Writers’ strike cuts episodes of Caliendo’s “Frank TV”

“Frank TV,” the new TBS late night program featuring the immense talents of comedian and impressionist Frank Caliendo has been cut from eight episodes to five due to the ongoing television writers’ strike.

“I was supposed to Letterman and Conan in the next couple of weeks, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen with all of that because of the strike,” says Caliendo, who will continue his always terrific picks segments on Fox’s “NFL Sunday” pregame show.

“The strike did cut our episodes down to five instead of the eight that (TBS) ordered, so we have been greatly affected.” Last Monday, about 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike largely over issues related to new media fees.

Despite the strike, “Frank TV” promises to be a huge success, mainly because of the incredible talents of its star. Says Caliendo, “The show is a sketch show based on my standup.

“I’ll be setting up sketches with some background for the audience and sometimes making an observation about an actor, and then showing how that observation can be applied in a situation. For example, Al Pacino always yells in movies, so it would be great to see what he would do if he had to play a librarian.”

“Frank TV” premieres Tuesday, November 20, at 11:00 p.m. on TBS. On Friday, November 16 at 10:00 p.m., TBS will air a one-hour stand-up special “Frank Caliendo: All Over The Place” from Las Vegas.

A veteran standup comic, Caliendo joined the cast of Fox’s “MADtv” in 2001 and has appeared on Comedy Central, “The View” and a host of late night talk shows. Still, it is his work on Fox’s NFL pregame fare that has catapulted the 33 year-old comedian to comedic fame. His John Madden impression, among others, has become a classic. Caliendo will continue his Fox work through the 2008 season.

“Fox has brought me to another level in the entertainment industry,” explains Caliendo. “Just being associated with guys like Terry (Bradshaw), Howie (Long) and Jimmy (Johnson) has made my name grow.”

Whether it’s a pro like Caliendo or your buddy at the local tavern, the ability to do impressions continues to amuse and amaze audiences. So, is it a natural gift, the result of a good ear, or a product of endless practice?

Caliendo responds, “Some of it is natural and there’s a lot of practice that goes into it as well. There’s no set process. For me, it’s lots of observation and just reacting and mimicking. When I look at someone, it’s almost like I’m looking in a mirror and doing the same thing the other person is doing. I hear things and see things that the average person might miss. My brain just breaks people down.”

The process of breaking down a voice may or may not lead to success. “It’s always different,” says Caliendo, who was born in Chicago and raised in Milwaukee. “The keys are the pitch of the voice, cadence and the person’s dialect. If you get one of those, people probably might start to recognize it. If you get two, lots of people will probably get it, and if you hit all three, that’s when you have a dead on impression.”

Caliendo learned from an impressive host of comedic influences. “I loved Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman,” he relates. “I’m a huge Jim Carrey fan, but I loved Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters the most as a kid. I love the tangents they went on. That was my style of humor, and I just used the impressions the same way they did kooky characters.”

Caliendo’s most “dead on” impression is John Madden, the famed NBC “Sunday Night Football” broadcaster. It is right up there in the pantheon of great impressions with Billy Crystal’s Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dana Carvey’s George Bush, Sr.

A friend of mine, Phil Tag, told me that I should do it years and years ago. I stupidly said, ‘Where will that get me?’ I did work on it and got it. I try to do it less on TV nowadays, but people in TV, like David Letterman, ask me to do it more and more. It’s still fun for me and people recognize me because of it, so I think that’s pretty cool.”

The best part of Caliendo’s Madden impression is his relentless references to a certain Packers’ quarterback with whom the real Madden is enamored. “Brett Favre is the most fun to say. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s because he says it so much in real life, but it’s just the perfect sounding name for Madden to say.”

TBS promoted the heck out of “Frank TV” during its MLB postseason with quick promos and a tour de force of impressions. It is clear that John Madden is not the lone horse in Caliendo’s sports stable. He states, “I do Bill Walton, Marv Albert, Charles Barkley and Jim Rome. Sports has always been a big part of my life.

“My dad was a minor league infielder with the White Sox in the 1960s and I loved playing sports as a kid. We won the AAU National 14 and under Baseball Championships in 1988. I just never had the arm to go on to the next level. I was going to play in college (at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), but decided that it would be better for me to study instead.”

Late night shows like “MADtv” allow Caliendo to push the comedic envelope. His work on Fox is a bit more limited. “It’s fairly strict,” says Caliendo, who grew up a Brewers, Packers and Bears fan.

“We’re on Sunday mornings, so we have to be careful. We can make fun of the studio guys pretty much any way we want. We just don’t like to mess with their families, other than Terry’s ex-wives. It’s silly humor, not meant in a mean way at all.”

Like it or not, we live in a society of racial tension. One of Caliendo’s latest impressions is of ex-NBA star and TNT analyst Charles Barkley. Given these seemingly sensitive times in which we live, is Caliendo afraid of backlash from doing an impression of someone from a different ethnic or racial background?

“I’m scared to death,” he replies. “But I don’t do it to be negative. I did Barkley on the show, and I did JB (ex-Fox and current CBS NFL studio host James Brown). Some people get mad, but JB liked it and even gave me the permission to do it.

“I think of people as being equal, even though I understand there’s history that limits what I would ever do. I’m very careful. It’s not a race thing when I do a character who isn’t white. It’s about that specific person. They do Jesse Jackson with Darrell Hammond over at SNL (NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”) and nobody says anything. It’s really about being respectful.”

When “Frank TV” premieres on November 20 at 11:00 p.m. on TBS, viewers can look forward to hilarious impressions and comedic takes on some of Caliendo’s favorite characters including Pacino, Robin Williams, President Bush and Barkley. TBS will continue to pump up the program using show segments. Check out clips at frankcaliendo.com and TBS.com.

Says Caliendo, “They’ll probably use some stuff from the show because there is no new stuff being shot for promos. They’re going to do some sneak peaks pretty soon, which should be cool. I’ll be all over the radio in the next couple weeks.”