In light of recent history, it was at least a little bit surprising that Tom Arnold showed up to be questioned by more than a hundred television critics this week.
Arnold and his wife, Roseanne, achieved an even higher degree of notoriety than they held before when Roseanne faxed obscene rebuttals to three critics whose reviews of Tom's "The Jackie Thomas Show" she didn't like.But Arnold was well-prepared for his encounter with the critics and had a quick answer when asked if TV critics are out of touch with the American public.
"I think that television critics are great, buddy," he said to a good bit of laughter. "I'm defending you guys every day at home, I'll tell you that right now."
(While that'a a bit far-fetched, just last week on PBS's "Charlie Rose" show, Tom actually contradicted Roseanne, allowing as how she's gotten reams of good press while his wife insisted no one has ever written a nice word about her.)
Arnold also thanked the assembled critics, saying that by his publicist's calculations 90 percent of the reviews for "The Jackie Thomas Show" were favorable - or at least not terribly unfavorable.
"Now you hear about the three other reviews a lot because those are more interesting," he said. "Are the critics out of touch? Some are, some aren't. You know, there's good critics and there's not-so-good critics. You guys know that. But it's not a personal thing."
But those faxes were extremely personal - and not something Arnold was backing away from.
"It was great, wasn't it?" he asked. "I loved it."
He also made it clear that his idea of a good critic is one who likes his show, while a bad critic is one who does not. With the apparent exception of Ray Richmond of the Los Angeles Daily News, who liked the show but still got a fax.
"Nobody knew who Ray Richmond was until he got the fax," Arnold said. "This guy is so damn happy. He's like our groupie now. This guy's got it framed on his wall. I mean, it's great.
"I thought (the fax) was funny and brilliant. And where are you guys' sense of humors, anyway?"
Arnold was actually at his best throughout much of the press conference. He managed to deflect many of the questions with humor and was really funnier than he's ever been on television.
Not that the encounter was without its rather prickly exchanges - as when Arnold asserted that "Jackie Thomas" is "ground-breaking" television but wouldn't say how despite repeated attempts to get an answer by one critic.
Critic: "In what way is it a groundbreaking show?"
Arnold: "You watch it and you tell me, because that's your job."
Critic: "Well, but you know."
Arnold: "Well, I'm not going to do your job for you."
Critic: "That's not my job."
Arnold: "Listen, I'll produce the show and it'll be ground-breaking, and I'll star in it and it'll be groundbreaking. And then you tell me how."
Critic: "My job is to see if you're doing what you set out to do. And I don't know how I'm going to judge that if I don't know what you're setting out to do to be ground-breaking."
Arnold: "Ma'am, are you a critic?"
Critic: "Yes."
Arnold: "Well, that's how you judge it! You judge it from the seven years you went to college to become a critic! You tell me."
She never did get an answer to her rather innocuous question.
While both Tom and Roseanne have - in faxes and otherwise - expressed no little displeasure at critics for observing that Tom's success has come as a result of his marriage, Tom didn't dispute that during the press conference.
"I'm not an idiot!," he said. "To say that I rode on my wife's coattails - if that's the term you want to use - that's fine with me. Yeah, yeah. Because of her power we do the ("Jackie Thomas") show. I'm not denying any of that.
"But what is the deal? Who could she have married? Cosby?"
And Arnold expressed plenty of confidence in his own abilities.
"You tell me the `Roseanne' show is not better since I became executive producer. And it's not better since I became a writer. I'm telling you, every job I've gotten, I have come up to it," he said.
"And I feel really lucky. And, yes, she has gotten me the jobs. But, you know, what do you want me to do?"
One thing that has to be said is that Tom is extremely supportive of Roseanne and vice-versa. During Tom's press conference - at which he appeared to become increasingly aggravated - Rose-anne sat in the back of the room.
At one point, Tom Arnold called out, "Oh, honey! Can you help me out here!" - again while dealing with an innocuous question.
The ABC public relations people quickly cut off the news conference and hustled Roseanne out of the room. A group of critics caught up with her, however, and while she appeared more than a bit uncomfortable she did answer a few questions quite politely.
"Oh, I agree with my husband," she said more than once. "I do everything my husband tells me."
Soon, she was calling for him and humorously demanding that he break free from the critics who were surrounding him with followup questions.
Despite her apparent discomfort in that setting, Tom said, "Rosie is having the most fun she's ever had in her whole life. She's physically, spiritually doing great. And it's great to be around her. And I love it."
And he maintained that both Arnolds will be around for some time to come.
"Four years ago, when Rosie and I first got together, we had tattoos and we mooned at the World Series," Arnold said. "And people said, `You know what? That is it.' I read in all the papers, `They're tired of Roseanne, she has gone too far this time.'
"Then the next year, she sang the national anthem, which was great. They said, `That is it! She has gone too far!'
"That was 2 1/2 years ago. You see where the show is in the ratings. . . . Rosie's fans, the people that enjoy the show, I believe they respect her for being herself, too. I know that's true."
Pressed to express his disagreements with the critics, Arnold had no problem.
"The only thing I mind . . . is when someone says, `This man has no talent.' Now that . . . tells me that somebody is not doing the job, to say I have no talent. And I can deal with it if that's your opinion. But it makes you look pretty stupid."
Despite his rather successful session, indications are that Arnold didn't change many minds.
"I thought he did a real good job handling himself in there," one critic was overheard to say after the press conference. "But I still don't think he has any talent."