No Dozing--More Entries in Late-Night Talk-Show Contest

Pat Sajak and Arsenio Hall spin the Wheel of Words.

Late-night television is again crawling with talk shows, “The Pat Sajak Show” and “The Arsenio Hall Show” having joined Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Morton Downey Jr. and Ted Koppel on the after-hours circuit.

Plans are also afoot to confront NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” with a talk show starring comedian Byron Allen. A Joan Rivers talk show is in the works. A G. Gordon Liddy talk show remains a possibility, and Kenny Rogers and others continue to be mentioned in connection with talk shows. On the drawing board, too, is something called “Cop Talk,” where police would reflect on their cases in front of the camera.

There may not be much to say, but there are plenty of people to say it. So many people are getting talk shows that one of these days we’re going to look up and see Don Rickles being interviewed by Mother Teresa.

Last week Rickles visited NBC’s Carson, the longtime 800-pound gorilla of late-nighters who year after year yawns mightily as he flicks away the latest challenger to his “Tonight Show” dominance.

The last time CBS attempted a late-night talk show, however, Richard Nixon was President and Ronald Reagan was merely a gleam in his party’s eye. So the spotlight is on Sajak’s new CBS show (11:30 p.m.-1 a.m. on Channels 2 and 8), which is not only competing against Carson but also Hall’s syndicated Paramount show (11 p.m.-midnight on KCOP Channel 13).

This could be history. This could also be time to go to bed.

Although you could survive happily without these guys in the wee hours, they’re at least likable and talented, which immediately elevates them above most of their predecessors.

By design, both are also trying to break the late-night barrier by, in effect, breaking old ground. Sajak, in particular, projects a sort of quaint antiqueness, from his traditional talk-show set to his traditional talk-show sidekick.

That musty slot is filled by the affable, somewhat thudding Dan Miller. In an amusing irony, Miller now surfaces as an entertainer after being found lacking in charisma when he was an evening news anchorman at KCBS-TV Channel 2.

Sajak’s week-old show has wasted little time in plunging its host into the bog of talk show deja vu . The temptation to Involve the Host in Something Dumb must have been overwhelming, for there was Sajak at one point playing tug of war with “Hunter” co-star Stepfanie Kramer’s pit bull. He also tried his hand at duck calling.

“The Arsenio Hall Show” also swayed at times to the tune of self-parody, seeming to echo SCTV’s talk show-mocking “The Sammy Maudlin Show” as guest after guest praised Hall as a beautiful human being.

Paul Rodriguez: “I love this man.” Little Richard: “I’m so glad this man has a show. He’s the greatest. Isn’t he the greatest?” The studio audience agreed he was the greatest.

The difference in the two talk shows extends beyond format, however. The contrast in personalities is dramatic: Sajak the pastel, WASPish former TV weatherman who got rich and famous hosting “Wheel of Fortune,” and Hall the black stand-up comic who prepped for his new job while hosting “The Late Show” on Fox and who frequently slips into dialect for effect:

“He’s bad when he go out.” Or “How do you know you goin’ get rid of it, man?” Or “We goin’ t’readin’ after this, y’all.”

(Question: Isn’t it a double standard to criticize as racist such dialect when a script writer employs it as black dialogue, when at the same time someone like Hall is using it on national television?)

Hall is all energy and movement. He is radiant.

Although very quick, Sajak never seems to be performing, and is so loose and sneaky funny that some of his best throwaway lines seem almost to vanish before you’ve heard them. He is clever.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to break a talk-show tradition by asking a follow-up question,” he cracked one night to Charlie Sheen. Actually, Sajak does ask follow-up questions. He also listens to answers and has been adept and comfortable with guests ranging from Malcolm Forbes and Eric Dickerson to Rod Steiger, Bert Convy and Donna Mills.

You might say that the sidekick-less Hall, in less than two weeks on the air, has been more direct and single-minded than Sajek. Not only has Hall had Dr. Ruth on as a guest, he’s even starting to sound like her. To Little Richard: “Do you have a girlfriend?” To Brooke Shields: “Are you still a virgin?” To Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: “How’s your love life, man?” Hall also wondered aloud about George Bush’s sex drive.

Hall’s unpretentiousness seems to rub off on his guests. His best hour was the Abdul-Jabbar show, where he got the big man to really open up, and where he ended the evening by turning the show into a sort of dancefest with the audience.

There has been the inevitable overlapping, with Leslie Nielsen appearing on both shows, carrying with him a hidden device that imitates the excitingly memorable sound of “breaking wind,” as Hall put it. Not a highlight. Would Henry Kissinger do that with Koppel?

The highlights for both shows came when they followed in the footsteps of Steve Allen and Letterman by venturing from the studio for location pieces that turned out to be inspired lunacy.

Hall went to a bookstore to sign books--someone else’s books. Sajak went to his doctor’s office for a physical. Funniest of all, though, was the Sajak show repeatedly looking in on Dan Miller at Charlie Sheen’s resturant, where Miller was supposed to be having a romantic dinner with Dr. Joyce Brothers. Their rapture was so great that they arm-wrestled.

It’s all been breezy and painless so far, not spectacular and not important. As Barry Champlain’s boss tells him in the movie “Talk Radio”: “This is a talk show . . . and you are a talk-show host.” Period.

Sleep tight.