LOS ANGELES — Anytime TV critics interview one of the cast members of "Seinfeld" about his or her latest project, there's a question hovering above everyone's head. Sometimes it's asked directly, sometimes indirectly, but it's always there.
Can you overcome the "Seinfeld" curse?
Is it a fair question? Maybe not. Given the low percentage of new shows that actually become hits, statistically it's not necessarily a surprise that all three of Jerry Seinfeld's supporting-cast members have failed on shows of their own.
But "The Michael Richards Show" was not just a bomb, it was a terrible show. As was Jason Alexander's "Bob Patterson."
Julia Louis-Dreyfus' "Watching Ellie" was less of a critical disaster but was hardly a critical triumph. And it, too, quickly failed in the ratings.
And now Alexander is trying again. He's starring in the new CBS sitcom "Listen Up," which premieres Monday at 7:30 p.m. on Ch. 2. And he's carrying with him whatever pressure remains from having been on the fabulously successful "Seinfeld."
"I'm too stupid to know that because I just don't take that pressure in," Alexander said. "I can only do what we do. So we do the show. We work as hard as we can. We do the best job we know how to do. We put it out there.
"And if all the elements line up, if we're in the right place at the right time with the right audience and the right writers and the right cast — which we think we have — we know there's an audience for this kind of show out there. And it has all felt very good up to this point."
If nothing else, it's certainly a departure from the character he played on "Seinfeld." His character on "Listen Up" is based on Washington Post columnist/ESPN personality Tony Kornheiser — he plays Tony Kleinman, the married father of two who writes a newspaper column and hosts an irreverent sports show on a semi-fictional all-sports channel.
He's loud and opinionated, but the emphasis in the show is not the career but the family. Yes, the guy best known as George Costanza is playing a harried dad in a family sitcom.
It's sort of the ultimate cliche of a sitcom dad — a guy who's respected at work and disrespected at home by his kids.
"When I met with (CBS chieftain) Les Moonves and we talked about what kind of things we'd like to do, I was pretty open," Alexander said. "One of the lessons I learned from 'Bob Patterson' is I don't know that much. So I said to Les, 'What do you think you'd like me to do?' And he said, 'Well, it's funny you should say that because I think I have a script — a show — that would really be a great match.' "
Alexander said he liked the script "immediately." That he "fell in love" with Kornheiser's book of collected columns. That he met with the producers and thought the show "had wonderful potential."
The cast includes Malcolm-Jamal Warner ("The Cosby Show") as Tony's on-air partner and buddy, Bernie Widmer; Wendy Makkena as his tolerant wife, Dana; Daniella Monet as his bright, loud, soccer-playing, 14-year-old daughter, Megan; and Will Rothhaar as his quiet, 15-year-old, golf-prodigy son, Mickey.
With Warner in the cast, "Listen Up" has two veterans of incredibly successful sitcoms on board.
"We both share the same experience in being in long-running series," Warner said. "And I think there's a commonality that kind of sparked when we first looked at each other."
And they share post-hit sitcom struggles. Warner's sitcom "Here and Now" lasted less than half a season; low-rated "Malcolm and Eddie" limped along on UPN for four seasons.
And neither he nor Alexander is buying that whole curse thing.
"I've never carried any kind of expectation that anything else I do is going to do what the 'Cosby' phenomenon did," Warner said. "I mean, Mr. Cosby can't even repeat that himself."
And Alexander thinks expectations have just been too high.
" 'Seinfeld,' as a TV show, was a phenomenon," Alexander said. "I don't know how you create a phenomenon."
And the curse is the creation of "the critical community . . . that whatever we do have that same intensity to it to become a phenomenon. And I don't know how any of us could possibly live up to that."
WELL, IT'S NOT AWFUL: To say that "Listen Up" is the best post-"Seinfeld" sitcom by a member of that show's cast is indeed faint praise, given how lousy those show were. But it is true.
(Sorry, Jason, but we're not necessarily expecting another phenomenon from you, Richards or Louis-Dreyfus. But it would have been nice if your previous post-"Seinfeld" efforts had been something more than dreadful.)
And, frankly, there are a lot of sitcoms on TV now (and new ones coming this fall) that are worse than "Listen Up."
Monday's pilot episode does have some very funny moments — almost all of them involving Tony (Alexander) and his 14-year-old daughter (Monet). And, from personal experience with teenage daughters, I can tell you that they ring true.
(Although I've never embarrassed my children in my columns the way Tony embarrasses his children. Well, at least not as badly as he does.)
It would be nice, however, if Tony were allowed to be a little less manic. Listening to Alexander scream his lines gets old before the end of the pilot episode, which doesn't bode well for a show they're hoping will be on every week for years.
All that aside, "Listen Up" just might be around for several years. It's certainly looks like it's better than the show it's replacing on CBS's Monday-night lineup, the lamentably terrible "Yes, Dear."
Plus, landing the time slot between "Still Standing" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" can only help. If nothing else, the show should get some time to develop. And, hopefully, improve.
And any degree of success might put to rest all those stories about the "Seinfeld" curse.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com