Some years ago, after finishing my first grueling but not uninteresting year as TV critic for this newspaper, I made this prediction: “Andrew Dice Clay will never have his own series.”
Oh, callow youth. Clay has had two series, the latest of which, “Hitz,” premiered in late August on UPN. (His first series was the short-lived “Bless This House” in the fall of 1995.)
I rarely think of Clay. Having seen his abusive, degrading comedy act–and been disturbed that he was filling such places as the Arie Crown Theatre and New York’s Madison Square Garden–I have worked mightily to forget him.
But I’ve been thinking about him recently and the reason, oddly, is Bob Newhart, who also has a new series. It’s “George & Leo,” costarring Judd Hirsch and it premiered in mid-September. (Newhart, of course, has had some considerable success with previous series.)
Like so many other TV series stars, both Newhart and Clay started their careers as stand-up comics. But in every imaginable way, Clay and Newhart are vastly different. One (your guess) is a master of comedic timing and genuine understatement while the other is a calculatedly crude creature bent on assault.
But what is worth noting is that this is a fine example–one of the most garish–of television’s ability, like it or not, to offer something for every taste. And of the ability of the TV audience, most of the time, to tell the garbage from the gems.
