CLICKING GLICK, KING

I wanted so much to pronounce CNN's 'Larry King Live' as part of the Crossover of the Week for May 1st - 7th. I wanted it so badly I could taste it.

And it tasted good. It tasted of cream-filled doughnuts and spiced gumdrops.

That's because on Cinco de Mayo, the guest host was roly-poly Jiminy Glick, star of his own show on Comedy Central, 'Prime Time Glick'.

It would have been so perfect. Jiminy turned the tables and probed Larry King on his home turf. (That sounds so wrong.... I'm leaving it in!) Plus he did the Q&A with other CNN personalities like Anderson Cooper and Nancy Grace which would offer up links to their own CNN series as well.

Other guests were Shaun King, Larry's lovely (and latest) wife, James Van Praagh the medium and Denise Austin the fitness guru; both of whom have made their presences known in the TV Universe. Van Praagh even had his life story depicted in a TV movie starring Ted Danson. [And Van Praagh came off the better for the re-enactment.]

Like I said, it would have been perfect. It didn't matter that they showed clips of the new movie about Jiminy Glick. Kept within the "reality" of Toobworld, it just looked like a documentary on his life and "work" in show business.

But that grape juice swilling, garlic-breathing senior citizen Larry bleeped it all up right off the bat by saying that Glick was just a character played by Martin Short. And to make it worse, (Toobworld being such a visual medium) they actually showed Short getting made up with loads of latex to transform into Glick.

So the illusion was ruined.

Within the body of the show, the crossover still works. Martin Short never broke character and neither did his guests.

When he's appeared on other venues in the past - 'Hollywood Squares' and the Labor Day Telethon, for example, - he was always Jiminy Glick, never Martin Short.

But I suppose CNN had to protect its news cred.

You know, it's too bad Jiminy Glick didn't do this schtick on FOX News.

I'd much rather see the human beanbag Glick stick it to those gas-bags!

BCnU!
Tele-Toby