What I like about Bonnie

Now when I saw her make her many appearances with Dave, I had the feeling that Bonnie Hunt might make a good talk show host.  But there are the painful memories of the last time a gifted comic actress who got her legs in Chicago was given a daytime talk show–Megan Mullally’s deer-in-headlights look giving her hack bosses at NBC Universal the excuse to try to turn her into a shorter, bisexual Ellen.  It didn’t work.

Now I didn’t think that Warner Bros. would do the same thing to Hunt–after all, they already have Ellen.  But I am surprised that they allowed her to bring her Second City buddies Don Lake and Holly Wortell to help her develop her new daytime syndicated talk show, considering that they were 0-for-3 on her attempts at prime time sitcoms (OK, so Life with Bonnie ran two seasons–that isn’t 100 episodes and syndication, though).  But darned if so far it’s working.

Monday’s show was a great example–any other neophyte talk show host would be intimidated by Cloris Leachman in full Crazy Grandma mode, but despite mock protestations Hunt knew that there was good television here and reacted to Leachman’s antics as her Players’ Workshop of Second City teachers told her to back in her improv class days, even if it was wrecking what was on her blue card.

And you have to admire a host who brings on a focus group participant who had flat out said “I don’t like Bonnie Hunt” and see if you can get her to change her mind (although one also suspects that it was pre-arranged).  Television doesn’t like to discuss its reliance on research and it’s great to see Hunt not trying to hide it.

Not that everything’s perfect yet (even if Pixar does your titles, that whole “Aunt Bonnie wanted to be a talk show host” thing needs to be revised soon), but Hunt brings an old shoe familiarity and charm to a garish and loud daytime talk landscape–I hope she’s around for a while.