Howie Do It

Turns out they do it [prank shows] pretty much the same as everyone else. But the sight of a bewigged Mandel blasting TV weathermen wannabes with water is pretty funny stuff.

There have been far nastier hidden-camera efforts than this. Better ones, too. Yet to be sure, in the opening hour, Howie Do It at least delivers laughs more often than it inspires groans.

"I don't want it to end, but it did," the host gushes at the hour's close. Even for those who enjoy Mandel's puerile brand of comedy, that qualifies as a clear case of Howie overdoing it.

Hidden camera gags often now settle for crude instead of working a little harder to achieve clever.

It's sad, really, how unimaginative Howie Do It is. Given all the resources at NBC's disposal, and given the fact that NBC is desperate to regain ratings footing, this is the best the executives could come up with?

Howie Do It not only drags contestants, and viewers, through gratuitous mud and muck but it also is haunted by the aura of plagiarism; the set-up of one sequence is highly reminiscent of a bit that David Letterman has done on his late-night talk show.