It's a squeaker. I love Hacks, too, for example. I'm bound to throw in my two cents about that show, too, at some point. But if there is one program (do we say "television" any more? this show is on Youtube) that I eat like compulsively like candy, devour like a snake engulfs a rat, it's Dana Gould's Hanging with Doctor Z.
The show popped up in 2021, and it looked to me like Gould's strategy for getting some comedy out to the people during the Pandemic. It has the vibe of a show someone makes in isolation, perhaps being beamed from the International Space Station. Initially at least I'm pretty sure I never saw the star on the same set or in the same frame with another human. It looked like it all came together in the editing. The premise, in case the obvious escapes you, is that the comedian is hosting a late night talk show as Dr. Zaius from The Planet of the Apes.
While that gimmick is delightfully surreal, I'm pretty sure even Gould would admit the idea is not as unique as it may sound to the uninitiated. As a concept, anyway, it's quite a bit like Space Ghost Coast to Coast, which premiered on the Cartoon Network in 1994. It even uses that show's convention of having guests "phone in" their performances on video monitors (necessary in that case, because the show was a live action-animated hybrid). And the idea of having a fictional host interview IRL guests was not unique to that show. There have also been Jiminy Glick, Larry Sanders, et al. Hanging is not even the first Dr. Zaius comedy routine to come down the pike. The Simpsons, which Gould later wrote for and co-produced, did a faux Planet of the Apes musical during season seven (1995-96), which featured "Dr. Zaius, Dr. Zaius" as a sung refrain.
But Gould had done bits as Dr. Z previously on occasion, and so crowdfunded to make this show a reality. And the effort to do so was justified, at least by my lights! What makes the show ENDLESSLY entertaining is the character Gould has created, a kind of supercilious show biz slut who appears to have known everyone and done everything. He's a compulsive name dropper, and the legendary exploits of the stars he mentions ascend to surreal heights. He dresses with a bit of hedonistic Hugh Hefner flair. One is unavoidably reminded of the coked up Paul Williams going on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in his Virgil costume from Battle for the Planet of the Apes.
Doctor Z. is fueled by Gould's limitless store of pop culture knowledge, and his endless ability to riff. I'm sure much of it is pre-written, but I'm also guessing he also improvs a lot, because he is in fact interacting with the guests. His victims seem largely drawn from Gould's own circle of Hollywood friends, and they're not always the hugest "gets", but sometimes some bigger celebs have proven that they're good sports by horsing around with the good doctor, including Jason Alexander, Weird Al, Patton Oswalt, Howie Mandel, Tim Meadows, Kevin Pollak, Jeff Garlin, Hannah Einbinder (and her mom Laraine Newman, et al. As on Martin Short's Jiminiy Glick program they often seem uncertain whether to match the host's hilarity or to play it straight. I have seen both strategies succeed on the show.
There are other aspects of the show that I love. One is that, as was often the case in old time radio and early television, the shows are less than fifteen minutes long. It's just enough time for some opening banter, an interview with one guest, and a couple of hilarious fake commercials. There is therefore NO FAT on the show. It's almost always only solidly packed hilarity, with no filler. And I love the way it's produced, that barebones production style, which looks a bit like public access but also like some mainstream national shows like Comedy Bang! Bang! Paul Greenberg is the show's equivalent of a Paul Shaffer or a Doc Severinson, as a one man band named Rusty Steel and The Steel Wheels, who ekes every ounce of glamour and excitement he can out of his very '70s sounding organ. And what I love best is that they play the show for all its worth, as though it were a real thing. Space Ghost Coast to Coast was kind of a one joke idea, even though it went on for years. But there's something about the integrity of execution on Hanging with Doctor Z. that makes me think it too could go on forever. It may be too "out there" for some people, but I can't imagine ever tiring of it. This is a show that is in love with show business.
Further, the old way of making shows seems so moribund to me -- yes, I mean SNL, and all the mainstream late night shows (my 2020 survey of them is way out of date). I find their very forms to be as creaky as the Titanic. I'm not saying every show should mimic Hanging with Doctor Z, that wouldn't make any sense. But, man, climb out of your rut! The conservatism of the format of these shows is beyond paleolithic. Some of them are literally following a 70 year old template. It's catering to the Boomers, I guess. But all I can say is, it's not what the future looks like.
I have other reasons for loving the show (and Gould) that are more subjective. He's around my age -- and guys my age were obsessed with Planet of the Apes. Poll any of us born in the mid '60s. I can't imagine any of us would shirk any opportunity to don an ape mask and horse around in just this way. Also Gould hails from my neck of the woods. His hometown of Hopedale, Mass, is just across the border from the Connecticut and Rhode Island communities where my ancestors have lived for centuries. My (7th) grandfather Thomas Gould (1674-1730) lived about 20 minutes south of Hopedale. I don't know if it's the same family, but even if it is, the relation would be very, very distant. It's just something I compulsively like to explore for some reason, mostly because the technology exists, and it seems to embarrass everybody, so I therefore feel obligated to do it.
Gould has been around for decades of course, usually without the ape mask. He's been doing stand-up for years and years -- you may have seen on Conan, Kimmel, Bill Maher, et al. Prior to his association with The Simpsons he was a writer and cast member on The Ben Stiller Show (1992), and did guest shots on shows like Roseanne, The Nanny, Seinfeld, Ellen, et al. He also created the IFC show Stan Against Evil (2016-18) which starred John C. McGinley as a retired sheriff battling supernatural forces in his New England town, which I am very much committed to investigating for obvious reasons.
Keep up with Dana Gould here. He has a store! There is a Dan Gould STORE!
For more about show biz history consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcoming Electric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.
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