TV Review : Martin Short Special Displays the Need for a Team

It might be said that one of the major differences between a leading-man type and a supporting type is that the leading man has an innate and even ruthless sense of how to tailor material that works best for him alone, where the supporter’s forte is team play.

In his comedy special, “I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood,” which airs on HBO tonight at 10 (and again Thursday and next Saturday and June 16, 20 and 28) Short demonstrates that for all the ingenuity and occasional satiric brilliance he’s brought to a number of his characters, he’s basically an ensemble player without the size to go it alone.

From the outset, when he appears on camera in a solo candid shot and says, “I made a pledge to myself that the next television show that I did was going to be a celebration of Hollywood done with style and class and proving once and for all that you can do art in this town,” you can’t tell whether he’s kidding or not, and that he may well be leaving it up to us to decide.

If he is serious, the show, which looks like it was produced for less than $100, has far from a classy ambience. And except for a nifty appearance by Tracey Ullman as a vulgar Sue Mengers-style super agent, and a few moments as a gossip columnist (with Christopher Guest) reporting from a restaurant, it lacks pace and comedic energy.

Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas and Catherine O’Hara--Short’s chums from his SCTV days--appear in a number of sketches, most of which start promisingly (particularly when poor Ed Grimley overhears a furious argument between film critics Siskel and Ebert--played by Flaherty and Thomas--in a men’s room) and then overstay their welcome. The show is long on attitude and skimpy on substance, and a disappointment for Martin Short fans.