‘Practice’ to preview after Olympics

August 11, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.

Justin Kirk, a 43-year-old actor, will appear in “Animal Practice,” the new NBC sitcom in which he’s a cruel- to-be-kind veterinarian whose most sustainable relationship is with a monkey.

Like Gregory House, who hobbled off the air earlier this year, Dr. George Coleman spends his waking hours battling the clinic administration and slamming idiotic humans.

Did we mention there’s a monkey?

NBC is so high on the show, it’s premiering commercial-free Sunday, right after the Olympics’ closing ceremony. The role couldn’t be more different from Andy Botwin, the hedonistic tag-along he plays on Showtime’s “Weeds,” which wraps up its eighth and final season this summer. That’s just fine with Kirk.

“For the last two months of shooting ‘Weeds,’ I’ve been turning to the camera department a lot and saying, ‘Well, there’s another thing I won’t be able to do on ‘Animal Practice,’” said Kirk, flipping back his skinny green tie at an upscale eatery so it doesn’t get stained by his chicken pot pie. “But the only reason to do this was to do something diametrically opposed to the last character. I wouldn’t want to do another version of a fun-loving uncle type on a network show.”

Kirk wrapped up the Showtime series last week and soon after reported to work on the NBC sitcom.

Kirk has always prided himself on taking an almost “Zen-like approach” to his work, focusing solely on his role and not being distracted by anything else. But that will have to change. This is, after all, his show. Well, his and a monkey’s.