, upcoming, Jim Carrey in The Truman Show.
That's quite an achievement for someone who has no children and has never married.
"I always thought I would probably end up marrying in my sixties," Taylor said. "I once read an interview with Katharine Hepburn in which she said that she would have been a terrible mother, that there was no way she could be who she was as a professional woman. And that she wouldn't want to do anything that she couldn't do well.
"That really does say what I feel. I've tried to take care of myself, which I'm doing rather well, now that I'm a matron, for heaven's sake. It did take me half a lifetime to figure out it how to do it."
O'Brien laughs his way to the top
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Around 1 a.m., when much of what's on television seems slightly surreal anyway, Conan O'Brien was turning into Robert Plant.
He climbed from behind his desk and shucked his white shirt and tie to reveal a hairy, if slightly doughy, chest and stomach. His pants were slung low on his hips, propped up by a giant belt buckle.
Mimicking the underwater motions of the former Led Zeppelin frontman, O'Brien rendered Dazed and Confused in an otherworldly shriek. Sidekick Andy Richter staggered around as Jimmy Page, trying to mold his baby face into a baleal stare.
O'Brien and his Late Night cast turned it into a sendup of music videos, mixing in mock-medieval
The wickedly funny parody of the pompous 1970s rock band was only a starting point.
footage of a sword fight with George Plimpton, and drummer Max Weinberg riding a horse down a city street.
"It was just jokes on jokes on jokes," O'Brien said later, delighting in the moment even more after an NBC executive confided that he didn't get it.
O'Brien's hitting the comic bull's eye more than ever these days, and not just insomniacs are noticing. NBC took Conan's rising ratings into account in rewarding him this spring with a five-year contract extension. And Paul McCartney offered a late-night interview a few weeks ago to O'Brien — not Jay Leno or David Letterman.
The bad old days, when the scared comedy writer was universally panned as Letterman's replacement, are rapidly receding from memory.
O'Brien's office overlooking Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan is a mix of the ridiculous
and reverential. There's a baseball bat he can swing in frustration — almost a cliché in the offices of television figures — a giant pepper and other toys.
Conan O'Brien
picture of O'Brien shaking hands with Johnny Carson, a shot with Letterman and a framed complimentary letter from Jack Paar, the Tonight Show host who preceded Carson.
O'Brien knew when he accepted the job in 1993 that he couldn't improve on Letterman's ironic style. It was unwise to even try.
The Harvard-educated comic who used to study tapes of Jack Benny wanted to go more classic. With Weinberg, he hired a modern version of Carson's orchestra. He
and Richter dressed up in suits. No grunge look here.
"We thought that there was room to do a talk show that may be goes back a little bit to the goofiness of the '60s and early '70s Carson, but one that plays with reality a little bit, one that has sort of a surreal edge," he said.
That was the idea, anyway.
The execution was another thing entirely. O'Brien can point today to mistakes, like having inpostor guests or letting prepared comedy bits intrude upon interviewsv. But his first months were excruciating largely because a television performer with no experience was getting his training in plain sight.
"I think he always had the goods," said executive producer Lorne Michaels, who selected O'Brien as host. "Just being able to focus it and relax enough to be funny the way he was before the show and after the show took some time."
Get The Right Treatment!
Save money with our complete line of school and office supplies including Engineering and Art supplies.
Don't forget our great line of gifts and officially licensed KU clothing.
PLUS
Dr. Mike's health tip: Don't spend an arm and a leg this semester.Buy used books at University Book Shop.
Don't delay, get your books today!
GOOD PRICES!
GOOD SERVICE!
GOOD DEAL!
University Book Shop
1116W23RD·LAWRENCE·KS66046 749-5206 www.ljworld.com/open/ubs