So what was Michael Moore doing between his emergence into national prominence with his 1989 documentary "Roger & Me" (reviewed elsewhere in this site) and his rise to print/movie ‘auteur’ status in the new millennium? Long before he received heaps of critical acclaim or won an Academy Award statuette for his documentary "Bowling for Columbine" (also reviewed elsewhere on this site), Moore attempted to translate his "Roger & Me" brand of politically incorrect, in-your-face humor into a weekly TV series. Not once, not twice, but three times. First with "TV Nation" on NBC (1994) and, after that was canceled, a second crack with the same show on the Fox Network (1995). The third time came in 1998 when, after failing miserably at directing motion pictures with the John Candy vehicle "Canadian Bacon" (which would turn out to be Candy’s last movie before his death), the Bravo Network gave Moore and his staff 12 half-hour shows in which they could rant and rave about whatever they wanted.

Voala, "The Awful Truth" was born. A cross between the original "TV Nation" (mock news reports and made-up stories poking fun at corporations, politicians and people in positions of privilege and/or power) and a college campus rally (the first 12 episodes were taped in front of a studio audience for reactions), "The Awful Truth" did well-enough with the critics (it received an Emmy Nomination) to earn a second 12-episode season (sans the studio audience, which was instead replaced by the neon advertisements of New York’s Times Square district). These would prove to be the last season of the short-lived TV series, but it also allowed Moore to continue doing what he does best: annoy the heck out of rich folks (and conservatives) with hilarious results. Not even foreigners were safe from Moore’s keen eye for offending people. Out of the 60+ segments "The Awful Truth" did in its two-year run my particular favorite is the one in episode nine (from Season One) in which an Adolf Hitler lookalike goes from one Swiss bank to another (in Switzerland!) trying to withdraw the loot he stole from the Jewish people he sent to concentration camps.

Offensive? You bet! Morally bankrupt? Maybe. Disrespectful to the memories of the millions of people Hitler slaughtered during World War II? I don’t know about that! Funniest shit I saw on TV in 1998 (save for the many Republicans on TV arguing for Clinton’s impeachment at the time)? Absolutely! A much more one-sided and agenda-driven show than ABC-TV’s "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher" or Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show" at the time (1998-2000) "The Awful Truth" took sides in political arguments (usually, but not always, the side leaning the furthest to the left) and relished provoking an argument. It was a very funny show that had as many misfires as bullseye moments of comedic Zen, putting it below only Moore’s own "TV Nation" in a bravura display of ‘guerrilla television’ mentality not seen since the glory days of NBC’s "Late Night with David Letterman" (or HBO’s "Mr. Show"). What Moore & Co. lacked in resources or viewership they more than compensated for with the sheer chutzpah of ‘LucyCam’ (episodes 6-8, in which a camera was placed outside the window of Linda Tripp lackey Lucy Anne Goldberg) or ‘Taxi Driver’ (episode 14, in which Moore drives a cab through NYC refusing to pick-up white passengers to let them know what black people feel like when it happens to them).

Which shouldn’t be taken as an indication that "The Awful Truth" was a perfect show. A lot of characters (Crackers the Chicken), ambush-style interviews, staged events and provocations in "The Awful Truth" had already been done (and better) on both "TV Nation" and "Roger & Me." By the end of both seasons (but more palpably in the second than the first season) it becomes clear that Moore was stretching his (and his production team’s) ability to come up with new material to fill 12 half-hours of corporate villains and crooked politicians. There’s a palpable sense of desperation as the last four or five shows of a season unfold. It also doesn’t help that, as funny "The Awful Truth" was when it originally aired, it’s reliance on topical humor and events-of-the-moment stunts (most notably Bill Clinton’s impeachment) have dated its humor. Does anyone even remember what NAFTA stood for when it passed? I do, but I doubt Joe and Jane Blow understand (or give a flying f**** about) its significance to our economic dependency on cheap labor costs.

None of these nitpicks will matter to the thousands of men and women (like yours truly) that have a soft spot in our hearts for one of the few outspoken critics of the system that can actually get the attention (and ire) of conservative populists like Rush Limbaugh and Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. And it’s not like we, the people that do get and like what Moore has to say (whether we agree wholeheartedly with it or not), have the same absent-minded view of American and the world of the aforementioned Blow family. We’d rather read Michael Moore’s thoughts (‘Stupid White Men’) or go to the movies to see Michael Moore’s antics (‘Bowling for Columbine’) than watch Michael Moore on TV (as indicated by the decent-at-best ratings that both "TV Nation" and "The Awful Truth" garnered during their respective TV runs). That doesn’t mean that Moore’s Saddam Hussein references (episode 43, ‘Gulf War’) and lack of a laugh-alongside-the-joke studio audience in the second season compensate for the oudated jabs at long-departed political leaders (episode 7, ‘Cohen is a Wimp’). It just means that we take the good Moore dishes out with the bad. And, in the case of "The Awful Truth," there’s enough of the good stuff to make this an interesting purchase consideration for those left hungry by the tantalizing and provocative nature of Moore’s "Bowling for Columbine" documentary.

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