A hardy har-har for flawed but fun 'Gleason'
Though it delightfully recounts the legendary career of Jackie Gleason, the movie "Gleason" ought to include an advisory when it airs at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS (Channel 5): "Warning! The following program contains scenes of self-serving network promotion." "Gleason" stars Brad Garrett, of the current CBS hit comedy "Everybody Loves Raymond," playing the volatile comedian whose relationship with CBS is the movie's central theme. The film dwells mainly on a short period when Gleason - and CBS - were at their zenith. His self-named variety show was the second most-watched show on television in 1955; its most popular sketch, "The Honeymooners," would be developed into a half-hour comedy - and, lest we forget, a timeless CBS classic. The letters C-B-S are heard over and over throughout "Gleason," almost always favorably. And other than the two scenes that bookend the movie, in which Garrett is aged to appear like Gleason giving an interview near the end of his life, "Gleason" never moves past 1955. Thus we are spared having to watch his slow fade that included variety shows, "Honeymooners" revivals and the disastrous game show that lasted one episode - all on CBS, by the way. For that matter, there's no mention of his later dubious fame playing a cracker sheriff in three "Smokey and the Bandit" films. Instead, the movie ends with a reverential dreamscape of scenes from "The Honeymooners" that resembles one of those gauzy tributes you see on TV shortly after a famous actor dies. The hokey ending was a letdown considering how much I enjoyed the rest of "Gleason," as script and set and actor magically combined to re-create a show-biz era we can scarcely imagine today. Beginning in 1950 on the DuMont network, a little-known stand-up comic and pool hustler from Brooklyn made himself into the Great One, a larger-than-life fixture of prime time for most of the next 20 years. Gleason was one of the few TV performers to retain complete creative control over his show; in the movie we see him hand-picking the "Glea-Girls" in his chorus line. The script, by Rick Podell and Michael Preminger, traces Gleason's rise with nimble back-and-forth storytelling. The scenery, the music and supporting actors are all on key. And Garrett is magnificent re-imagining Gleason's off-screen persona. In one scene set in the 1940s, Gleason drags a fellow comedian into Toots Shor's for dinner, even though both men are dead broke. The other comic doesn't realize that Gleason is planning to befriend the restaurant's famous proprietor and sweet-talk his way out of paying his tab. "I can't afford this," he whimpers. "You think small, my friend," Gleason responds, as only the Great One could. Quicker clicker "The Bachelor," 8 p.m. Wednesday, ABC (Channel 9): The second edition of ABC's mating game has something two-thirds of the new prime-time shows don't have: a star who lights up the screen. Springfield's own Aaron Buerge has a winning smile, an intimidating resume and a personality as warm as previous bachelor Alex Michel's was cool. The voice-over was only slightly premature in referring to him as "one of America's most eligible bachelors." It didn't hurt his viewer appeal that Buerge loaded his palette with as diverse a range of finalists as one could select from, as he put it, "25 supermodels." The 15 women who made the cut last week included Hayley, an engaging marriage therapist who is looking for someone who "makes my toes tingle," and Anindata, the child of an arranged marriage. But it was Angela, a nurse from Kansas City, who got the first red rose. "Law & Order," 9 p.m. Wednesday, NBC (Channel 41): New DA Arthur Branch may be a "post-9/11 conservative," as the publicity sheet for last week's season premiere described him. But the actor who portrays Branch - the current senior senator from Tennessee, Fred Thompson - is behaving more like a post-Jesse Ventura pol who has no problem moonlighting on TV while still on the public payroll. Nice work if you can get it. The DA's part on "Law & Order" can be mailed in, as Steven Hill proved toward the end of his decade on the show. Still, Thompson's rather lifeless debut last week - it was as if someone dared him to make as little eye contact as possible with his co-stars - leads me to believe he will grow into this modest role only when the distraction of serving in the U.S. Senate is removed in January. "Porn 'n' Chicken," 8 p.m. Sunday, Comedy Central. The funny channel's "first original film" leaves it nowhere to go but up. This mirthless, dirty-minded mess is based on a real-life Yale "secret society" whose members gather to eat fried chicken and watch adult flicks. Bodily functions, sex talk, faculty ethics - nothing is sacred in this movie, except of course for "Debbie Does Dallas" and other revered works of that oeuvre. When I was in college, you didn't need a secret club to watch porn. Once, they showed it in a 1,000-seat auditorium. To ease their consciences, the sponsors made it an X-rated benefit for charity. A friend of mine stood outside the event with a sign that greeted the moviegoers. It read: FIRST TIME? YOU'LL LEARN. SECOND OR MORE? YOU'VE FAILED. My thoughts exactly. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Brad Garrett stars in "Gleason" at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS (Channel 5). @ART:Photo (color)
