Iconoclasts

It's a novel idea: Remove the middleman and let artists interview themselves. [25 Nov 2005, p.96]

So this show is more than a tribute, though it is that.

A classy, stimulating look at six true mavericks through the eyes of six people in various stages of iconoclastic development.

Whether all, or indeed any, of the subjects here are actually "iconoclasts" is debatable -- "independent" is more like it -- but the title is meant to signal that this is something hipper and smarter and less conventionally angled than a Barbara Walters special and, at least on the basis of the two episodes available for review, it is.

Celebrities interviewing celebrities is a promising concept, in that it upsets the power balance of the typical suck-up interview. But the downside is that once people get past a certain level of fame, they seem to lose the internal monitor that reminds them that not everything they do and say is worth recording.

[The first episode] is less an in-depth interview than a mutual admiration fest, plus a chance to watch two famous people playing golf.

If only more time had been spent finding compatible pairs instead of piling adjectives into the show's cheesy publicity language. If only some time had been spent finding actual iconoclasts.