It’s Miller’s Time

Dennis Miller surveys all that is his on the Sunset Boulevard sound stage where the set for his new talk show is under construction, where forklifts and buzz saws are competing with bandleader Andy Summers’ group rehearsal for decibels, and, like a young Mickey Rooney in an unusually hushed mode, solemnly intones:

“I just want the people to know I’m a young kid with a dream.”

This whispery epiphany is, of course, followed--after a well-timed beat--by the patented Miller chuckle, a gleeful, high-pitched giggle that seems to mix contempt for the hypocritical with utter childlike delight in taking it down.

It’s a laugh familiar to viewers of “Saturday Night Live,” who saw Miller do his ersatz newsman bit in the “Weekend Update” slot through the latter half of the last decade. Whereas Chevy Chase originated the gig straight-faced and often deadpan-confused, Miller took the liberty of acknowledging the ruse and outrightly smirked his way through the spot, being above the news rather than of it. And it worked.

Said laugh could go from a weekly to nightly staple when Miller’s syndicated entry into the bedtime gab-fest sweepstakes premieres Monday.

In Los Angeles and San Diego, the show will air at 11:30 p.m. But in many other major markets, Miller is being picked up by ABC affiliates looking for a midnight replacement for the network’s recently canceled “Into the Night.” Given that much of Miller’s humor is political and pointed, and might go over some heads if positioned in the wrong slot, he’s delighted to take over that niche.

“I guess (“Into the Night”) fell apart just at the right moment for me,” he acknowledges. “Obviously I love being after Ted Koppel ... if you notch up the political quotient are the people gonna be amenable to that? Certainly I think if the lead-in is ‘Nightline,’ you’re talking about a pretty pure demographic of people who are up on the news.

“My head writer had a great idea where, at the end of each night’s show, we could talk about what jokes are gonna be in the next night’s monologue and offer suggested reading--like ‘We’ll be talking about these issues tomorrow. You might want to read this article in Newsweek.’ ”

High on Miller’s guest wish list are the debaters of CNN’s “Crossfire” and other political types. He says the show won’t cater strictly to his tastes--”It’s for America. It’s not like Col. Kurtz or something, where I want this whole thing to play to me”--but Miller does offer that he’d like to have on authors or performance artists like, for example, Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Spalding Gray, reading at a lectern. The house band, led by acclaimed jazz-rock guitarist Summers (of ex-Police fame), is rehearsing Jimi Hendrix oldies and the funky Rufus tune “Tell Me Something Good” as we speak. But Miller adds that he wouldn’t balk at booking country or even classical acts as guests.

When Miller left “SNL” last spring, the talk-show derby was a little more crowded, with Rick Dees’ and Ron Reagan’s late-night efforts then not yet kaput. Now that the field has narrowed, Miller tardily enters in with Johnny Carson--soon to be succeeded by Jay Leno--and Arsenio Hall as his only major competition for the moment.

Of the up-and-comers, “Dennis Miller is the only one who scares me,” Arsenio Hall said in a recent interview with The Times, “because I have tremendous respect for him and think he’s one of the brightest comics on the scene.”

Is this town, or global village, big enough for the both of ‘em?

Miller is flattered by Hall’s professed fear, but insists--perhaps either naively or disingenuously--that he doesn’t pose a threat to any other host’s existing audience: “People say ‘There’s gridlock. There’s such a mess out there. Do we need another one of these?’ We don’t need anything in the world except food and sleep, you know what I mean? It’s a talk show . And this doesn’t look like gridlock to me. There are 26 teams in the National Football League, but there are only three of us doing this at that time of the day.

”... Arsenio has, if anything, taught you that you don’t have to cut into anybody else’s pie. I don’t think Carson’s ratings went down at all, and Arsenio’s formed a pretty nice rating.”

But even if Leno has the older or more conservative factions locked up, won’t Miller be going after the same youthful demographic as Hall?

“We’re so different, I think it’s pretty clearly demarcated for the American public,” he insists. “Jay’s a good friend of mine, but Jay always tells me he thinks I might be a little bit harsh. That’s where we differ. Arsenio I don’t know as well, but he seems to me a more gregarious, convivial guy than I am. I seem to be a little harder politically, maybe more issue-oriented--but not a square about it, because I want to have stars on, too.

“I notice Arsenio, when I watch his show, he has kids in the crowd, and to be honest, when I do my (stand-up comedy act) on the road, I don’t get a lot of kids. I don’t get old people, but I don’t get any 18-year-olds. I don’t think they wanna be bugged by politics. Most of the people at my shows are 25 to 35, so maybe that’s the way it’ll translate on TV.”

Miller also stands to draw crossover from the “Saturday Night Live” faithful, whom, he presumes, “will come over at least for a look-see.” Indeed, if even a quarter of the 10 million or so “SNL” viewers a week decided to tune him in now, Miller would have a viable audience share.

