Sometimes a program will come along that makes you laugh, but it's not anything the makers thought you'd find amusing that you're laughing at. "The Tony Danza Show" is one of those programs.
Following Danza's career over the years, from the brilliant sitcom, "Taxi" in which he played a character who was pretty much like Tony himself, to "Family Law" where he did quite well as a dramatic actor, it's always been clear that Danza is a capable, natural actor. He does just fine- as long as he has a script to follow.
Now Tony seems to be a really nice guy and he'd probably even be a great fella to have for a neighbour. At the same time, anyone who's seen him make personal appearances on various shows over the years has probably witnessed Tony's "unsteadiness" when he has to just be Tony Danza. The most unbelievable example occurred on the old Dick Clark game show, "One Hundred Thousand Dollar Pyramid". Tony was one of the celebrity panelists and he and the contestant he was teamed with actually made it to the big money lightning round. Well, at one point Tony became so enraged when he couldn't get a particular question in the pyramid right that he stomped off the stage with a multitude of bleeps replacing his comments about how he felt he was playing the game. Dick Clark tried to calm him down and Tony responded with "Now everybody thinks I'm a (bleep) (bleep) moron!" To his credit though, Dick was able to coax Tony back to his seat, and with a bit of a pout on his face Tony did complete the rest of the round without any more outbursts.
Rather more presciently, Tony was granted the honour of guest-hosting "The Tonight Show". On the panel was none other than Burt Reynolds, an expert guest-host in his own right. Anyways, the two were bantering away and as Tony tried to keep up with Burt, all the sudden he just kinda ran out of things to say. Now to be fair, few people could ever be expected to do that job as well as Johnny Carson, and this incident didn't last more than a few seconds. Still, on a professional show like that where expectations are high, it was distinctly uncomfortable watching the guy in charge freeze up like an ice cube.
Which brings us to the present where we find Tony has somehow been placed in the position of hosting his own daily talk show. When I heard the news, I figured it was probably going to be a bit of a train wreck, but I never imagined Tony would prove to be so inept so often. The best moments usually occur during his opening monologue when he likes to talk about what he was watching on TV the night before or where he went for dinner. Considering these are things that happened to him and not someone else, the way he suddenly stops in mid-sentence and frantically searches for that certain word that's eluding him, well, it's like someone's blocking the cue card he's supposed to be reading.
Example: What Tony was attempting to say was he'd recently attended an event for a particular charity, but he just couldn't think of the word "benefit", so it came out like, "They had a...a.... (as his hands started going around and around like twin propellers he finally comes up with) "...a night", followed up with some nervous laughter.
Tony was interviewing Doris Roberts about the end of her sitcom, "Everybody Loves Raymond", and he remarked "going on that set everyday when you know the show is almost over must be...uh.......uh-" Doris Roberts kindly offered, "Sad?" but Tony rejected that and finally blurted out, "Melancholy!"
As others have already stated, Tony has a habit of talking about himself rather than the guests, but it's really to be expected. After all, talking about yourself is a lot less challenging than trying to fill seven minutes of air time with conversation about someone he doesn't know near as well as he knows Tony Danza.
He's also not afraid to speak his mind as he demonstrated in one particularly amusing moment of hubris when Tony criticized his guest, Dean Martin's daughter, for writing a book about the late singer that was not completely flattering. But then again who can blame him? Afterall, Tony was one of Dean's biggest fans. She was just his daughter.
Once again, I think Tony's basically a very nice, decent guy and he's been deservedly popular for many years- as an actor. But in a job like this where you have to be able to think fast on your feet, if Tony's a good talk show host then Master P is a gifted dancer.
The main reason to watch his show is for the screw ups like when Tony asked an "ExtravaDanza" contestant over the phone if she could see her picture that was being flashed on the screen- until it was pointed out that she couldn't possibly see it since the show was not live, but instead was being taped ahead of schedule.
Another time Tony came out wondering aloud why there were so many school age kids in his audience- until it was pointed out that to him that it was Columbus day, and therefore a school holiday, too.
It's just a shame "Who's The Boss?" was never this funny.
9 out of 12 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
