Dave: Evening Magazine (August 6, 1996)

[This aired on KING 5/NBC.]

Host: ".....and one show we know that'll be back is um....NewsRadio. Mimi Gang got a chance to fly to L.A. and speak to one of the stars, Dave Foley."

From Mary Tyler Moore, to Murphy Brown, to Frasier, the formula is so tried and true it should be tired by now. But yet another show about the airwaves has hit the airwave and it's on its way to becoming the next big thing. NewsRadio is funny, critics love it, and ratings are climbing as viewers discover it. One of the reasons for the show's success is Dave Foley.

This Toronto comedian plays the News Director at WNYX. He serves as the head of a big dysfunctional family of co-workers. He calmly deals with the arrogant Anchor, an Assistant with an attitude, and an over-achieving Assistant News Director...whom he happens to be having a romance with.

I talked with Dave Foley in between scenes on the set of NewsRadio. Fame hasn't really sunk in yet for this actor:

Mimi: "...what was it that ..uh..stood out about it..when - like when you first read the script?"

Dave: "That they wanted to hire me."

Foley has been around but he's not exactly a household name. He got his start as one of the Kids in the Hall where he cut his comic teeth and cut a stunning figure in a dress. He continued gender bending by landing a part in "It's Pat: The Movie" where he played Pat's paramour, Chris.

Dave doesn't cross-dress for NewsRadio. He plays the straight man to an over the top cast and he does it with settle humour that's similar to another T.V. comedian's:

Mimi: "I don't know if you take offense to this or not..."

Dave: "-Already I do."

Mimi: "I would think of it as a compliment you being compared to um...Bob Newhart...Sort of like how things evolve around you and all that ....um..What do you think of that comparison?"

Dave: "I think there are few grander comparisons that you could have made of you than to be compared to Bob Newhart...He's like...he's a..he's he's god-like in my estimation."

Comedy is destiny. And Foley was getting laughs at the tender age of 5:

Dave: "I think I have like kindergarten report cards that uh that mention me being amusing for the rest of the class."

It may run in the family. Foley is married, has two sons, and one's already getting laughs:

Dave: "My kids are in of in themselves funny. Well, one of them is...the other one is too small to be funny. It's too much pressure to ask a two month old baby to be funny. "Amuse me!...infant. Make me laugh or I won't love you!" That's too much like the way *I* was raised."

Foley owes his success to his nationality, in a off-hand way. After all, he comes from the country that gave us John Candy....and Jim Carrey:

Mimi: "What is it about...about Canada? Is it the water or something?"

Dave: "Ummm...I'm not sure what what the hell it is...I guess it's our way of working our... getting out of our....ghetto...Getting out of Canada."

He's just teasing. Actually, he's homesick.

Mimi: "Do you miss Canada?"

Dave: "I do. I miss Canada very much."

Based on the success of the show he's staring in, Dave Foley may be homesick for a long time...because it looks like NewsRadio will be staying on air for quite a while.

Contributor

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