Lane's new NBC comedy bound for no 'Encore'

The cruel irony of the new TV season is that the crap no one watched last season is replaced by crap no one is going to watch this season.

So, let's welcome "Encore! Encore!" to the crapfest!

Not only will audiences not be calling out this Nathan Lane vehicle for an encore, but many will pray that the show just dies a quick - yet, hopefully painful - death. "Encore! Encore!" is just proof that star vehicles - i.e. "The Tony Danza Show" - don't work.

The show focuses on Joe Pinoni (Lane), a famous opera tenor in Italy whose vocal cords were scratched while having his stomach pumped.

His doctors fear he'll never be able to sing again, a fact that the cruel, arrogant tenor can't deal with.

In order to rest his voice, Pinoni returns home to his family's vineyard in the States. Of course, he doesn't fit in with the family who has no interest in his bragging, excessive drinking and womanizing.

And neither does the audience. Both the show's writers and Lane make Pinoni unsympathetic - he's a jerk and nobody (not even his family) can really say that they care if he'll ever sing again.

After a brief return to Italy for a disastrous comeback, Pinoni comes to terms with the fact that he'll never perform again. Not that this makes him more tolerable or more human for recognizing his weakness: Rather, it's just the opposite.

"Encore! Encore!"'s pilot follows this trajectory with weak humor. The enormously talented Lane has nothing to work with, and even his normally dead-on physical comedy is weak.

The pilot's script problem is no surprise, however, since the story credit is a laundry list of writers. This can generally signify script problems that no one knew how to fix. So, additional writers in an attempt to repair the script just made the problems even worse.

In addition to this, the show had casting problems and took forever to complete.

"Encore! Encore!" almost gets some help from Joan Plowright who plays Marie, Joe's mother. Plowright gives Marie a mix of dignity and humor that works for a character that is slowly slipping into senility.

Marie spends her social time at the funerals of complete strangers and drinks too much.

While Plowright gets a few good one-liners, for the most part it is painful to see such a great actress squander her talent on this horrible show.

The show is made worse by the presence of Glenne Headly as Joe's sister, Francesca. Not only is Headly humorless, but she can't act. In the two episodes screened (the pilot and "I am Joe's Ego") Headly makes one good joke. When discussing proper attire in the workplace, she turns to a bimbo employee and quips, "Haley, thank you for wearing a bra today."

One additional piece of non sequitur distracts from the show. The Pinoni family is supposed to be Italian, but Plowright is so painfully English that trying to pass her off as Italian is ridiculous.

The pilot of some shows is sometimes poor while subsequent episodes show that the show really is high quality, "Encore! Encore!" is not one of those cases. Its second episode, "I am Joe's Ego" is even worse than the pilot is.

This episode also revolves around Joe trying to fit in with his long-estranged family. In an attempt to get to know his sister better, Joe takes her out to dinner. Well, things go awry, and the dinner doesn't quite work out. One of these things is the comedy.

The good news is "Encore! Encore!" might get replaced at mid-season - by the end of the year at worst.

The bad news is, whether at mid-season or next year, "Encore! Encore!" may be replaced by something just as bad if not worse. Must see TV indeed.

09-22-98