Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 22, 1994 TAG: 9404220082
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LYNN ELBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
But the comedian is venturing back into the fray, hosting a live, half-hour Friday night show on Home Box Office that reflects what he calls his new perspective on life and the TV industry.
The once-a-week schedule and cable TV environment are right for him, Miller says: It's family and the freedom to do the kind of show he really wants that matter now.
"Another chance became less important to me," says Miller, reflecting on the end of "The Dennis Miller Show" in July 1992.
"I'm 40 years old. I have children and a wife that I love," he says. "I don't want to be on TV five nights a week anymore. I was in there, I thought I was enjoying it - and probably was - but as I decompressed from it, I began to think I was talking a lot about being a good parent."
Weekends with his wife, Ali, and sons, Holden, 31/2, and baby, Marlon, weren't enough, Miller says.
"There's a beautiful metronomic quality to true parenting, when you're in their space when nothing happens," he says. "And I was missing that. I wasn't being a bad parent, but I wasn't there enough."
Sitting in a Sunset Boulevard office, with Los Angeles' smog-draped skyline providing a backdrop, Miller is several hours from the town he now calls home: Santa Barbara, on the coast north of Los Angeles.
He was in Los Angeles for an appearance on "The Arsenio Hall Show," one of the conventional talk shows that Miller doesn't condemn but would prefer not to emulate in his HBO effort, which debuts at midnight EDT tonight.
Miller says, candidly, he was not in the running during the David Letterman-Jay Leno shuffle involving "The Tonight Show" and the 12:30 a.m. "Late Show" at NBC, despite rumors that he was.
"I was never in consideration for any of that," Miller says. "I had to go through a period where I was passed on for all those things. And I would say `Am I not even in the game?' and they would say, `No.'
"And it hurt me. But after a while ... it's a silly way to lead your life," says Miller, who gained his early fame as a cynical news anchorman on "Saturday Night Live."
If NBC didn't want him, HBO did. And Miller liked the channel. He'd done two comedy specials for them and found cable to be a better fit than broadcast TV.
"My shows on HBO have always been unstructured, and you don't need to be as conscious of what you say. ... I'm not saying I'm going to be a naughty boy who wants to say [expletive] on TV, but you can really hit the issues and get some fire in it."
Doing the show live is also a draw, he says.
"I like doing it live," he says. "I think TV should have seams in it. So much of TV is cut together seamlessly, it's like looking at an art piece. It should be bad some nights; it should be great some nights."
The format for "Dennis Miller" may incorporate some standard talk-show elements, such as a monologue, but strenuously avoid most others, he says.
"It's just me, talking, like my HBO specials ... We might have a guest via the TV screen, like Ted Koppel does, but it will be somebody of consequence. It won't be flack work. It won't be about product; it will be about issues.
"In other words, it won't be you've got a movie coming out. I'm not demeaning that. I'm just saying that was one thing on my old talk show that I never felt great with."
Guests might be well-known or they might be unknowns, Miller says, people who can talk about the issues that viewers might want "some clarity and catharsis about."
Laughter is still key, he says: "What I do is humor. It will be predominantly funny. But I won't be afraid to say things."
Not necessarily the kind of agenda you'd expect from the typical stand-up comedian. But Miller has long had a reputation as being smart. Some say too smart for television.
He demurs. It's just his patter that gives that impression, Miller suggests.
"I think I'm good at language," he says. "That's your calling card, to some extent. ... Maybe I'm as bright as the 365-word-a-day calendar guy."
Despite its short life, Miller says he remains as proud of his syndicated talk show as anything he has done. His aspirations now, he says, are simple.
"I hope this [HBO] show works. I used to be voracious to plant the flag. But I'm older and wiser now."
by CNB