PASADENA, Calif. -- Hal Sparks, the new host of the E! network's highest-rated show, "Talk Soup," is not only trying to fill one pair of big shoes but two. He's not only succeeding the popular John Henson, but he's living in the shadow of the show's original host, Greg Kinnear.
Henson left after 4 1/2 years for a development deal with ABC. Kinnear left, first for a spot as host of NBC's "Later" and then for a burgeoning film career.As for Sparks, well, he's just happy to be here right now. And he seems a very good fit for "Talk Soup," which airs weeknights at 9 p.m. and at various times on the weekends on the E! cable network.
"I'm Hal Sparks, and there is no way that I could be John Henson or Greg Kinnear," he said. "And my stamp on the show is being myself, and from that standpoint, I feel comfortable. And if people like it, great. If they don't, that's OK, too. But I will bring me to the show, and that will be a big change, actually."
The show operates from a fairly simple premise. It airs clips of various talk shows -- ranging from "Jerry Springer" to "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" -- and the host then comments humorously upon them. Or so is the hope.
And the focus of the comedy on "Talk Soup" is undergoing some changes -- changes that Sparks hopes will make various shows feel more comfortable about providing clips. (Shows like "Oprah" stopped giving "Talk Soup" clips some years ago because they felt that Henson's humor was biting too hard those hands that fed him.)
"John and I have a very different sense of humor," Sparks said. "And the writers developed a voice for him on the show that was more kind of bratty, sarcastic-y guy kind of thing. I'm more of a goof, and a lot of the humor will be pointed more back at me than a reflection of the people in the clips or the issues in the clips.
"I think that's really important, because to be frank, some of the talk shows haven't felt safe giving clips on certain things because they're worried someone's going to be really taken aback by how we riff on it. I think that's going to shift, and I think that people will be a lot more comfortable."
And the show is indeed somewhat different since Sparks took over earlier this summer. A clip from another show often serves as the jumping off point for a sketch featuring the new host and other members of the "Talk Soup" team instead of just a nasty crack.
Sparks knows he isn't going to instantly win over all the show's fans, particularly not the ones who were attached to his predecessors.
"John has a lot of really strong fans, and they've been with him through this show," Sparks said. "And then there are a lot of fans who were fans of Greg, and they carried on. They could either take or leave John, but they enjoyed the show. . . . So there's this huge dichotomy of fans. Either they love John and they miss him, and that's fantastic. And there are other people who are, like, 'Well, I love Greg and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the show.' Either way, the response has been extraordinarily positive."
The new host plans to do a lot more than just host, however.
"My goal . . . is to be much more of a writer -- an involved writer, in the show. Not only in jokes, but in sketches," Sparks said. "And involved in the production aspect of those things. So I'm putting a lot of extra time in, especially in the start-up element of it."
Not that he's complaining.
"It's a lot of work, and I like it that way," he said. "I'm a writer and a comedian. That's what I do. So being able to do comedy 12 hours a day for pay is kind of a wonderful thing."
And this is a job he's actually pursued for half a decade.
"I've been auditioning for five years," Sparks said. "I first came into E! before John got the job, and I had hair down to my butt and it just sort of wasn't the E! image. They kept bringing me in to possibly guest host -- never really got past the executive bar or whatever the glass ceiling was, which I was unaware of as a comic.
"I've spent the last two years of my life kind of getting my act together, literally and figuratively. . . . I had to straighten up a lot. I had to get myself in better physical shape, and I had to get myself in a better mental state, and then it kind of happened."
And, he said, there's a simple reason he wanted the job so badly.
"Frankly, the creative freedom. I've never seen a show where they give you this much leeway to just go off," Sparks said.
He did, however, insist that he isn't looking to make "Talk Soup" into "his" show.
"I don't know that it ever will, because it's a team," Sparks said. "And to say it's 'my show' at any point would take the thunder from a very talented group of writers and a talented group of producers that have created something that really is a phenomenon.
"Whoever replaces me will also deal with the fact that these people are very good."
Not that he's planning on being replaced anytime soon. Sparks signed a four-year contract to host the show.
"I've been on the job two weeks and everybody's already going, 'It's such a great stepping stone!' " Sparks said. "I'm, like, 'puh-lease, would you let me do the work before I move on to bigger and better things?' This is the bigger and the better as far as I'm concerned."
YOU'RE KIDDING: Although the name Hal Sparks seems so tailor-made for TV that it couldn't possibly be real, the young man whose name it is insists it's the one he was born with.
"We were shocked as well," said E! President Fran Shea.
BAD B-MOVIE: Sparks' somewhat checkered career includes a number of acting credits, including a little flick called "Chopper Chicks," in which he played "a blind orphan named Lance who carries an Uzi."
It was not his proudest moment, despite the company he was keeping.
"That was my first co-starring role with an Academy Award winner. Billy Bob Thornton is in that film," Sparks said. "It was so bad, it was the one that drove him to do 'Sling Blade.' "
Not only did Sparks co-star with Thornton, but he can easily relate to the actor's feelings about his career at that time.
"You know how he talks about sitting in a chair, looking in the mirror going, 'I'm a B-movie actor and my life is a nightmare and I have to do something better or I'm going to live like this for the rest of my life'?" Sparks said. "I was two chairs down from him when that epiphany occurred, working for less money and having fewer lines."