The original fear about “Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher” moving from Comedy Central to ABC was that the network would either muzzle it in ignorant, unintentionally ironic validation of the title or load up its panels with promotable but vacuous celebrities.
In this first week of shows on the major network, however, neither of those seems to be the problem. Guests have included noted and not especially sexy cranks like G. Gordon Liddy and James Carville, relative no-names like Republican pollster Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, and mid-level actors like Scott Thompson and Alfre Woodard.
The loosely topical discussions seem as freewheeling as ever: Ebonics, banning political polling, the similarly confrontational responses some rappers and right-wing radio hosts have to law enforcement. On Monday, the topic was Disney, the corporate owner of ABC and thus Maher’s new boss, bowing to pressure from sensitive theme-park visitors and lessening the intimations of impending rape among the puppets populating its Pirates of the Caribbean ride. On night two, Carville even prompted the show’s first network bleep.
“PI’s” nightly 30 minutes–in the two shows aired before this column’s Wednesday deadline, at least–are playing as fresh and funny on the main stage as they did when the program was an off-Broadway cult favorite.
Except, that is, in the Second City, where WLS-Ch. 7 is giving the show second-class treatment in favor of a rerun. A maddening hour delay in “PI’s” local airing means viewers are that much more bleary eyed and that much less alert to the program’s rapid-fire, unscripted dialogue–or that much more likely to be in bed.
To see Monday’s much-publicized premiere, airing after “Nightline” at 11:05 p.m. CST elsewhere in the nation, viewers here had to wait through the hourlong “Oprah Winfrey Show” addressing child kidnapping. On Tuesday, Winfrey shared hints from Heloise, including how to attack the odors emanating from your kitchen sink (baking soda and vinegar, I think it was, but be sure to rinse afterward). Those would be the “Oprah” shows WLS-Ch. 7 had already run at 9 a.m. Monday and Tuesday.
In other words, ABC, somewhere amid the facades of Hollywood, made a programming decision that managed to be–knock me over with a focus-group write-up–at once gutsy and ingenious: Pick up this show and put it back-to-back with Ted Koppel’s more somber but similarly topical “Nightline.”
But here in ostensibly no-nonsense Chicago, WLS, despite being a network-owned station, has rendered the network’s brass moot because it would rather we get a second chance to see a daytime talk show and WLS get a second chance to sell ads during “Oprah.”
The beef is not with Winfrey’s show itself. She is running a well-produced and usually enlightening or entertaining hour. And it is not her fault that the bright, generally cheery tone of her program plays in late night like an alarm clock ringing in a distant bedroom.
WLS defends its decision on the grounds that Winfrey is a hometown girl and is drawing big numbers at 11 p.m., routinely bigger than David Letterman’s CBS “Late Show.” But Winfrey’s fans have their chance to watch her in the morning or to tape her.
More important is the philosophical problem: Broadcasting over public airwaves is a public trust. Dumping a rerun on at an important time of day violates an implicit part of that trust: that its keeper should be concerned with providing variety and quality. WLS, which has said its decision is open to review depending on public response, right now seems most concerned about stuffing its wallet.
As for “Politically Incorrect” itself, the shows that aired Monday and Tuesday put aside any concerns of commercialization and censorship stemming from the move, offering a mix of controversial views and crystalline comedy.
Introducing a discussion about Ebonics on Monday’s show, Maher said, “This be causing quite a stir.” But commentator Arianna Huffington, perhaps surprisingly, came to the defense of, if not what Oakland school officials have in mind, the idea of street slang. “I am living proof that you can be completely incomprehensible and still make a living on TV,” said the conservative, a thickly accented Greek native who included Henry Kissinger, Dr. Ruth and Arnold Schwarzenegger in that category. “People can speak Ebonics and still make it.”
Later, discussing remarks that convicted Watergate burglar-turned-talk show host Liddy once made about shooting federal agents who break into your house, Liddy tried to offer a hypothetical that began, “Suppose I break into your house. . . and I haven’t announced who I am. . .”
Maher was there instantly: “But everyone would know. When it comes to breaking in, who’s more famous?” The next night’s program demonstrated one of the problems with “Politically Incorrect” or, indeed, any show that treats politics and has partisan guests. Carville and Woodard from the left and Fitzpatrick from the right tried to discuss Newt Gingrich being re-elected speaker of the House. They did so in histrionic but predictably partisan terms.
Maher at least showed he is aware of the problem. He tried to draw actor Thompson in by expressing wonder at “these three people who have no sense of common middle ground. You only support the people you want at the beginning and you ignore the facts.”
Things turned less obvious during heated debate about whether putting up John Wayne posters in a firehouse was an affront to black firefighters. Political consultant Carville tried to argue that whatever Wayne had once said, “John Wayne’s life wasn’t about racism.”
Maher, again, was right there, with a devastating line: “It was about killing Indians. There’s certainly nothing racist about that.”
“Politically Incorrect” has retained its graphics, its Roman-forum set, even its goofy polls, which ask such questions as “best name for a rap breakfast cereal” (winner: Cream of Latifah, 42 percent) and, more important, it seems to still have its edge. The question for Chicagoans is: Can you keep yours long enough each night to be able to see this smarter, funnier, impromptu version of Sunday morning public affairs programs?
