You really don't need to know 'Jack'

You really don't
need to know 'Jack'

Goofy isn't good enough, even with Reubens

By Andrew Wallenstein

    First there was Regis, who employed the game show host's traditional smiley-faced politesse to great success on ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
    To steal some of ABC's thunder, competing networks knew they had to imitate without duplicating, so the host would have to be different.
    Then came Anne Robinson, who NBC shrewdly cast as the shrew presiding over "Weakest Link," turning the conventional notion of the game show host on its Brylcreme-coated head.
    After all, why kiss the contestant's ass when it would be more entertaining to kick it?
    But ABC wasn't content to let the evolution of primetime quiz host go from nice to nasty; the network had to introduce nutty "You Don't Know Jack" (Wednesdays, 8:30-9 p.m. ET, began June 20th), which re-imagines the host as a certifiable loon, winking at his predecessors by spoofing them.
    If any Brylcreme was used, it was being snorted.
    Introducing "Troy Stevens," the alter ego of "Jack" host Paul Reubens. He cuts quite a strange figure in his Beatles haircut and flyaway collar, and the camera zooms in for an extreme closeup of his face every 30 seconds.
    Add wild on-screen graphics and a studio audience that throws roses at the contestants, and you get a game show with a truly off-kilter sensibility.
    Oh, and did I mention the mariachi band that played during the "Final Jeopardy"-ish question at the end?
    Credit "Jack" with the ingenuity of casting Reubens as its host.
    Conceptually, it seemed like a masterstroke: Who better than the man who was Pee-wee Herman to act genuinely weird and yet not scare people away?
   The answer is anybody, just about anybody.
   The humor and quirkiness on "Jack" is so painfully forced that the game show seems even more stilted than the comparatively staid "Millionaire." Stevens/Reubens tosses off dumb lines with alarming frequency and rarely gets a laugh.
    Pointing to the grand-prize automobile and the Vanna White stand-in who's beside it, he cracks, "That's my favorite model. And I like the car, too."
    Ouch.
    Reubens really needs to think about firing his agent. After that ridiculous porn-theater arrest, his career looked to be over. But he rebounded nicely with memorable parts in shows like "Murphy Brown" and movies like "Blow."
    But "Jack" is just a futile attempt to squeeze him into a part he couldn't seem less enthusiastic or prepared to play. ABC would have been better off just letting him resurrect the Pee-wee character and having him host the show.
    Just think back to the brilliance that was "Pee-wee's Playhouse," a show that managed to achieve that rare balance of childlike wonder and oddball humor.
    "Jack" doesn't come close to reviving its sensibility, and the flop sweat from the attempt stinks up the studio.

-Andrew Wallenstein is the television critic for Media Life.

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