NBC programmers liked "The Naked Truth" so much when it was on ABC last season, they snatched it away for their own schedule.
Then the folks at NBC proceeded to make so many changes that the show is almost unrecognizable.Oh, series star Tea Leoni and most the cast are still there. And the stories center on their workplace, a supermarket tabloid named the Comet.
But the wonderful, outrageous and decidedly off-kilter sense of humor that permeated "The Naked Truth" when it was on ABC has been somehow homogenized by the "Must-See TV" machine at NBC. This is a much more pedestrian sitcom than it used to be.
"We really set out just to ground the show a little bit. Make it a little bit more relatable," said executive producer Jay Daniel. "We thought we had inherited a wonderful ensemble cast and it would be great to see how they relate to each other as characters.
"The show, last year, got to be a little bit about the tabloid stories and guest stars coming in, and we really didn't get a chance to settle in to get to know this cast."
The fact is, the new producers had some work to do. "The Naked Truth" needed some fixing. It was very inconsistent in its first season - some episodes were great, some were lousy. Parts of some episodes were great, other parts of the same episodes were lousy.
And Chris Thompson, the show's creator and executive producer last season, often found it difficult to know when the show was going too far into tastelessness and vulgarity - a problem NBC had promised to fix.
"We probably won't go quite as far out as the previous incarnation of the show did, but we will push the envelope a bit," Daniel said.
The biggest change viewers will see on-air is the addition of George Wendt ("Cheers") as the Comet's new owner and boss. (His performance in tonight's episode is wooden and lethargic.) But the real changes were behind the scenes, where Thompson was replaced by executive producers Daniel, Maya Forbes and John Riggi.
Various returning characters have been shifted to new positions at the Comet. Even Leoni's character, Nora, is being shifted from being a photographer to being the tab-loid's advice columnist.
It's all part of that plan to make the characters more "relatable."
"I think we're a better fit here," Leoni said. "Surely, a much better fit with the NBC lineup. So I feel good."
Co-star Holland Taylor said the biggest thing about the network switch was that "We got that time slot!" - between megahits "Seinfeld" and "ER." She added that she didn't think "The Naked Truth" fit between "Grace Under Fire" and "PrimeTime Live" on ABC's Wednesday lineup. "It never seemed to really gel. And certainly we've gotten a gorgeous shot now, with a sophisticated audience."
Words like "young" and "cosmopolitan" and "smart" and "sophisticated" were frequently bandied about to describe the new version of "The Naked Truth." But a case could be made that the old version fit the time slot even better.
"A lot of people found it charming and funny," Daniel said. "I found it the same in many instances. I mean, I enjoyed the show in its previous incarnation as well.
"But I think that if you want an audience to stick around for the long run, you have to get to know the core group of people that is this family that you come back, week to week, to visit with.
"And if the show failed on any level, it failed on getting to know the relationships of the various characters. That was our primary goal."
What it comes down to is this - the producers and writers of "The Naked Truth" are incapable of doing outrageous without doing dirty. They're certainly not alone in that. It's a real problem with television comedy in general.
In toning down the somewhat smutty content of the show, they've also taken out the off-the-wall quality that was the show's strongest asset.
What remains is a much more pedestrian, predictable half hour. It's not a bad half hour of TV - and it's certainly better than "Suddenly Susan," the show it's replacing - but there's nothing special in "The Naked Truth" anymore.
Taylor tried to pass off any problems in the new version of "The Naked Truth" as growing pains. "It isn't the same show. So we're just doing it now," she said. "And it's very challenging."
(Taylor actually fares the worst in the new version. Her character was a tough, overbearing boss - a great role - but she is now the tabloid's gossip columnist and seems to have lost both her power and her bite.)
Critics were repeatedly told that upcoming episodes would be better - but, of course, there's no way to know if that's true or not.
And even that fabulous time slot - after the No. 2 show on TV and before the No. 1 show - can be sort of a double-edged sword. Yes, the ratings will be higher. But much more is expected in terms of those numbers and retaining the viewers who watch "Seinfeld."
"It's scary, but the great thing is you're going to get sampled," Daniel said. "And if we do our job right, hopefully the `Seinfeld' audience will stick with us. And if we don't, we don't deserve to be there."
STARTING OVER: George Wendt will perhaps always be best known for those 11 years he spent sitting on a barstool on "Cheers." And, while this isn't his first foray back into the sitcom world since then - he had his own show, which bombed, on CBS - he still finds it a bit odd to be on "The Naked Truth."
"It's sort of like dating again after you've been married for a long time and you're suddenly a widower or something," Wendt said. "And all of a sudden you're at a singles bar. . . . So it's not entirely comfortable. But we're all working at it."
MOVIES VS. TV: If doing another sitcom after "Cheers" is somewhat uncomfortable for Wendt, it begs the question - why do it at all?
"It's a really good way to work," he said. "I don't think movies have comedy right. I don't think they get it. I don't think it works. Movie comedies are just bad."
And Wendt said that over the past few months, he's watched a lot of different TV comedies.
"By way of doing a little bit of homework, I've been watching more sitcoms than I usually do. And there's so much funny stuff out there - certainly better than movie comedies. And so it's a better way to work than the movies for comedy.
"And theater is probably the most ideal way to work, but it's just not as remunerative as it could be."
RAG DOLL: Tea Leoni's show may not be a big hit with the critics right now, but she remains very popular. The general consensus is that Leoni is a big star waiting to happen, what with her combination of great looks and ability to do physical comedy.
Leoni herself says she doesn't understand the plaudits she receives for her physical comedy abilities, and it is a bit difficult to quantify. Her co-star, Holland Taylor, did a great job of verbalizing just what Leoni's charms are.
"She's a bit of a rag doll," Taylor said. "And when someone who is as elegant and pretty and sort of bright as that also tumbles around and treats furniture in any old way and sits sideways in chairs and just doesn't treat the world conventionally, like most of us politely do - I think that is just fine and appealing."