People: The ‘P.I.’ stands for ‘pretty innocuous’
Andy Richter steps into comfy comedy territory in the new NBC series “Andy Barker, P.I.”
In the show premiering Thursday at 9:30 p.m. (borrowing the “30 Rock” spot), the fictional Andy is an accountant-turned-detective; the real one is an actor. Still, they’re kind of the same guy.
“The character (has) sort of a fundamental decency,” says co-creator Jonathan Groff.
That’s clear after someone lies to him, thumps him on the head and is about to shoot him.
“He’s angry that he’s been lied to,” says co-creator Conan O’Brien. “He has kind of a Midwestern (sensibility).”
He’s an everyday schlub, a nice guy who gets overlooked. The real-life Andy knows the turf.
“I’ve sort of been cursed with a toddler’s body and a face to match,” Richter says. “I’m not going to get a lot of leading-man roles.”
It’s a useful curse. It has taken Richter from being O’Brien’s late-night sidekick to small parts in many movies, including four with Will Ferrell – “Elf,” “Talladega Nights,” “Blades of Glory” and the upcoming “Semi-Pro” – and lead roles in three situation comedies.
And he usually plays guys a lot like himself.
Yes, the real Andy is a Midwesterner. He grew up in Yorkville (an Illinois town of 6,200, near Joliet) and went to the University of Illinois.
Married for 13 years, most of his nonworking time is spent with his kids, ages 6 and 18 months.
Everything fits the ordinary-guy image, except one detail: He was high school prom king.
“It was a small school, so it wasn’t hard to be popular,” Richter explains.
“The prom is in the spring, and they had five guys who were in the Homecoming court in the fall and weren’t eligible. So technically, I was the sixth-most-popular guy.”
Richter did the first seven years of O’Brien’s “Late Night,” took lots of little film roles and starred in Fox’s “Andy Richter Controls the Universe” and “Quintuplets.”
Meanwhile, O’Brien had the notion of doing a show about an earnest accountant whose mini-mall office was previously occupied by a tough detective. He keeps getting the guy’s cases.
Within an hour of discussing the idea, Groff says, he and O’Brien agreed on the star.
“We sort of said, ‘There are elements of Bob Newhart in this’ and then we went, ‘Are we talking about Andy?’ “
The tougher part was finding the mini-mall. O’Brien and Groff envisioned a two-story one; in the horizontal world of L.A., those are rare.
They finally found one in the suburbs and signed a deal with its management company. Apparently, Groff says, the owner didn’t know; when he visited from China, he was fuming.
“We were shooting our last day there,” Richter recalls. “We were blowing up a car. He was screaming into the phone, trying to stop us.”
They had the proper contracts and permits, however. Shooting continued; the car exploded.
Both Andys, real and fictional, survived.
The birthday bunch
Newsman Sam Donaldson is 73. Singer Bobby McFerrin is 57. Actress Alex Kingston (“ER”) is 44. Singer Lisa Loeb is 39. Actor Terrence Howard is 38. Actor Johnny Knoxville is 36. Actress Thora Birch is 25.