Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 15, 1994 TAG: 9401150305
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 18 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LYNN ELBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
But for George Carlin, whose new Fox Broadcasting Co. comedy debuts Sunday (at 9:30 p.m. on WJPR/WFXR-Channel 21/27), the decision to get into series TV after three decades of stand-up comedy had nothing to do with a trendy "Seinfeld" or "Home Improvement."
The shift from funnyman to funny actor was long in the making, says the star of "The George Carlin Show."
"In the fifth grade, I wrote in my autobiography `I want to be an actor, announcer, disc jockey or a comedian,' " he recalls. Acting was the ultimate goal; Carlin figured he'd get there if he did the other jobs well.
He turned out to be a better comic than he expected and acting, which was tougher than it looked, eluded him. But now, Carlin is making a bid for new recognition, playing a New York cab driver, "an energetic malcontent."
"That was a long, unfulfilled ambition, to act. To show people I have other stuff," says Carlin, dressed in baggy sweats and T-shirt for a day of work at the office, his gray hair caught up in a pony tail.
Being on a series, he says, allows for collaboration absent from his life as a comic. Working with such talented co-stars as Alex Rocco and Susan Sullivan is turning out to be a kick, Carlin says.
"I never had more fun," he said of the pilot taping. "I enjoyed being a member of a team." Then, because the bad-boy comic of the 1960s can't resist deflating even himself, he adds: "Isn't that a nice Chamber of Commerce T-shirt slogan?"
Speaking of those turbulent '60s, isn't there something a bit askew about a dissident voice like Carlin's joining the often-bland sitcom chorus? No, he says, glad to have the chance to tackle the question.
He recalls being accused by a friend back then of "selling out" for associating with some long-forgotten group.
"I was in his house and I said, `Is that your telephone?' and he said `Yeah.' I said, `Well, you've sold out. You have made an accommodation to the system. You're doing business with the biggest monopoly in the country, AT&T.' "
Life, Carlin continues, is not an either-or situation.
"That's not the way life is. Somewhere in between you make accommodations that you are able to deal with. I need to do this now. I need to show I can act. I need to do something that is intelligent and funny."
He also owes it to himself and his wife of 32 years, Brenda, to mine some of the entertainment industry's richer financial veins.
"I said maybe at 56 I owe my wife, and myself, a chance to get out and really hit a home run. . . . Maybe it (the series) will last. Maybe it will run several years and I'll be able to say, `Let's burn the mortgage.' "
Carlin isn't leaving his background or his comic sensibilities behind in bringing George O'Grady to life.
"The series is set in New York City, the Upper West Side, where I grew up. The bar is named after the bar I came of age in, Moylan Tavern," he says. It's now either a Chinese restaurant or a fish market.
O'Grady, he says, represents an "alternate life," that of a man who stayed in the neighborhood, who didn't get out.
"He hangs around a bar. He drives a taxi. He lives in a one-room apartment with a dog and a TV set. He talks to the dog; he talks to the TV set. His friends consider him odd but bright and likeable."
Those small monologues open up the way for Carlin to include comic bits.
"We do try to find moments when this character can express the part of him that's like me, some of those little 10-second, 20-second things that sound like me on stage, distantly."
Carlin shares executive producer titles on the series and is doing his share of writing. He has a feeling the series is a winner, he says.
"I'm confident, without being cocky, that we're going to find an audience."
by CNB