“It’s amazing to me, all you need are around 3 million people in the country to be doing OK. It’s a pretty weird thought, isn’t it? I mean, that’s a pretty small sampling, but in the splintered market that’s about all you need.”

Miller suddenly becomes aware that he might sound a little prematurely cocky about the ease of pulling in pajama partyers. “I sound like a (jerk) when I start talking about this stuff. Maybe I’ll come back to you when I’m getting that 1 million a night and start begging forgiveness on that.”

Does he have any predictions about how he’ll really fare?

“I really don’t. I think it will be determined pretty quickly, though, because I think it’s like med school--if you fall behind, you’re (doomed). It’s tough to catch up. I think that in the first month or so that chemical thing happens, be it fission or fusion, that they either dig it or they don’t. And if the mix just isn’t there--oh boy, Ron Reagan was gone pretty quick, wasn’t he? And I didn’t even find him inept at it...

“I view these things as a really simple chemical equation, that you come out here every night, you’re in their house, and they like you or they want to punch you. You can even be proficient, but if something starts bugging them about you, they’re gone. Like when I watched Pat Sajak the first night, I remember thinking--I’ve met him, he’s a nice man, this is not to slag him--’Hey, this isn’t bad, I’m surprised, I only know him from that game show, he’s pretty entertaining.’ Then I noticed after a couple weeks I started to get angry at him. And I didn’t hate him or anything, but his tics would start to get to me.

“I noticed that I gravitated back to Carson. And I thought, what is the genius of Carson that after 30 years you still watch him and you’re not sitting there thinking ‘Oh God, is he doing that again?’ But I watched Pat only two weeks and I would notice certain ways he would cock his head, little things like that. I think it’s gonna be just like that with me, and that’s why I’m not just pointing the finger at him. Two weeks in and they could be saying, ‘Get your hand out of your (expletive) hair!’ ”

Part of the problem with Sajak, too, was that, in the monologue, at least, some of his mannerisms seemed too studied, or borrowed--a few parts Carson gesturing, a few parts Letterman non sequiturs, with some of the real Sajak persona thrown in, too. Miller professes that at least his tics are his own.

“After 10 years of (performing), I undeniably for better or for worse have a discernible point of view and stage presence. I don’t have to search for one. ... But I can cover myself on jokes. The monologue is the least of my worries right now, to be honest.

“I have to worry about the Q&A.; I’ve never done it. I don’t even know if I can. But I tried it the other day with a couple stagehands. We just wanted to see what it would be like for me to talk. And it felt less threatening than I thought it would be. Because at some point the key to that is just to shut up and listen.”

It seems safe to assume that he won’t be coddling or cheerleading his guests in the obsequious (and successful) Arsenio style.

“Nor will I be taking what I think a large contingent of the press feels is my completely misanthropic pose,” he counters.

And therein lies another question: If David Letterman--whose show-business “myth-diffusing” Miller is admittedly a huge admirer of--strikes Cher, Shirley MacLaine and much of middle America as being a big meanie, can quintessentially cynical Miller possibly come off any less curmudgeonly?

“I’ve never had to really work with anybody yet,” he admits. “Stand-up is the ultimate solo thing. And ‘Update’ was an equally lonely post. You’re paid to sit there and kind of raise your eyebrow at things. So everything I’ve done up to this point has demanded I be alone, and I felt OK in my attitude. But now that I’m with people I presume that’ll change. I don’t wanna sit here and look holier than thou. I want to try to get along with people.”

For someone whose career has been predicated on mockery, that could be a challenge. Miller’s penchant for biting satire went over so well on “SNL” that he held the post for longer than anyone.

Miller says his parting with “SNL” was amicable and, in fact, producer Lorne Michaels will be an early guest on his new show. And though he was a frequent talk-show guest himself with Carson and Letterman, he insists it never occurred to him he might want to sit in the other chair until about a year and a half ago. He credits fatherhood, of all things, with the inspiration to move on.

“I like being a stand-up. If anything changed my mind, it was when I had a baby (a year and a half ago). My son, when I used to look at him--I don’t want to sound too maudlin here--in some way reacquainted me with the delight one should take in taking chances in your life.

“I was kind of sedentary and dug my job at ‘SNL’ and thought ‘I can stay in this,’ because I never really thought I had to be the person to get to the peak. I always thought if I could get up to maybe the third camp and boil the water in the warm tent, I’d be happy. But when I saw the kid, I remember thinking that I’d like to make him proud of me and I’d like to try some things. Life is a pretty incredible gift. When you see a baby born, it reminds you of that. And I thought I should take some chances. Why not? It’s show biz.”

“ The Dennis Miller Show “ airs Monday-Friday at 11 : 30 p.m. on KTLA and KUSI.