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TELEVISION REVIEW; The Kid Stays in the Cartoon, Still Having His Fun, Baby

Published: October 22, 2003

Some say genius is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time. Maybe, but that is certainly one definition of the contemporary notion of cool: something or someone at once wrenchingly embarrassing and deeply admirable.

Dean Martin, particularly in his later, Gold Digger Dancers phase, is cool, and so is Mussolini-era Italian architecture. After years of drug-addiction, disgrace and obscurity, the Hollywood producer Robert Evans has also achieved that delicate balance, first with his autobiography, ''The Kid Stays in the Picture,'' and then with a 2002 documentary of the same title; both became cult hits because they simultaneously conveyed his enviable bravado and poignant vulgarity.

''Kid Notorious,'' a cartoon for adults on Comedy Central, seeks to tap into Mr. Evans's new-found popularity. In it he is his younger self in today's Hollywood, a star producer who lives in his mansion, ''Woodland'', wheeling, cheating and dealing with the help of a British butler named English and a bossy fat black cook, Tollie Mae, a cat called Puss Puss and a revolving door of cameo caricatures of celebrities from Sharon Stone to Rupert Murdoch and Slash, the former Guns N' Roses guitarist.

In ''Kid Notorious'' Mr. Evans is a trash-talking, deal-making lech who boasts that he can say, ''Baby, you take my breath away,'' in every language ''except Dutch.''

The Kid runs circles around his friends and foes in trademark black turtleneck and sunglasses, using his real, deep, garment district voice, but with a cartoon face as smooth as it was when he was the kid whom Darryl F. Zanuck kept in the part of a young matador in the 1957 film ''The Sun Also Rises,'' over the protests of Ernest Hemingway, Ava Gardner and most of the cast.

The cartoon Evans is not the 73-year-old freakish and fascinating Hollywood survivor who made ''The Godfather,'' ''Rosemary's Baby'' and ''Chinatown''; lost his wife, Ali McGraw, to Steve McQueen; married four other times; became a cocaine addict; was implicated in the infamous Cotton Club murder (though later cleared); and became persona non grata in Hollywood. When Mr. Evans regretted selling his beloved ''Woodland,'' Jack Nicholson flew to Monte Carlo to beg the new owner to sell it back to Mr. Evans. This legendary producer suffered a paralyzing stroke in 1998 and only returned to the public eye with his documentary last year, his hair jet black and his face unnaturally taut.

The cartoon persona is a Beverly Hills version of Doonesbury's Uncle Duke, the character based on Hunter S. Thompson, Rolling Stone's infamous ''gonzo journalist.'' And that conceit would work if the writing were as clever as Garry Trudeau's comic strip or as original and witty as ''The Simpsons'' or even ''The Bullwinkle Show.''

Kid Notorious takes Mr. Evans's most idealized version of himself (one even he had had a hard time holding up with a straight face for long) and then plops it down on a bed of sophomoric Hollywood satire that is long on obvious jokes about Botox and bulimic movie stars. (Courtney Cox claims her favorite soup is tomato ''because it is the easiest to throw up.'')

Mocking specific movie stars is unusual on television, though not on Comedy Central, but even the most banal network sitcoms now have routine cracks about Botox and eating disorders in Hollywood. One episode works overtime on Ms. and the show ''The Vagina Monologues,'' but the joke is mostly on the cartoon writers. Ms. Stone has been the butt of comedians so long that the pendulum has now swung back in her favor; she just did a star turn on ''The Practice'' with James Spader and appeared on David Letterman's show on Monday night.

The cartoon revels in obscene language, which is certainty true to the Robert Evans lifestyle, but it rarely makes the effort to rise above the most tiring use of epithets. Mr. Evans produced ''The Godfather,'' so it is not surprising that one episode involves Mr. Evans trying to make a hip-hop version of the film. But again the writers make no effort to go beyond obvious racial stereotypes or well-trodden comic material: the notion that all American men, regardless of race, creed or color, revere ''The Godfather'' as the I Ching, has been a staple of comedy ever since Tom Hanks said it in the 1998 movie ''You've Got Mail.'' The writers of ''Kid Notorious'' are not embarrassed to use it again.

Adult cartoons, long popular in Europe and Japan, are finding a niche in the American market. Spike TV has several, including one about Striperella, an exotic dancer by night who turns into a sexy superheroine even later at night, featuring the voice of Pamela Anderson.

The Robert Evans mystique is more complicated, and certainly more odd, and deserves a little more imagination.


Comedy Central, tonight at 10:30, Eastern and Pacific times; 9:30, Central time

Robert Evans, Alan Cohen, Alan Morgen, Alan Freedland and Brett Morgen, executive producers; Angela Howard and Jim Sharp, executives in charge of production.

WITH THE VOICES OF: Robert Evans (Kid Notorious), Alan Selka (English) and Niecy Nash (Tollie Mae).

Photo: Robert Evans with Puss-Puss in the animated ''Kid Notorious.'' (Photo by Comedy Central)