Thicke Wins Over Critics With Role On ‘Hope And Gloria’
It’s been nearly a dozen years since Canadian import Alan Thicke first showed his face on American television with his colossal late-night talk flop “Thicke of the Night, and about 10 years since the threats of deportation stopped.
The road to respectability has been a long and winding one for Thicke. Even a role on a network comedy that ran for seven seasons (ABC’s “Growing Pains”) did little to bolster his credentials as anything resembling a legitimate talent.
But it seems that, at long last, Thicke has won over the critics with his small but show-stealing turn as pompous talk-show host Dennis Dupree on NBC’s latest Thursday night sitcom hit “Hope & Gloria.”
There was a time not so very long ago when the name Alan Thicke was synonymous with television failure. And given the hostility he had to endure, it’s a tribute to the guy that he was able to pick himself up, dust himself off and enjoy any kind of future in Hollywood.
In a barrage of publicity that preceded the premiere of “Thicke of the Night” in 1983, he was touted in a multimillion-dollar campaign as the hotshot Canadian gunslinger who would shoot down Johnny Carson and rule the late-night scene.
The syndicated “Thicke of the Night” boasted a big-shot producer in legendary programming chief Fred Silverman and a host (Thicke) who was said to be the toast of Canada.
The show - which aimed to be hipper and more youth-oriented than “Tonight,” with regulars like comic Richard Belzer - would remain on the air for a year while enduring a savage attack from critics that chills Thicke’s blood more than a decade later.
Things got so bad for Thicke that for about a year he dreaded seeing his picture in the paper, afraid of what the caption might say.
After “Thicke of the Night” left the air, Thicke became sort of “the guru for late-night failure,” as he calls it. His advice was sought by Joan Rivers, Rick Dees and Arsenio Hall before their late-night stints.
Only a year after “Thicke of the Night” bombed, however, Thicke landed in 1985 on “Growing Pains” as Dr. Jason Seaver, the ultimate nurturing white bread father and a warm ‘n’ fuzzy psychiatrist to boot.
The show was a top-20 hit for much of its life, even top five for a single season (1987-88). But doing a sweet daddy turn didn’t endear Thicke to critics any more than did “Thicke of the Night.” Now that people have seen Thicke doing a different turn in “Hope & Gloria,” he suspects they finally understand he can play something different.
“They must be thinking that if I can play this geeky self-parody of a talkshow host, I must have been acting on ‘Growing Pains,”’ he said. “Or if I actually am this sweet family guy, I must be acting now. Either way, I have to be stretching something.”
Thicke has spent the past couple of years struggling to rise above the wholesome dad image, appearing in a series of movies that went straight to video.
There was his work in the “Not Quite Human” series of films for the Disney Channel (there were three); forgettable TV movies, including “The Calendar Girl Murders”; and features, such as “Betrayal of the Dove.”
In “Dove,” Thicke was the evil male swine in a love triangle that included Helen Slater and Kelly LeBrock.
“It was great, because I got to be a bad guy,” he said. “I had a little stubble, was plotting to kill my wife and said four or five bad words I couldn’t have said on ‘Growing Pains.”’
Yet with a resume that lists movies with names like “Rubdown,” “Jury Duty” and “Dance ‘Til Dawn” Thicke harbors few illusions about his future.
“We all start out wanting to be artists,” said Thicke, who still finds time to play on a pro-am hockey team and make the rounds on the golf links.
“When I started out, I wanted to be Bruce Springsteen or Richard Pryor. But the world winds up dictating what your limitations are and what your opportunities will be. And that’s how it should be. I don’t mind being an artist with a small ‘a.”’