'Baisden After Dark' is light on Baisden
Saturday, June 21st 2008, 4:00 AM
BAISDEN AFTER DARK. Saturday at 11, TV One.
The striking thing about Saturday's premiere episode of Michael Baisden's television show is that it doesn't have more Michael Baisden.
That isn't automatically good or bad. But it will come as a surprise to fans of his radio show, which is heard locally on WRKS (98.7 FM) and where his ebullient personality dominates everything.
Baisden is hardly invisible on the TV show, a combination of straight entertainment and relationship talk that falls somewhere between Oprah and Letterman.
He opens with a monologue, conducts interviews and nominally moderates the featured discussions while roaming the audience with a microphone.
But a discussion called "Why Did I Get Married?," featuring music mogul Irv Gotti, focuses almost entirely on an argument between Gotti and relationship counselor Iyana Vanzant over how well Gotti has served his children by living apart from them and his wife, Debbie, for eight years.
Gotti says it's better for the kids this way: Now he and Debbie don't fight all the time.
Nonsense, says Vanzant. He's manipulating Debbie, who needs a real husband, and punishing the children by being a drop-in dad.
Baisden sidekick George Wilborn and singer/songwriter Tamia weigh in, but Baisden is almost a spectator, grinning maniacally at the argument he's provoked.
Even on the radio, Baisden's goal is to stir up as much dust as possible. This topic also revisits familiar Baisden turf: suggesting that what seems like bad behavior by men often is just the way the world works, and everyone ought to accept it and move on.
The impact here is somewhat diminished, however, by the fact that Gotti and Debbie argued this subject out at great length on his own "reality" show last year.
"Baisden After Dark" could also use a little freshening elsewhere. The classic soul group Midnight Star doesn't turn out to be a terribly interesting interview, and while Joe Clair's comedy routine has its moments, it goes on much too long.
For the show's music, Morris Day runs a nice, funky band, and Wilborn plays his position, asking man-on-the-street relationship questions like, "Is it okay to have secrets in marriage"?
Baisden understands entertainment, so it's quite likely he'll get better as he goes along. He'll tighten things up, and his own personality, which presumably is what got him the show in the first place, may be more prominent - though there's also nothing wrong with a host knowing when to let his guests keep the floor.
So far the show isn't quite the hot-and-cool grownup package Baisden envisions. But it has a shot at getting there.
see website clip --
