Brian Damage
01-01-2008, 08:49 PM
TORONTO - You'll have to forgive Tom Green for having crumbs, dog fur or feathers on the set of his new late-night TV talk show, "Tom Green's House Tonight," which debuts next month.
The Ottawa-raised comedian will be broadcasting the show live from his living room in his Los Angeles home, the same setting used for his online show, "Tom Green Live," that's been on www.tomgreen.com for a year and a half.
Green can turn on the studio set with the flip of a switch and he's been known to go live on the Internet at odd hours of the day and night to take calls from anyone watching. He'll even have a midnight snack on camera at his desk with his pets - two Siberian huskies, Annie and Steve, and his green-winged macaw, Rex Murphy.
"I'll just go on in the middle of the night and eat a chicken sandwich or something like that," Green says from his home that's a mess of cables and equipment ahead of the TV show launch on the Comedy Network on Jan. 7. The show will also be syndicated to his website.
"I've probably done about 50 episodes with my dog, just me and the dog sitting there. One dog, Steve, really likes being on the show. She'll jump up on the guest's chair and when I take calls, she sits there and looks at the phone and really seems to like it."
Green, of course, won't be able to do impromptu broadcasts of "Tom Green's House Tonight," but like the online show, it will involve intimate and interactive chats with celebrity guests. Viewers will be able to phone in or e-mail questions and communicate with guests live via webcam or camera phone. Green says his furry and feathered friends will also make cameos.
Green works with a small staff that includes a hand-held camera operator, a director and an audio expert, but he does all the research himself and doesn't do pre-interviews.
"Most talk shows now are pretty pre-scripted - you know, you do a pre-interview and by the time you're sitting there you're kind of trying to remember what your answer is supposed to be, whereas here that's not really the case," says Green, whose film credits include "Charlie's Angels," "Stealing Harvard" and "Road Trip."
Green isn't exactly a shrinking violet when it comes to allowing cameras into his personal space.
As fans of "The Tom Green Show" will recall, the wacky actor is very comfortable doing zany things for viewers' enjoyment, including barging into his parents' bedroom with video cameras at 3 o'clock in the morning.
Privacy is a rare commodity in show business, he notes.
"Life tends to be like that anyway in this kind of business. You can never really get away from it," says Green, who started "The Tom Green Show" at a community television station in Ottawa in 1994 before it moved to the Comedy Network and MTV.
Green doesn't mind using his home as a TV set.
"It actually just saves me time, you know. I don't have to be stuck in traffic and I actually really like it a lot. It really does, I think, have a positive effect on the show too because people are coming up to my house and more of a rapport gets created than if it's in the studio."
Green's latest project comes after his successful battle with testicular cancer and his divorce from actor Drew Barrymore following just six months of marriage in 2001.
He says he's been working out, eating more vegetables, drinking more water and reading the book "The Secret," which encourages positive thinking.
"I want to be able to have the kind of energy to do the goofy show that we're intending to do every night, five nights a week, an hour a night, so that's something that I'm just trying to get ready for," says the 36-year-old.
"It's like Rocky, you know, it's like that. You've got to prepare for the big fight."
http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2007/12/28/4743843-cp.html
The Ottawa-raised comedian will be broadcasting the show live from his living room in his Los Angeles home, the same setting used for his online show, "Tom Green Live," that's been on www.tomgreen.com for a year and a half.
Green can turn on the studio set with the flip of a switch and he's been known to go live on the Internet at odd hours of the day and night to take calls from anyone watching. He'll even have a midnight snack on camera at his desk with his pets - two Siberian huskies, Annie and Steve, and his green-winged macaw, Rex Murphy.
"I'll just go on in the middle of the night and eat a chicken sandwich or something like that," Green says from his home that's a mess of cables and equipment ahead of the TV show launch on the Comedy Network on Jan. 7. The show will also be syndicated to his website.
"I've probably done about 50 episodes with my dog, just me and the dog sitting there. One dog, Steve, really likes being on the show. She'll jump up on the guest's chair and when I take calls, she sits there and looks at the phone and really seems to like it."
Green, of course, won't be able to do impromptu broadcasts of "Tom Green's House Tonight," but like the online show, it will involve intimate and interactive chats with celebrity guests. Viewers will be able to phone in or e-mail questions and communicate with guests live via webcam or camera phone. Green says his furry and feathered friends will also make cameos.
Green works with a small staff that includes a hand-held camera operator, a director and an audio expert, but he does all the research himself and doesn't do pre-interviews.
"Most talk shows now are pretty pre-scripted - you know, you do a pre-interview and by the time you're sitting there you're kind of trying to remember what your answer is supposed to be, whereas here that's not really the case," says Green, whose film credits include "Charlie's Angels," "Stealing Harvard" and "Road Trip."
Green isn't exactly a shrinking violet when it comes to allowing cameras into his personal space.
As fans of "The Tom Green Show" will recall, the wacky actor is very comfortable doing zany things for viewers' enjoyment, including barging into his parents' bedroom with video cameras at 3 o'clock in the morning.
Privacy is a rare commodity in show business, he notes.
"Life tends to be like that anyway in this kind of business. You can never really get away from it," says Green, who started "The Tom Green Show" at a community television station in Ottawa in 1994 before it moved to the Comedy Network and MTV.
Green doesn't mind using his home as a TV set.
"It actually just saves me time, you know. I don't have to be stuck in traffic and I actually really like it a lot. It really does, I think, have a positive effect on the show too because people are coming up to my house and more of a rapport gets created than if it's in the studio."
Green's latest project comes after his successful battle with testicular cancer and his divorce from actor Drew Barrymore following just six months of marriage in 2001.
He says he's been working out, eating more vegetables, drinking more water and reading the book "The Secret," which encourages positive thinking.
"I want to be able to have the kind of energy to do the goofy show that we're intending to do every night, five nights a week, an hour a night, so that's something that I'm just trying to get ready for," says the 36-year-old.
"It's like Rocky, you know, it's like that. You've got to prepare for the big fight."
http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2007/12/28/4743843-cp.html