YOU DON'T USUALLY THINK OF G. Gordon Liddy, Ralph Nader, Dr. Joycelyn Elders and the word ""comedy'' in the same sentence. OK, well, maybe you do with Liddy. But these are just three of the many wacky public figures who make cameos on ""Lateline'' (NBC, March 17), a midseason replacement series set behind the scenes at a nightly news program. (You can guess which one.) What a weird idea: a show on NBC about life at ABC News. But nobody seems to mind: Ted Koppel hasn't flipped his wig or anything. In fact, ""Nightline'' welcomed ""Lateline'' star Al Franken and his co-exec producer John Markus when they were doing their homework. It paid off.
""Lateline'' is to the news biz what ""The Larry Sanders Show'' is to Hollywood, though less a satire than a newsroom sitcom in the tradition of ""Murphy Brown'' and ""The Mary Tyler Moore Show.'' Franken is a news junkie. Al Freundlich, the bumbling policy wonk he plays on ""Lateline,'' is a distant cousin of the reporter with the satellite dish on his head he used to do on ""Saturday Night Live.'' More recently, he's been writing political slapstick (""Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations'') and literally jumping into bed with Arianna Huffington (the Zsa Zsa Gabor of right-wing pundits) on ""Politically Incorrect.'' Now, he translates his goofily well-informed political humor into the three-jokes-per-page language of the sitcom script.
The pilot sets the media-savvy tone. Stentorian anchor Pierce McKenzie (Robert Foxworth) threatens to quit unless the network offers him as much money as Diane Sawyer. His bargaining chip is the threat of Al's taking over the chair. What's wrong with that picture? Al's producer, Gale (Megyn Price), explains: ""He's not good-looking, he's bad on camera and America doesn't like him.'' Which is why Pierce keeps him around: to make himself look good. In TV news, pettiness is next to godliness.
""Lateline'' has no big star. Franken is the closest thing to a marquee name. But the rest of the cast is a smart, cohesive ensemble. Miguel Ferrer is believably abrasive as the executive producer out for ""kick-ass television'' at any cost. Price's workaholic ""news nun,'' Gale, is a pert charmer. And sly nighttime soap veteran Foxworth steals scenes like chickens from a henhouse. A manipulative womanizer, Pierce is Ted Baxter by way of Satan. No workplace sitcom would be complete without an office dork: Ajay Naidu as an ambitious intern, Raji, interjects the requisite geek relief. When, in the second episode, a false rumor starts that Buddy Hackett is dead, Raji is beside himself. The night's ""Lateline'' guests Robert Reich and Dick Gephardt are so moved they start telling their favorite Buddy jokes and singing his ""Music Man'' classic, ""Shapoopee.'' Now that's comedy.