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Johnny LaRue's Crane Shot
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Audience Of One
Now Playing: RIVER OF DEATH
I was watching 24 on Fox the other night, and was stunned to see Allan Havey in a promo for a new sitcom. It's called FREE RIDE, and I'm sure it sucks (being a Fox sitcom and all), but I'll have to tune in to at least the first episode to see Havey as the wacky dad.

Allan Havey is--or was (I haven't seen him in ages)--a standup comic who achieved his biggest stardom in the early 1990's as host of NIGHT AFTER NIGHT WITH ALLAN HAVEY on Comedy Central. NIGHT AFTER NIGHT is the greatest talk show that you never heard of. It ran one hour in length and was pretty low-key and very funny. It had no band, a small budget, a comfortable but low-tech set. Besides host Havey, the only regular was announcer Nick Bakay (who left to become the announcer on the shortlived THE DENNIS MILLER SHOW).

There was no studio audience per se. Instead, NIGHT AFTER NIGHT had an Audience of One. That's right, viewers could write in with the hope of being chosen to be Allan's Audience of One for a show. The Audience of One sat in a comfortable theater seat roped off with those cool velvet ropes and watched the taping. They also got to chat a bit and be seen on the air with Allan.

Unlike other talk shows not hosted by Carson (still on THE TONIGHT SHOW then) or Letterman, NIGHT AFTER NIGHT had little trouble getting good guests, a surprise considering how few viewers Comedy Central had at the time. I remember seeing Joel Hodgson, William Shatner, Gary Busey...lots of standup comics (I think Jerry Seinfeld was even on once)...Kevin Pollak. OK, so none of these guys is A-list material (not even Seinfeld was then), but that's a pretty good lineup.

NIGHT AFTER NIGHT was an interesting, innovative series, and television could use more talk shows like it. Comedy Central had some interesting shows on those days...MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, of course...SHORT ATTENTION SPAN THEATER...Paul Provenza had a half-hour talk show where he interviewed only comedians...I think Alan King had a show...lots of standup comedy on THE A-LIST and STAND-UP, STAND-UP. But there's no question that NIGHT AFTER NIGHT WITH ALLAN HAVEY is beloved by almost everyone who saw it.

It took Havey more than a decade to get another regular TV gig, so take advantage of it while you can. I think FREE RIDE debuts March 1 after AMERICAN IDOL. Let's hope it doesn't blow too badly. Now if we could just find Brian Regan a job...

Posted by Marty at 11:43 PM CST
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