THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 13, 1995 TAG: 9509130033
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
THE BIG GUY in the blue bowling shirt who co-stars in ``Bless This House,'' a sitcom that begins its run on CBS tonight at 8 after a sneak preview two nights ago, is The Diceman himself.
Andrew Clay.
With the exception of maybe Mark Fuhrman, Clay is the last man you would expect to see cast as a lovable lug and a devoted family man in an 8 p.m. network sitcom.
Working as a chain-smoking, foul-mouthed, female-bashing, sex-obsessed stand-up comic who dressed in black leather studded with rhinestones, he was so wild and raunchy that MTV banned him for life. Howard Stern is Alistair Cooke compared to the Clay of the 1980s.
``Nightline,'' which usually concerns itself with international crises such as the mess in Bosnia, took up the subject of Clay's vulgarity about six years ago because he had outraged so many women. Ted Koppell looked disgusted.
``The Diceman thing sort of got out of hand. Newspapers such as the The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times were saying my act would be the demise of Western civilization,'' Clay said when meeting recently with members of the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles.
When audiences lost interest in The Diceman, the comic, Clay turned to films, appearing in ``The Adventures of Ford Fairlane'' and ``Amazon Women on the Moon,'' to name a few. As they flopped, so did Clay's concert career.
He was hot, and then he was not.
``Three years ago, I couldn't get a dog-food commercial,'' he said.
Look at him now.
Andrew ``Dice'' Clay is the respectable Andrew Clay, husband and father of two co-starring on network TV with the marvelous Cathy Moriarity in a show that is, without apologies, an update of Jackie Gleason's ``The Honeymooners.'' Gleason starred in that hit from 1956 to 1971.
Clay suggested that his portrayal of postal worker and ardent bowler Burt Clayton is ``a mix of both Gleason and Roseanne.''
The Diceman, who appealed to audiences ``who just wanted cursing and vulgarity,'' was not the real Andrew Clay, he said.
If he offended women in the past, he apologizes for it today.
``I always had respect for women,'' he said. ``There were things written and said about me that were blown way out of proportion. I never had a woman come up to me and say, `I hate you.' (Nora Dunn of ``Saturday Night Live'' came close when she refused to appear on camera with Clay).
``When I do The Diceman on stage, it is an act. A character. In the sitcom, the part of Burt is closer to who I am. He's human.''
His co-star, Moriarity, shrugs off Clay's past as the comic from hell, referring to him as ``my huggy bear.''
This Academy Award nominee - a lovely presence with her long blond hair and all - has comic timing as sharp as Audrey Meadows ever had playing opposite Gleason's Ralph Kramden.
And her Bronx accent! His Brooklyn accent!
Burt and wife Alice - didn't I say ``Bless This House'' was a testimonial to ``The Honeymooners'' gang? - live in a too-small Trenton, N.J., apartment. They'd like a house in the suburbs.
But how can they afford it?
``We have only enough and nothing extra,'' said Burt, speaking for blue-collar families everywhere. Alice works as a cashier.
So they go on paying rent as they have done for 13 years.
The Diceman cast as a caring husband and father. Do wonders ever cease?
``This cleanliness thing of doing a situation comedy feels good,'' Clay said. ``Burt's a real guy, a guy from the middle class who wants better for his family. I call him the underdog.''
Clay has not retired as a stand-up comic. Only his act has changed. ``Today, I make myself the butt of the jokes,'' he said. ``I now have a reality-based act, like when I talk about quitting smoking. I quit smoking a year ago but I still buy cigarettes just to hold them. How dumb is that?''
Although ``Bless This House'' is light years away from Clay's stand-up, it is stretching things to call it clean entertainment. There is a trend at the family hour on network TV to introduce one-liners about sex and body functions.
In ``Bless This House,'' the dialogue makes reference to butts, boobs and venereal disease. The kids hear about adults ``doing it'' on the coffee table.
Perhaps The Diceman isn't so far from his element after all. To the criticism that ``Bless This House,'' and several other shows airing from 8 to 9 p.m., push the limits of taste, producer Bruce Helford told TV writers, ``The kids of today, as opposed to kids in the families of the 1950s, know so much more. You really can't hide much from them.''
I guess that justifies the scene in ``Bless This House'' when mom (Moriarity) chastises daughter Danny (12-year-old Raegan Kotz) for monopolizing the bathroom: ``You shouldn't stand around all day admiring your little hooters. . . .'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
OLD DICE:
Clay's movie efforts, including ``The Adventures of Ford Fairlane,''
were flops.
NO DICE:
Andrew Clay stars with Cathy Moriarty in ``Bless This House,'' an
updated version of ``The Honeymooners,'' starting tonight at 8 on
CBS.
Graphic
Color photo
Tom Verica & Mariel Hemingway
NEW SHOWS PREMIERING TONIGHT
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
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