SHOWTIME Azaria stars in existential comedy

The show is about waking up psychologically and emotionally.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Huff, his wife and his dog are sleeping peacefully. Then the dog stirs, a security alarm goes off and Huff and Beth are suddenly wide awake, confronting the latest crisis in their lives.
This scene on a soundstage for Showtime's new series "Huff" seems an apt metaphor -- it's all about waking up psychologically and emotionally.
Premiering at 10 tonight, the show stars Hank Azaria as Dr. Craig "Huff" Huffstodt, a psychiatrist who gets a new perspective on life after a gay teenage patient commits suicide in front on him.
Believe it or not, the show's a comedy, albeit an existential one.
"I got the concept somewhere from my own personal shrink. Yes, I admit I'm in therapy," says Bob Lowry, the creator and executive producer. "The suicide in Act One is Huff's wake-up call, if you will, which triggers him to not only be reflective and examine his life, but to make every attempt to embrace everything that is put before him on a daily basis."
"We don't flinch," Azaria says between scenes. "We don't look away. We explore mental illness, from the severe to the slight."
Also in therapy
Azaria, too, is open about being in therapy, "on and off for 15 years." It's helped him through difficult times, including his divorce from Academy Award winner Helen Hunt, star of the old sitcom "Mad About You" in which he had a recurring role as Nat, the dog walker.
Paget Brewster, last seen in the short-lived Fox sitcom "Andy Richter Controls the Universe," plays Huff's wife, Beth. Blythe Danner is his manipulative mother, Izzy. Oliver Platt plays his charming but substance-abusing best friend, and Andy Comeau his brother, an institutionalized schizophrenic.
"The Bob Newhart Show" from the '70s notwithstanding, there's always been a bias against developing TV shows about mental health professionals, says Robert Greenblatt, Showtime's president of entertainment.
"The feeling was that people outside New York and L.A. really don't go to shrinks, and if they do, there's a stigma and they don't want to admit they go," Greenblatt says.
'More openness'
But he thinks now "there is much more openness in the rest of the country to these kind of ideas about getting help and putting yourself on the right track as opposed to ignoring problems."
In 2002 Azaria starred in "Imagine That" as a comedy writer whose fantasies and marriage counseling sessions inspired his work, but NBC canceled the sitcom after just two episodes.
Lowry thinks Azaria is ideal for Huff because he's both funny and "has great emotional depth ... someone who doesn't miss any of the subtleties."
While on hiatus between seasons of "Huff" (Showtime has already ordered a second year) Azaria will star in the stage musical "Monty Python's Spamalot," a spoof on the Camelot legend adapted from the British comedy troupe's 1975 movie "Monty Python and The Holy Grail."
Set to open on Broadway in March, the production is directed by Mike Nichols, who helmed the movie "The Birdcage" in which Azaria played houseboy to a gay couple.
As a kid, the New York-born Azaria memorized the script of "The Holy Grail." Acting out all the characters was an early example of his chameleonlike vocal skills, now famous because of his numerous voice portrayals on "The Simpsons."
Emmys
Azaria won three Emmys for his work on the animated series and another for the 2000 ABC movie "Tuesdays with Morrie," co-starring the late Jack Lemmon.
He recently wrote, directed and starred in the short movie "Nobody's Perfect," about a man in possession of magic glasses that make him able to see how a relationship will end.
It's a concept he says was prompted by an "older and wiser" attitude to dating again after his divorce.