LOS ANGELES — Finally, the Oprah Winfrey Network has something like a twinkle in its eye.
“The
Rosie Show,” which premiered live from Harpo Studios in Chicago on
Monday afternoon, has been touted as Rosie O’Donnell’s much-anticipated
return to television, which may be overstating the case slightly. In the
10 years since her syndicated daytime talk show “The Rosie O’Donnell
Show” ended, the former stand-up comic and sometime film star seemed to
be going out of her way to shake off the “Queen of Nice” mantle she had
crocheted for herself while sweet-talking celebrities for six seasons.
In 2006, she got cranky and righteous, locking horns with Elisabeth
Hasselbeck on “The View” before walking off in a huff. She produced and
starred in a Lifetime movie, launched a variety show so terrible it
ended after a single episode, and wrote a memoir about how awful it was
to be on “The View.” None of which guaranteed, or even hinted, that
O’Donnell would be the one to haul up OWN’s disappointing ratings.
Which
“The Rosie Show” might just do. It had a not bad, pretty good, kinda
funny, sort of smart debut. Not the sort of thing that would rock a
major network back on its heels with joy, but it certainly provided an
oasis of humor and sunshine amid OWN’s endless replaying of the
self-congratulatory final episodes of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
It
was “nice Rosie” who showed up, in Diane von Furstenberg “schmata,” as
she said, and Prada boots, with the best haircut she’s had in … well,
ever, and the easy, zingy showmanship that has kept her afloat in fans
even during the rocky years.
Wisely, she opened
with a little stand-up, and sure there were Spanx jokes — the woman just
cannot get over Spanx, which is, of course a very funny word and
something to which many OWN viewers can relate — but it was lovely to
see her back behind the microphone doing Penny Marshall impersonations
and poking fun at herself for “the chubby person’s shirt pull.” There
were questions from the audience — “just like Carol Burnett but not
really because she’s a genius, and I’m just me” — which unfortunately
included fellow “Oprah” acolyte Suze Orman (who seems to have it in her
contract that she will show up on every OWN show or else.)
Orman’s
question led to a mildly hilarious song about how O’Donnell came to
Chicago set to the tune of “The Night Chicago Died” (which, for TV
critics of a certain age, alone made the show worth watching) and
accompanied by a group of chorus boys who were soon shirtless, allowing
Rosie to sing that “it’s true I’m gay, but I’m not dead.”
The
rest of the show was devoted to official first guest and new O’Donnell
“crush” Russell Brand and his admirable ability to act like a
semi-strung out dingbat while talking most sensibly and articulately
about topics as diverse as the playing out of the commercialistic age,
the emptiness of celebrity culture and the benefits of being a
three-time winner of the Shagger of the Year Award. He also brought with
him a pre-taped mini-tour of Friendly House, a recovery center for
women, which allowed him to publicly advocate for recovery and praise
its admirable director, Peggy Albrecht, but in a way that made a nice
point about recovery without getting too maudlin — “This is the first
time you’ve appeared on television fully clothed, isn’t it Peggy?”
Which
was a good thing, a tremendous thing because more maudlin is not what
OWN, with its endless rotation of
heart-wrenching/breaking/string-tugging reality shows, needs. Yes,
O’Donnell and Brand were talking about addiction, a Winfrey-approved
topic, but in such a lively way that people might actually listen. “When
I was a drug addict, actively,” said Brand, cutting mercifully to the
chase, “I was very annoying.”
Things ended in a
very Rosie way, with a game show called “The Ro Show,” during which
Carol the receptionist began losing badly to the Stanford-educated
doctor so O’Donnell started cheating, which gave the whole thing a nice
Password-at-home feel. Sure, the set is absurdly purple and the Woman
For Which the Network is Named showed up at the end.
But
it was such good, clean fun that for a moment one was allowed to forget
that next period it was back to the life-lesson-learning grind, with
“Oprah’s Masterclass.”
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©2011 the Los Angeles Times
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