You never really know what a relationship is like, until you get under its skin.
If you watch NBC’s “The John Larroquette Show,” you’ve witnessed what seems to be a fairly decent friendship between Larroquette’s bus station manager John Hemingway, and his assistant Mahalia Sanchez, played by Liz Torres.
But look under the skin.
“They’re good friends, but they’re not good friends,” said Torres. “They’re not of the same socio-economic or educational level.
“I think there is some distance there. How can she be friends with a white educated male. . .(for whom) she also has disrespect?” asked Torres, performing here as part of the Latino Laugh Festival, a three-day showcase of predominately Hispanic talent, which Showtime has turned into a 13-episode comedy series.
The premiere, in which Torres is scheduled to appear, is at 10:30 p.m. Friday.
Torres was taking a break in her dressing room from rehearsals at the Majestic Theater in San Antonio’s River Walk area when she offered a candid and revealing look into the relationship between Mahalia and Hemingway. It is an insight that fans of the comedy might not be aware of.
“He was loaded most of his life,” Torres said of Hemingway, a recovering alcoholic. “Now, she does not understand that. How can a white man with his education and his background be messed up like that, and take to drink? There is no excuse for that.”
Since Hemingway had been drinking for basically most of his life, he’s like “a little baby,” said Torres, 48, a veteran actress, singer and comic.
“He missed out on his teenage years, his childhood, his early adulthood. He is not a fully developed, emotionally, intellectually wise person the way that everybody ages, and hopefully, matures.
“And if she had wanted to have a fifth child,” Torres added, “she would have had one. She doesn’t need this (jerk). He’s a 12-year-old boy.”
On “The John Larroquette Show,” which has been on hiatus from its 8:30 p.m. Tuesday slot (WMAQ-Ch. 5), Hemingway was involved in adventures such as writing, journalism and politics outside of the St. Louis bus station he manages. That left Mahalia to run the bus station, according to Torres.
“He has all these artistic ideas and all this stuff that a man of his station has available to him,” said Torres, who was raised in Puerto Rico.
Although Torres said Mahalia respects Hemingway’s intelligence and advice in certain matters, it still looks like she has a lot of resentment pent up toward her boss. There is no telling if that resentment will explode next season, but it’s good for fans to know that they may get a chance to see it, or anything else, on “Larroquette.”
The show had been a candidate for cancellation during each of its three seasons, but ratings improved after moving from Saturday nights at the beginning of the season to its former cushy spot behind “Frasier” on Tuesdays. As a result, “Larroquette” seemed to get an easy renewal for a fourth year.
“Isn’t that nice?” asked Torres. “I’ve never had that happen. I don’t do more than a season on anything. I’ve done like 13 pilots somebody counted the other day. It’s always I do one season and out, or if the show continues I’m not on it. So this is very exciting.”
One reason the show–which moves to Wednesdays in the fall–has attracted an audience is because it was lightened up from its first season when it featured darker comedy that dwelled on Hemingway’s recovery from alcoholism. This past year especially, the show seemed to go for goofier, slapstick comedy.
“I think we’re all disappointed, especially John,” Torres said of the change in comedic tone. “We all liked it dark. That was what I thought the show was going to be about, and that was what John wanted it to be about. But Middle America didn’t, I think, embrace it.”
But Torres isn’t too broken up about the direction the show went this year: “I like that (broad comedy). I’m the only one who likes broad. I think me and Lenny Clarke (who plays the buffoonish cop, Hampton), we love it. So I’m still very happy. And we’re all very happy. We’re glad the show is running and we have a job.”
– Where’s the remote: They’ve become so identified with their ABC sitcoms, that some may not have seen, or paid attention to, Ellen DeGeneres’ (“Ellen”) and Brett Butler’s (“Grace Under Fire”) standup comedy careers. But they’ve always been two of the brightest. Cable’s Comedy Central offers a chance to see them in their natural habitats by showing a pair of their past half-hour comedy specials (DeGeneres’ HBO shot was taped in Chicago and aired in 1990; and Butler’s Showtime special from San Francisco originally aired in 1993) starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
