Impersonating entertainment

Against my better instincts, I watched the first two episodes of “Frank TV,” the no-budget sketch show featuring “Mad TV’s” celebrity impersonator Frank Caliendo.

It’s not awful, but then, it’s not very good, either. When the whole point of a show is recognition humor (because the jokes themselves aren’t particularly sharp), you know you’re in for a bit of a slog. But, hey: Every other late-night series is in repeats.

Caliendo personally seems like a nice enough guy. Some of his impersonations are amusing enough (his John Madden is so withering I don’t see how the real version manages to show his face in public anymore). He introduces sketches before a live-studio audience (that must’ve been thrilled to discover that they had hired a babysitter and driven to the studio only to discover that most of the bits had been pre-taped) on a generic sitcom set over which he kind of overly ooh’s and ah’s. He brings members of said audience up onto the set to serve as co-hosts, which tends to result in, tonight at least, not a whole lot. (Next week’s co-host gets a little more air time, because she has a Paris Hilton anecdote.)

But as with most sketch-comedy shows, the sketches themselves tend to be one-joke ideas (Al Pacino’s over the top! Robert De Niro’s borderline menacing!) that run far too long. The political skits (one about Bill Clinton – who’s a horndog! – tonight, one about George W. Bush – who’s not terribly bright! – next week, both focusing on their most obvious peccadilloes) aren’t, naturally, political, but they’re not funny, either. And next week’s episode is padded with home-movie footage of Frank coaxing his son into impersonating Bush that, well, Frank and all of his relatives will no doubt find quite endearing; the rest of us, not so much.

- “Frank TV:” 11 tonight, TBS.