'The Rerun Show' revives old sitcoms -- sort of

NEW YORK -- Woody Allen famously observed that in Beverly Hills, "they don't throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows."

Harsh. Maybe even untrue. Still, the TV industry can be proud of its Waste Not, Want Not policy.

Come fall, look for a salvaged "Twilight Zone" on UPN and a reconditioned "Family Affair" on the WB. And this Thursday at 8:30 p.m., check out NBC for the premiere (if that's the word) of "The Rerun Show" -- a recycling program like none before.

Here's how it works: They dust off a script from a long-ago sitcom, then restage it line by line with a versatile, eight-member troupe of impersonators who take it even less seriously than the original cast did.

This sort of show-biz ecology was successfully employed a decade ago by "The Real Live Brady Bunch," a theatrical spoof.

Now "The Rerun Show" is re-enacting episodes of such "classic" sitcoms as "Facts of Life," "One Day at A Time," "Saved by the Bell," "Bewitched," "The Jeffersons," "What's Happening!!" and "Married ... with Children."

Every "Rerun" half-hour accommodates two sitcom episodes (each script pruned judiciously but otherwise preserved). On Thursday, catch "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Partridge Family."

"Even in Shakespeare, all sorts of license is taken in many productions," notes executive producer David Salzman. "If you can do it with Shakespeare, why can't we have fun with these shows?"

Zounds! They can!

Story, dialogue the same

For the "Diff'rent Strokes" segment, ensemble member Candy Ford, an otherwise attractive young woman, impersonates pint-sized Arnold with eerie authenticity while scuffling about on her knees.

On this episode, called "Rivals," Arnold (originally played by Gary Coleman) hopes to win the heart of his gorgeous study partner, who secretly has her sights on his big brother Willis.

The story and the dialogue are the same as when viewers first encountered them in December 1979. But in this revival's comic execution, absurdity triumphs over mawkishness. And about time, too!

Less successful is the "Partridge" episode, "Keith and Lauriebelle," where Keith (Brian Beacock) persuades his sister, Laurie (Ashley Drane), to pose as his girlfriend to make his real girlfriend jealous.

The role of little brother Danny is reclaimed by a very grown-up Danny Bonaduce, which is a funny stunt (this real-life "bad boy" isn't far removed from the fictional child he portrayed 30 years ago). But it deprives a member of the troupe from taking a whack at the character -- which probably would have been funnier.

World-class pap

Whatever episode happens to be chosen, "The Rerun Show" is funniest when able to pay backhanded tribute to that source material, while exposing it for what it is: world-class pap whose staying power defies repeated viewings and the passage of time.

"We want to be doing more than a faithful re-enactment," says Salzman, speaking from Los Angeles by car phone last week en route to an editing session. "We're adding physical comedy. We touch on the after-lives of the original cast members. We make fun of the sitcom form."

And they revel in TV's current foolishness. For instance, on an upcoming "Married ... with Children" sendup, "Rerun" players portray the dysfunctional Bundy family as a newer, even nuttier television clan: The Osbournes.

"Both families even have a teen-age daughter named Kelly," Salzman chuckles.

In case you were wondering, most scripts for "The Rerun Show" come from Columbia Tristar's overflowing treasury.

"It took us three years to convince three different studio regimes to do the series," says Salzman of "MAD TV" fame, who created it with John Davies. But now that the convincing is done, the sitcoms waiting in the archives to be spoofed could keep "The Rerun Show" running for years.

That is, if an audience is there for the first six installments, which, after this week's, will air Tuesday nights.