ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210055
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DR. ALAN KATZ sits at his cluttered desk at Appalachian Counseling Center and says, "I'm a professional therapist, a real live one."
Do not confuse him with Dr. Jonathan Katz, star of "Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist," Comedy Central's Emmy-winning, animated sitcom.
That Dr. Katz is neurotic. That Dr. Katz is short and bald. That Dr. Katz's therapy sessions include commercial interruptions.
Dr. Alan Katz is 6-foot-4 and still has all his hair. "There is absolutely no resemblance," he says.
Still, his patients sometimes tease him. Other psychologists tease him. "So it's pretty good for business," he says - a serious business.
A clinical and neuropsychologist, Alan Katz often deals with patients who have had some sort of brain trauma, like a stroke or head injury. He also works in the rehabilitation unit of Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. He's been practicing for 20 years now, 12 of them in Roanoke.
Dr. Jonathan Katz has been practicing for two years, since his one-minute bits on Comedy Central evolved into a twice weekly, 30-minute, animated program. His patients - many of them stand-up comedians like Garry Shandling, Steven Wright, Wendy Leibman and Ray Romano - deal with the trivialities of life. With musings and what-ifs, such as: What if Doug Henning and David Copperfield really were magic, and all the people of the world were their slaves?
Clients are lining up for the comedy couch.
Last fall, Winona Ryder made an appearance on the show, the first non-comic to get a seat in the office frequented by the likes of Imo Phillips and Rodney Dangerfield.
January's office visits include Sandra Bernhart and Anthony Clark.
The show has a real side, too. There's Laura, the bored receptionist; Dr. Katz' searching, slacker son, Ben, and the cartoon psychologist himself, awkward with women ... well, just awkward.
Perhaps that's what made Time magazine name the show "Comedy of the Year."
"I ran into it by accident," says Roanoke's Ron Salzbach, a licensed clinical social worker with The Counseling Center. He's one of several area therapists who tunes into the program regularly. "I laughed like heck because of Dr. Katz being in town."
The show, animated through producer Tom Snyder's "Squigglevision" technology, hits its mark.
"I'm as neurotic as Dr. Katz," Salzbach says. "Our patients like to think we're always perfectly normal, but we're all trying to figure ourselves out.
The arid, real-life Jonathan Katz, who created the half-hour program, said in a telephone interview that psychologists are the closest thing he has to groupies. "I did a show for the American Psychological Association's meeting in Toronto. That was the best audience I ever had."
But he also has a core group of 18- to 49-year-old fans who stop him in the streets of Newton, Mass., when they recognize his unmistakable voice and his staccato, noncommittal responses, "Yeah ... Right ... Uh hunh."
Katz does the voice for the cartoon therapist, which was created in his likeness, though not precisely. "My likeness is doing much better than I am," he says.
Jonathan Katz grew up in Brooklyn and Manhattan, working his way through a number of careers: musician, mentalist, comic. He quit the mind-reading act after only a few years, he says, "because it was so hard to tell what people were thinking." He spent 14 years doing late-night stand-up comedy before realizing he was a morning person.
Jonathan Katz has no training in psychology, though his father worked in mental health administration. He bases the relationship between the animated psychologist and his son, Ben (performed by H. Jon Benjamin), on the relationship he had with his own dad.
"I was a late bloomer," he says. "My father cut off my allowance when I was about 30. He was really very indulgent, really interested in my happiness."
The cartoon Dr. Katz is equally interested in his son's happiness, whether Ben is sporting a pierced ear ("It's a tape-on"), or taking over his dad's office to start a new chauffeur business, ``Piccups'' (``like `hiccups' with a `P''').
Jonathan Katz says he considers the moments between father and son to be some of the show's best.
The relationship is explored further in a syndicated, four-panel Dr. Katz comic strip, which began appearing in the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Sun this month.
A new Dr. Katz book was published this fall, and TV Guide rated the show in its Top 10, "right along with `Frazier' and `The X-Files.''' T-shirts and hats recently hit the market, too.
``I'm their biggest customer, I think,'' Jonathan Katz says. ``My wife has just told me she doesn't want another `Dr. Katz' mug for our anniversary.''
When will he be satisfied?
``When there's a Dr. Katz theme park.''
To prepare for the show, which is partially improvised, Katz often tries his jokes on therapists he knows. "Don't laugh if you can help it," he tells them, but they usually do. "I get to say the things they can't," he explains.
"If you're involved in psychotherapy, you appreciate it more," says Steve Strosnider, a professional counselor at Lewis-Gale Clinic and an occasional watcher of "Dr. Katz." He's a little concerned the show "could reinforce the perception that therapists are neurotic." Or that it could reinforce some of the stigmas about psychotherapy "because the people who come in there have way-out stuff to talk about. I'm afraid people in therapy could feel trivialized."
So far, though, he hasn't heard any patients complain, he says.
As for Roanoke's Dr. Katz, he has tuned into the show only once, to see what people were talking about.
"It was cute," he says.
``Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist" airs on Comedy Central on Sundays at 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. and on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. and 3:30 a.m.
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Stand-up, pants-down comedian Jonathan Katz with hisby CNB"Squigglevision" alter ego (inset right). 2. JANEL RHODA/Staff. Real
professional therapist Dr. Alan Katz of Roanoke (left): The show was
"cute," he said of the time he watched it, but psychology is serious
business. color. Graphics: Cartoons. 1. His cartoon receptionist
Laura Silverman (above) 2. Doing "therapy" with a cartoon Rodney
Dangerfield (above center) 3. Being visited by a cartoon Winona
Ryder (inset far right). color.