TV Reviews : ‘Statler Brothers Show’: Hokey and Down-Home

A “variety” show that’s all about country music is a lot like an artichoke festival: How much you get out of it depends on how willing you are to keep peeling.

So the success of “The Statler Brothers Show,” which brings the variety format back to television when it premieres Saturday on TNN (the Nashville Network, at 9 p.m. and midnight), is going to ride on whether viewers take to the hokey humor and old-hat setups as much as to the occasional musical nugget from the quartet and their musical pals.

Affable, engaging performers in concert, the big question is how the Statlers’ act translates to television. Answer: better than watching flowers on the wall, considerably short of amazing grace.

Written by founding Statlers Don and Harold Reid (Harold being the group’s always mugging basso with the bug-eyed, hang-dog expression), the show, at least in the opening two episodes, relies too much on concocted personality and stiff patter instead of the real thing.

The tried-and-true one-hour format isn’t liable to revitalize the genre. There’s an opening vocal number from the hosts, a guest spot for a high-profile veteran (Barbara Mandrell, Oak Ridge Boys) and a nod to a newcomer (Suzy Boguss, Butch Baker). There’s also a nice weekly gospel segment so the Statlers can display their roots in spiritual music.

As for the “variety” aspect, a lame comic appears in the first episode, a likable escape artist in the second.

Perhaps down the line, the Statlers will feel less shackled to the format they’ve created and try to let loose a bit. With the Oak Ridge Boys, for instance, it would have been fascinating to see the two quartets engage in a vocal cutting contest. Or they might try to bring the audience even closer to their guests with an intelligent interview segment.

But then, that’s all lemon, butter and mayonnaise sort of stuff. Either you like artichokes or you don’t.