TBS' 'Frank TV' proves to be overly selfless

Just who is Frank Caliendo when he's not someone else?

The problem with both impressionists and ventriloquists is they often seem to invest all their personality in their side characters. When they step out on their own, there's no one there.

Frank Caliendo is an undeniably skilled mimic who does spot-on imitations of President Bush, John Madden and Jack Nicholson. That's right, you saw him probably too much doing ads for his own new show, "Frank TV," during TBS' coverage of the baseball playoffs last month.

Yet when the weekly program finally arrives at 10 p.m. today on TBS, it seems empty in the middle, and that means in the form of Caliendo. Yes, it's amusing in small doses, but what it reveals is that Caliendo doesn't seem to have any real point of view of his own to tie it all together and carry it through the inevitable dry patches.

"It's my own show. I finally got it," he said. "Forgive me. I feel like a little kid who just got a TV show for Christmas."

Yet by the time he puts his own son on screen next week, you may wish someone would take it back.

Again, that isn't to say the Chicago native isn't talented. Caliendo gets not just the voices, but the gestures, tics and other quirks of his subjects down pat. He nails not just President Bush's forced huffing chuckle, but also the way he earnestly lifts and lowers his eyebrows to make a point. It's the prehensile movement of the lips that makes his Donald Trump. And it's the trademark stutters that make his Madden so accurate. (There have been times listening to him as Sunday Night John on Dan McNeil's WMVP 1000-AM afternoon show when I thought it simply had to be Madden.)

As with any impressionist, some of his imitations are better than others, and it shows when he packs more than one into any set skit. A "Seinfeld" take-off tonight finds him playing all the characters, but his Jerry and Kramer are a lot more successful than his George or Elaine. And when Bush has the job of telling his daughter Jenna about the facts of life on her wedding night to Vice President Cheney, the sketch goes flat, because there just isn't enough mendacity in Caliendo's Cheney to make it work.

Better is next week's movie-review program with hosts Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, with Caliendo equally adept at both.

There's no arguing with his take on Bill Clinton, either, and tonight's skit in which he leads viewers on a tour of his presidential library has a killer punch line: "What happens in the Clinton Library stays in the Clinton Library."

Yet there's more to an imitation than mere accuracy. Darrell Hammond's Clinton makes points about his deliberate slickness that Caliendo never gets to.

He makes fun of Madden being fat, and next week his Nicholson has no pants. All right, that's funny, but where does it go from there? Nowhere, as it turns out.

"Frank TV" also has a cheap feel to it. It takes place on a basic stage with a living-room set. Somehow it makes me think of "The Flip Wilson Show," and maybe that would be a better template for it to borrow from. "Frank TV" could use a little variety, some other players for him to bounce off of, because Caliendo alone doesn't offer enough. He's amusing but never brilliant. That may seem a high standard to hold him to, but when you make your living off the fame and familiarity of others, you better add something significant of yourself to make it matter.

That said, "Frank TV" arrives with perfect timing, in that it debuts when the writers' strike has shuttered late-night comedy programs like "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart." Under normal circumstances, it would have a hard time drawing viewers away from that sharper satirical lampoon, but as the sole fresh comic alternative to the late news it has an opportunity to make hay -- at least for now. That gives Caliendo a chance to develop a distinctive attitude of his own on "Frank TV," and at some point he's going to need that to take his undeniable talent to what Madden would no doubt call the next level.

In the air

Remotely interesting: PBS' investigative series "Frontline" examines genocide in Darfur in "On Our Watch" at 9 p.m. today on WTTW Channel 11.

"South Park" has released a "Christmas Time in South Park" DVD, although mysteriously it does not include the original Christmas short that got the series picked up by Comedy Central. Today Comedy Central releases "Dr. Katz: The Complete Series" DVD.

End of the dial: WGN 720-AM News Director Wes Bleed completes a three-part series on charitable giving, "Refreshing Others," today and Wednesday with airings at 7 a.m., noon and 5 and 11 p.m.

Progressive-talk WCPT 850-AM and conservative WIND 560-AM tied with a 0.8 percent share of the overall audience 12 and older in monthly Arbitrend ratings released last week.

-- Ted Cox