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15 Minutes Late

When bad TV happens to good websites, the result is something like The Smoking Gun TV. Call it Smoking Gun Lite. Or, less charitably, call it a half-hour, watered down infomercial for the website. The blame for this lies squarely with host and co-executive producer Mo Rocca.

A self-described "media gadfly" and former Daily Show contributor, Rocca must contend here -- in the premiere episode, at least -- with material that is severely dated: Katharine Hepburn's will; Mike Tyson's bankruptcy; and good old Trista Rehn of The Bachelorette fame, receiving a cool million for TV rights to her wedding. In a media-saturated world, these are stories with a definite half-life. It's a shame that The Smoking Gun TV isn't taped closer to the actual airdate, for juicy news is surely available daily. Just ask Access Hollywood.

Apparently scheduled to be a semi-regular Court TV program, The Smoking Gun TV bears almost no resemblance to the popular website for which it is named. The online version writes that its mission is to "bring you exclusive documents -- cool, confidential, quirky -- that can't be found elsewhere on the Web. Using material obtained from government and law enforcement sources, via the Freedom of Information requests, and from court files nationwide, we guarantee everything here is 100 percent authentic." Along with the facts, the site includes commentary written in a snarky style that's perfect for both the subject matter and its readers.

The TV show is fluffier, less timely, and aimed at an Entertainment Tonight audience that presumably likes hearing celebrity gossip more than reading legal documents. Rocca takes stories from the online version and provides the same details, but without clever formatting or cultural insight. Rocca offers this dishy dirt in his signature ironic monotone, managing to turn any potentially golden story to stone.

But Rocca knows where his strengths lie, and that's in bringing his own absurdist brand of humor to the news of the day. But only one segment here, "Mug Shots of the Rich and Famous" -- one of the website's most popular features -- is truly funny. Rocca uses the famous Nick Nolte mug shot to jumpstart a passable parody of current TV makeovers. He takes the photo to a salon, where he asks the stylist to help him look more like it; she cheerfully obliges. First, she skillfully applies makeup "for that broken capillary look" and washes his hair (if you can call it washing) with beer and her own spit. After the makeover, Rocca looks ready for his own DUI mug shot.

But he soon runs out of steam. Using a "Gee whiz, aren't celebrities silly?" approach, Rocca's observations run counter to the usual "nuts and bolts" focus of Court TV. Already famous for bringing us the salacious courtroom trials of the rich, famous, and disgraced, the network apparently wants to expand its audience to include those who read the online Gun. What's not clear is why this audience might want to see old material repeated in the format of another celebrity entertainment show, even if it does show the paperwork to back up its sensational stories.

Focusing more on celebrities and less on the law, the series might create a new fan base for The Smoking Gun franchise, but at what price? Lost here is The Smoking Gun's reputation for breaking news and having fun with the FOIA. There's no fixed date for the next installment, so there's still time to find new material and tweak the format, so it's more committed to the stories, and less dependent on stale stand-up from Mo Rocca.