By 1991, Sam Kinison had been doing stand-up comedy for 13 years and was ready to give a regular TV series a try. He stayed away from it in the past because he felt like it was something that he could “always do on the way down.” His grueling touring schedule made him finally change his tune and consider other possibilities. The result was a strange, short-lived sitcom on Fox called Charlie Hoover.
The show’s namesake, Charlie Hoover, was played by Animal House star Tim Matheson. We’re introduced to Charlie on his 40th birthday, which doesn’t turn out the way he hoped. For starters, his family couldn’t be less interested in celebrating his big day with him, and to make matters worse, he doesn’t get the promotion he was expecting. Enter Kinison as Hugh, the bizarre personification of Charlie’s inner thoughts, who, for some reason, appears as a pint-sized man in a trench coat.
We first meet Hugh as Charlie sits somberly on the window ledge outside his office at work. After watching a woman rub lotion on herself with his mini binoculars, Hugh introduces himself as Charlie’s alter ego. In other words, he explains, “You know, like when you’re walking down the street and a guy bumps into you, and you go, ‘Excuse me,’ but that little voice inside you goes, ‘Oh, watch it, jerk’? That’s me.” It becomes pretty clear from the first episode that Hugh is here to stay and will assist Charlie with his problems in the future.
The first order of business is getting Charlie that promotion he’s been waiting for. Hugh encourages Charlie to go in and demand the raise from his boss. The plan doesn’t go smoothly, and the boss fires Charlie instead. But things work out in the end, and when Charlie takes Hugh’s advice to go back and try again, he finally gets his raise.
The rest of the episodes follow the same basic formula as the first, with Hugh serving as Charlie’s miniature sidekick. In episode two, Bill Maher shows up as Charlie’s creepy co-worker, Elliot Weedle. The character is not well-liked around the office, and in the fourth episode, Charlie’s secretary responds to one of his advances by saying, “I wouldn’t get close to you if I was the grape on the label of your underwear.” “Truth to tell,” Weedle replies, “I’m, uh, not wearing any underwear.”
Not surprisingly, the show lasted only seven episodes before being canceled.
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