PASADENA, Calif. — Sandra Bernhard has earned a reputation as someone who's brash, bold, outspoken and anything but mellow. So who would've thought that as a talk-show host she'd be the biggest fawner since Arsenio Hall?
But in "The Sandra Bernhard Experience," which gets a tryout tonight through Friday at 9 on A&E, the host proves that she can gush with the best of them. Or with the worst of them.
It's pretty much gag-inspiring when she tells guest Edie Falco "You are rocking. You are beautiful."
Or when she tells Stevie Van Zandt, "I think your work and your whole point of view is so beautiful and subtle and poetic."
Again, not exactly what we might expect from brassy Bernhard.
Of course, the host is at least as in love with herself as she is with her guests. Despite the fact that she's never hosted a TV talk show before (she has done so on the Internet and on the radio), Bernhard considers herself a pro.
"Well, I feel after doing 15 years of talk shows as a guest that that's as much homework as I need. . . . I think it's really more about being verbal, being spontaneous and being able to have a conversation flow," she said in an interview with TV critics. "I don't want to over-intellectualize it either or beat it into the ground and turn it into something that's staid and stagnant. So, hopefully, all of the elements of my experience and my ability to be spontaneous will carry the show in a fresh and unique way.
"It's very easy for me to go to a Letterman show where you're on the phone for 30-45 minutes with a booker basically doing your act. And then, of course, I'll go on and totally throw it out the window and just stay in the moment, but that's the luxury of being a performer. But the average person isn't comfortable with that. It's very intimidating, and it's very stilting. I mean, it really limits what you'd like to be able to discuss. So for me, it's never been a problem, but I'd like to make it more comfortable for other people who don't have that as a natural kind of gift."
A very humble woman, obviously.
Not that there's anything wrong with liking your guests.
"I'd rather have people on who I admire and respect and, obviously, there's a lot of people like that. . . . I don't see the point of having somebody on who's politically in left field of where I'm coming from because where is there to go with that except to have a contentious interview?" Bernhard said, "which I think is ridiculous.
"Also, I think the difference between me and the average talk-show host (is) I'm willing to lay back and let somebody finish a thought," she added, "and let there be some uncomfortable spaces because that's what, to me, interesting television has always been about."
Well, there are indeed uncomfortable moments in tonight's premiere, but they don't come in moments of silence — they come when Bernhard gushes all over her guests.
And hearing her gush all over Chrissy Hynde because, in Bernhard's opinion, Hynde is so much more an artist than, say, Britney Spears (which is sort of faint praise when you think about it) is just short of nauseating.
Those of us who heard her talk about her show should, perhaps, have seen this coming. Even before she interviewed Hynde, Bernhard called her "fantastic" and said her appearance would be "totally fabulous." She said she would only have guests whom she "really admired" — people who are "wonderful talents."
"The Sandra Bernhard Experience" is an experiment for A&E — it's scheduled to air Monday-Friday this week only. Bernhard is obviously hoping that her show will last more than a week, but if it does, it will air once a week only.
"It's not going to be a nightly show," she said. "I don't want to do a strip show. I don't want to start wearing myself out and coming up with ideas that are just regurgitated, redone."
While her excessive adoration of her guest may inspire regurgitation in some viewers, the pilot doesn't make it appear that she's going to have to worry about repeating herself — the show won't last that long.
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com