Television Reviews : Garr and Company Fall Flat in Cinemax’ ‘Flapjack’

You know Teri Garr. And to know her, probably, is to adore her. She’s that imminently lovable kook who pops up often on the David Letterman show and in two or three movies and TV flicks a year. The blond, pretty actress almost always does comedy, and usually seems a little smarter than her material--for all those where-am-I? takes.

But . . . is Teri Garr really a comedian--not just the kind that acts in comedies and inevitably amuses ol’ Dave, but the kind that can do stuff like, say, the “Cinemax Comedy Experiment”?

If “Teri Garr in Flapjack Floozie” is any indication, the answer is a flapjack-flat no.

The ever-declining cable series, once a dependable showcase for brilliant comics-on-the-rise such as Gilbert Gottfried and Bob Goldthwait, declines a little more with this abominable half-hour (which debuts tonight at 9 p.m. and will be reshown several times this month).

“Floozie” is an attempt to do an absurdist, quasi-nostalgic sendup of those old Hollywood movies such as “I’ll Cry Tomorrow” and “Jeanne Eagels,” about show-biz women dragged down by alcohol, drugs and/or lousy men. Garr plays the very fictional vaudeville song-and-dance star Helen Eagles--who’s addicted to pancakes. Laughing yet?

With its minimalist set, silly jokes (a gangster puts Eagles into the “Club Copacapancake”) and campy acting--the cast includes Laraine Newman and Toni Basil--”Floozie” is one take-off that should simply have been taken off the schedule.

Garr’s never-flagging charm persists and the talented cast gives it their amateur-hour all, but producer and co-writer Tom Schiller winds up with batter on his face.