'Laugh' Speaks Plainly, Carries One Big Shtick

"Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America," PBS's ambitious survey of the last century of comedy, has a can't-go-wrong approach to its subject: Roll the clips. Over its six hours, the documentary unspools goodies galore from some comic giants (and a few midgets), hopscotching from Charlie Chaplin to Cheech and Chong.

Like a polished stand-up performer, "Laugh" maintains such a good-natured pace that boredom, and PBS-style documentary solemnity, are never options. It's a shtick machine: Bob Hope comes and goes, as does Andy Kaufman, Burns and Allen, Jackie Gleason, Laurel and Hardy, Lenny Bruce, Will Rogers, "The Daily Show," and on and on. Host Billy Crystal even pops up to make fun of pledge drives and public television docu-god Ken Burns.

In addition to some deep digging in the archives (hey, here's a clip of Jack Benny meeting Groucho Marx on "You Bet Your Life"!), "Laugh" offers up some interesting factoids and nuggets about its many subjects. Who knew that Dr. Seuss coined the word "nerd"? Or that Woody Allen got his first TV writing job (with Sid Caesar) at age 17? Or that the great silent-film comedian Harold Lloyd started as one of many imitators of Chaplin's mega-popular Little Tramp, right down to the baggy pants and mustache?

"Laugh" is on less certain ground when it cuts away from the performers and script (oddball comedian Amy Sedaris narrates; Crystal does introductory shtick) to interviews. Director, producer and co-writer Michael Kantor has tracked down dozens of writers, "cultural historians" and legendary performers like Phyllis Diller and the late George Carlin for comments. All too often, these sources state the obvious ("Ralph Kramden was very bombastic, but he was always humbled at the end") or gush over a particular favorites. Roseanne Barr loves Lucy? Yeah, well, good to know.

Kantor has organized the series's six parts by theme (slapstick, satire, wiseguys, etc.), rather than chronologically. It's a clever and useful strategy, illuminating connections among comedians and the evolution of various genres amid social change. Part 2, for instance, tracks the sitcom from early TV series such as Gertrude Berg's "The Goldbergs" through "All in the Family" and "Seinfeld" (it stops there, suggesting it's been all downhill for the past 10 years). Another segment on "groundbreaking" comics convincingly links the careers of "scandalous" figures like Mae West, Moms Mabley and Lenny Bruce.

Throughout, Kantor does something tricky with static photographs, sharpening the foreground images against the background so that the picture appears to have movement and additional depth. In one shot, a young Robin Williams seems to float in front of the entrance to the Comedy Store. The journalistic ethics of this are questionable -- Kantor is manipulating historical images, thus distorting them -- but it sure looks neat.

Despite covering plenty of turf, "Laugh" leaves out plenty more. Some of the omissions seem unforgivable: TV pioneers such as Phil Silvers, Sid Caesar and Lucille Ball get their due, but not a word is spoken in behalf of Ernie Kovacs or Milton "Mr. Television" Berle. There's flowing praise (naturally) for Johnny Carson, but not much for his innovative "Tonight Show" predecessor, Steve Allen. There's a short piece on Paul Lynde -- Paul Lynde? Why? -- but nothing about the ingenious Chuck Jones or Danny Kaye. And how can any self-respecting multipart documentary about American comedy not include David Letterman, one of TV's longest-running personalities and arguably one of the most influential comedians of the past generation?

What's more, though "Laugh" aims to cover comedy's waterfront, it really cares only about TV and film comedy. Thus, there are only passing mentions of comedy on the radio, in nightclubs (explored in a segment about Lenny Bruce) and on record albums. And theater, animation and the written word get zip. The Internet? Apparently it doesn't exist, or maybe nothing funny has ever occurred there.

Not until its last hour does "Make 'Em Laugh" get around to saying what it has hinted at in the preceding five hours: That American comedy has largely been defined, refined and altogether dominated over the past 100 years by Jewish Americans. Where does the Jewish comic instinct come from, and what sustains it? Why has Jewish "shtick" become the standard not just on the Borscht Belt but also on the Bible Belt, as well? And what explains the sustained comic brilliance of such Jewish Americans (to name a few dozen) as Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Phil Silvers, Joan Rivers, Lenny Bruce, Jerry Seinfeld, Lorne Michaels, Gertrude Berg, George Burns, Judd Apatow, Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, the Three Stooges, Jack Benny, the Marx Brothers, Shelly Berman, Andy Kaufman, Larry David, Billy Crystal, Rodney Dangerfield, Larry Gelbart, Mort Sahl and Jon Stewart, among many, many others?

"Make 'Em Laugh" isn't up to answering these questions. Sadly, given the scope and thoughtfulness of this project, it doesn't even make a decent attempt.

Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America (six hours) airs in two-hour increments on Wednesdays over three weeks, starting tonight at 8 on Channels 22 and 26.