Connick finds a role model for new TV show

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Odd as it seems to take inspiration from a television host legendary for his lack of preparation, Harry Connick Jr. and the team making his new daytime talk show all cite Dean Martin as a model.

Connick’s show, “Harry,” debuts today (3 p.m., WKBN-TV) with Sandra Bullock as the first guest. Amy Adams, Renee Zellweger and Terrence Howard are all scheduled for the first week, along with a few all-star cameos.

Martin, whose prime-time variety show ran on NBC in the late 1960s and 1970s, fostered an air of easy informality in part because the singer had it written into his contract that he only needed to show up when the show was taped each week.

Rehearsals? Who needs them?

“Half the fun was watching him read off the prompter,” said Justin Stangel, who produces “Harry” with his brother, Eric, both graduates of David Letterman’s “Late Show.” “He’d laugh, and the audience would laugh, because they knew he knew he had no idea what was coming up next.”

Martin didn’t like the day-to-day grind of making television. Connick doesn’t mind working – he ripped through a series of promotional announcements one afternoon this week at his sprawling new studio on Manhattan’s West Side – but wants to preserve a sense of spontaneity. He dispenses with guest pre-interviews, the chore staff usually does to script out a talk show appearance.

For a recent taping, the show’s lead guest was caught in traffic and late. Instead of waiting, the show began at the appointed hour with the audience in on the running mystery of whether the guest would show up at all.

On another show, Connick noticed a woman sitting where he normally entered the stage and he played off that, inviting her to his piano to sing “Happy Birthday” to her kids at home.

“I live for that,” Connick said. “Some performers might be thrown by that, and I get it. Some of the best performers in the world are thoroughly rehearsed. But I’m exactly the opposite.”

He’s a natural wit, and learned to roll with the punches through dozens of record albums, movies and a stint on “American Idol.’