It’s Showtime For Tufts Duo

Tufts graduates Hank Azaria and Oliver Platt are teaming up for the first time in “!Huff,” a new series premiering on Showtime this fall.

Los Angeles, Calif. [7-23-04] Hank Azaria and Oliver Platt first shared a stage as undergraduates at Tufts in the 1980s. Now the award-winning actors – who have found success on TV and at the box office – are working together once again, this time in a new series slated to premiere on Showtime this fall.

The series centers on “Huff,” a psychiatrist played by Azaria, who is forced to reevaluate his life after a patient commits suicide in his office. His lawyer and best friend, played by Platt, provides support and a window to reality while Huff sorts through his midlife crisis.

“Ironically,” reported The Boston Globe, “Azaria, who’s been single since he divorced Helen Hunt a few years ago, plays a devoted family man while Platt, who’s married in real life and has three children, plays a free-spirited, swinging single.”

The two Tufts graduates will be joined by a varied list of guest stars in their first season, including Annie Potts, Robert Forster, Bob Saget and Emmy nominee Lara Flynn Boyle. Azaria will also be a producer of the show.

In the two decades since Azaria and Platt worked together at Tufts, both men have been busy building Hollywood careers.

Azaria – an Emmy-winning actor best known for his voice work on The Simpsons – made his directorial debut earlier this year with Nobody’s Perfect, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Film Discovery Jury Award at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. He also wrote, produced and starred in the project.

He enjoys working in front of the camera but would direct again if given the opportunity.

“We’ll see if I get to keep doing it,” he told CNN’s Miles O’Brien. “Hollywood tends to let you know what it wants you to do.”

Currently, Azaria can be seen in Dodgeball with Ben Stiller -- who he recently worked with in Along Came Polly. He will also appear in the upcoming film Eulogy starring Ray Romano, Rip Torn and Famke Janssen.

Platt – who recently starred in the award-winning Pieces of April with Katie Holmes and Patricia Clarkson – finished a successful stint on West Wing and has been filming several new movies.

In the coming year, he will star opposite Liam Neeson in Bill Condon’s Kinsey – an intimate look at the life of revolutionary sex researcher, Alfred Kinsey.

And Platt has also just wrapped up shooting on location in Illinois for Harold Ramis’ Ice Harvest opposite John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton. Kinsey is due to hit theaters in November, while Ice Harvest is slated for a 2005 release.