Dial File: Skipping down Nathan's Lane to sitcom stardom

"Tragedy tomorrow, comedy ... comedy ... comedy ... comedy ... comedy ... comedy ... comedy ... comedy ... C-O-M-E-D-Y -- T-O-N-I-G-H-T!"

-- "Comedy Tonight" from "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."

CLEARLY, Nathan Lane is acquainted with comedy.

No one sings that song on The Great White Way six nights a week -- plus Wednesday and Sunday matinees -- unless he's into serious shtick. Not everyone, after all, can collect a check doing a step-kick in a toga (if you could, wouldn't you?).

This is one seriously silly guy. And, come fall, one seriously super sitcom star.

You could see it coming in "The Birdcage." And on Broadway in "Forum." And in HBO's recent "Comic Relief," keeping pace with, and even surpassing manic Robin Williams in breathless improv. And on "Late Show," doing a thrust-and-parry with David Letterman that set even the acerbic host back on his heels.

Lane's got the prime-time package: the sweet-voiced sarcasm that comes out of nowhere and lands like a bee sting; the fussy mannerisms threatening to boil over into full-throttle neuroses; the bubbling cauldron of cattiness couched in one cocked eyebrow; the panther-quick comic timing; the calculating wit behind the tightly coiled madman about to wig out at any moment.

Watching Nathan Lane is like biting into a Sweet Tart -- an explosion of sweet 'n' sour flavors bursting in every direction.

In September, the successful Broadway ("Guys and Dolls," "Forum") and movie ("The Birdcage," "Mouse Hunt") actor will headline NBC's "Encore!" a new concoction from those not-too-shabby producers of "Frasier." It will snuggle in between "Mad About You" and "Just Shoot Me" at 8:30 Tuesday nights.

Lane will play an opera singer who retires to help run his family's California vineyard. This is the first sitcom since "Frasier" that I'm actually looking forward to, and for the same reason -- the comedic charisma of its star.

Unlike Kelsey Grammer, whose "Cheers" years of second banana-ism let him fine-tune his exquisite comic creation of Dr. Frasier Crane in the background while others took the helm, tele-novice Lane has to steer his own sitcom ship straight out of port and spring an almost fully formed character on America.

Just like, oh, every other star of a new fall series that isn't a spinoff. But Lane is an original -- and therefore, rare -- talent with a distinctive comic voice who could match Grammer's mastery of the medium if given an equal break, namely, a long gestation period from NBC, even if ratings are initially anemic.

With Lane, NBC will find the payoff worth the patience.

Hopefully, Lane will be equally tolerant. After all, talent alone guarantees nothing on TV, a medium in which a star has to fit into a Chinese puzzle box of snappy premise, smart writing, well-crafted characters, cast chemistry and -- most frustrating -- senseless time slot swaps, willy-nilly pre-emptions and the volatile, Byzantine whims of the network suits.

But with TV stardom, Lane will find the payoff worth the patience.

Yes, he's conquered Broadway. Beyond contributing an adroit Nathan Detroit -- the wayward, good-hearted gambler played by Frank Sinatra in the 1955 film -- to a long-running "Guys and Dolls" revival, capping off a long roster of theater credits, Lane also pulled off the seemingly impossible: holding his own against the magnificent memories of Zero Mostel and Phil Silvers as the deviously wacky, freedom-craving slave in a revival of the frenetic "Forum." Lane was later replaced by Whoopi Goldberg, the first woman to play the part.

Zero to Phil to Nathan to Whoopi. Four great originals. One great part. It was, excuse the Zen overtones, cosmically correct. The uncontainable Zero never starred in a sitcom (can you imagine the lunacy?) and Whoopi was short-changed by CBS in a saucy little sitcom called "Bagdad Cafe" that began and ended in 1990; Phil, however, made TV history as "Sgt. Bilko," an utter original. Nathan can be, should be, will be the next mold-breaker in TV's cookie-cutter culture.

The man is made for TV.

Don't think so? Rent "The Birdcage," in which he played a flamboyant Miami drag queen (is there any other kind?) to Robin Williams' against-type portrayal of his more subdued lover. Williams as straight man -- sort of speak -- to Lane? It worked because Lane has sensational comic chops.

Don't look for Lane's genius only as he sashays in high heels and feather boas and revels in grand dame hysterics -- the type of broad comedy TV laps up, dating back to Uncle Miltie -- but also when, riotously disguised as a Barbara Bush-style matron, he verbally fences with Gene Hackman's whitebread conservative.

Watch Lane's deft under-playing, the subtle pauses, the pitch-perfect timing, the small gestures used like grace notes -- a comedic approach brave enough to trust the audience to fill in the blanks, and laugh all the more because of it.

Sounds sublimely similar to ... "Frasier," with which "Encore!" will share producers. The same producers who recognized -- and milked -- the rich comic potential of Kelsey Grammer. The same producers whose names graced the credits of "Cheers."

Of course, if rotten ratings roll in, pedigree goes poof. Prime-time's a minefield no matter what's on your resume. But you've got to love the odds.

And as "Frasier" grabs for the glory by moving into the celebrated 9 p.m. Thursday slot, ex-home of "Cheers" and "Seinfeld," I'll keep close watch on Lane -- a deserving heir to Grammer's legacy of smart, sassy Tuesday TV and future occupant of that coveted slice of prime-time real estate.

Can be. Should be. Will be.

THIS & THAT: "Dark Shadows" fans can take a bite out of nostalgia when the "Dark Shadows Festival" swoops into the MGM Grand Conference Center July 10-12. The festival celebrates the original '60s ABC daytime drama featuring bloodthirsty vamp Barnabas Collins (a brief prime-time version popped up on NBC in 1991). For information, call 213-933-6498. ... The martial arts sport K-1 will be front-and-center on the pay-per-view event "K-1: The New Fighting Sport," live from the Mirage on Aug. 7. The price is $19.95. K-1 features an array of martial arts disciplines, including karate, tae kwon do, kung-fu and kickboxing. ... KXNT-AM radio host Dominick Brascia now has a weekly half-hour TV show at 10:30 p.m. Saturdays on Channel 25.

CROON A TUNE: "... It is run by Kate, come and be her guest ..." What's run by Kate? Why, the Shady Rest Hotel, of course. Where was this little patch of pastoral paradise -- and, coincidentally, also the name of the show? Why, "Petticoat Junction," 'natch. And who knew that? Well, a bunch of folks, actually, but Brad Ussery was the first reader to ride the little Croon-a-Tune train that was rollin' down the tracks to the Junction ... Petticoat Junction.

Congrats, Brad. When it comes to TV theme trivia, you're really on the go, unlike Uncle Joe, who's movin' kind of slow at the Junction.

Next? What rugged TV icon was worshiped in a theme song as "the rippin'-est, roarin'-est, fightin'-est man the frontier ever knew"? As always, be the rippin'-est, roarin'-est, fightin'-est reader -- not to mention the first reader -- to name that tele-tune and you'll be forever immortalized on the Dial File frontier.

And, "Star Trek " aside, that is truly the Final Frontier.

UP YOUR NOSE ... : And if you don't have a rubber hose, at least you can recall those good ol' days when that bon mot was considered clever in a Sweathoggy sort of way -- and on the big screen, no less. Seems that a film version of "Welcome Back, Kotter" is in the works -- and it's a musical (can't wait for that show-stopping ode to the series' Jewish Puerto Rican, "I Got the Sun in the Mornin' and Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein at Night").

And it will even feature a cameo by John Travolta as that quintessential dim bulb from Brooklyn, Vinnie Barbarino ("What? ... Where? ... When?" ).

A better question: WHY?

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