MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3
INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO
There was a time, many years ago, when cable programming was highbrow stuff. Turn on your cable TV, back when not everyone had it, and chances are you’d stumble across Pavarotti, a symphony at New York’s Met, some obscure foreign film (with subtitles!) or a talk show where the topic was the arts, as in the ahhts.
Perhaps the snootiest network was Bravo. Those were the days.
Bravo and other cable networks ditched the highbrow stuff years ago, when it became painfully obvious that lowbrow shows do a much better job of paying the bills. And, hey, who’s to complain? If not for the sea change, there would be no Project Runway or, for that matter, Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Still, Bravo clings to one last remnant of those artsy days: Inside the Actors Studio, which begins its new season tonight with actress and all around fun talk-show-guest Goldie Hawn.
Considering how much the cable TV landscape has changed over the years, it’s nice to know some trace elements of those artsy days remain, including IAS host James Lipton, who’s been lightly grilling celebrities on the show since 1994.
One only needs to think way back to Will Ferrell impersonating Lipton on Saturday Night Live to realize the show’s been on forever.
And it’s to Bravo’s credit that it’s still on. Surely, they could be making more money with something a little trashier, say, Real Housewives of Bayonne.
And it’s to the network’s and Lipton’s credit that nothing much has changed about IAS since its earliest days.
Lipton, a stack of blue index cards in front of him, interviews a celebrity, asking sometimes obscure and sometimes ever so slightly embarrassing questions. All this takes place in front of Pace University students, who get to ask the celeb equally light questions.
It’s all innocent, fun and refreshingly old fashioned.
The new season of Bravo’s Inside the Actors Studio premieres tonight at 8pm et/pt. Click on “Video Clips” to watch a preview.
