Martin Short returns as talk show host on Comedy Central Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Wednesday, June 20, 2001 He's ignorant, slovenly and his vocal range spans several octaves. He's Jiminy Glick (Martin Short), an entertainment reporter who's not afraid to ask celebrities impertinent questions.

In today's premiere of "Primetime Glick" he interviews and insults Bill Maher and Steve Martin. In a future episode, he tangles with Dennis Miller as they discuss Scientology.

"I only made it 200 pages into 'Dianetics' and then my head exploded like I was in a David Cronenberg film," Miller says. "What do you make of it?"

Glick, who never allows ignorance to stop him from asking or answering a question, replies without hesitation.

"I only know that you go into a desert somewhere and there's a ship there and you sign a huge check and if you don't, they kill you," Glick says.

Short is at his best in "Primetime Glick" when he's playing the pompous title character, interviewing actors as he unwittingly mocks them (Glick calls Jerry Seinfeld "a barnacle on the hull of show business" during an interview).

The Glick character first appeared on Short's short-lived daytime talk show (1999-2000). In a phone interview this month, Short said he wanted to create a character that wouldn't be recognizable as Martin Short. His look as a bee sting victim in the movie "Pure Luck" inspired the look of swollen, prosthetically enhanced Glick. The character's disposition came from encounters with entertainment journalists.

"I've done a few junkets in my day and some of the guys always made me laugh with their ongoing attempts to be provocative and with their lack of preparation," Short said. "Basically, I've always been drawn to eccentric characters."

In January at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, Short appeared in his Glick costume and answered a half-hour of questions in character that gave a pretty clear indication of Glick's personality.

"You go with the moment," Glick said in describing his interview style.

"Sometimes you can make a mistake. I felt like a fool when I asked the late Shari Lewis if she missed Dean. Sometimes your information is simply not what it should be."

Short said working on 10 episodes of "Primetime Glick" was not appreciably better or worse than taping his talk show. He acknowledged having little pressure from Comedy Central over the content of "Primetime Glick," and he said that was also the case with his talk show.

"Even with the talk show there was no one pressuring me to be someone I wasn't," Short said. "The reality was, everyone said we want you to do a show because we think that your sensibility will appeal to people who are disenfranchised by daytime TV. They all watch judge shows because that's the only thing there is to watch. But it turned out there really was no disenfranchisement. To survive, we had to woo people from 'Judge Judy,' but they wanted to watch 'Judge Judy.'"

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