‘Huff’ Just What The Doctor Ordered

A new series on Showtime starring two Tufts graduates, Hank Azaria and Oliver Platt, is reaping accolades from both critics and viewers.

Medford/Somerville, Mass. [11.29.04] Friends and former Tufts drama standouts Hank Azaria and Oliver Platt share the stage in Showtime’s successful, eclectic new series “Huff,” which has been met with critical acclaim since its fall debut.

“It’s about how everybody’s screwed up and fantastic at the same time,” star Azaria said to The New York Times.

Azaria plays psychiatrist Craig “Huff” Huffstodt, a character facing a midlife crisis precipitated by a patient’s suicide in his office. His relationships with his wife, son, mother and schizophrenic brother also come into play.

“Most people don’t wake up until they learn they’re going to die,” Bob Lowry, the show’s creator, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “The suicide is Huff’s wakeup call.” Lowry remarked to The Washington Post that his show was “the only existential comedy-drama on television.”

Azaria described his character to the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a responsible, hard-working, honest guy who’s discovering he can’t save anyone. He’ll be lucky if he saves himself.”

Azaria also told the Times that his own experiences in therapy made him “feel like I understand the dynamic.” He even showed the first two scripts of the show to his own psychiatrist to get a second opinion, so to speak, on their authenticity.

Lowry told The New York Times that Azaria was chosen for the lead role because “he’s an incredible comic actor and he also can be very poignant and heartbreaking. Huff, the character, is not a one-note character.”

While many folks are used to hearing Azaria – even if they don’t know it’s him – voicing characters like Apu and Chief Wiggum on “The Simpsons,” or shining in bit parts in “The Birdcage” or on “Mad About You,” the actor is grateful for a chance to flex his dramatic skills.

“I’m usually the guy who’s bouncing off the walls,” he told The New York Times. “It’s fun to be quiet and still in the center of something as opposed to some kind of scene-stealing freak.”

The show, which draws comparisons to HBO’s dark “Six Feet Under,” was regarded as so promising that Showtime ordered two season’s worth before the premiere even aired.

“You don’t often read a script this good,” Azaria told USA Today.

By virtue of being on cable, the show’s writers can take greater liberties with the characters – particularly Platt’s.

Platt plays Huff’s friend Russell Tupper, a character the Los Angeles Times calls “the show’s anarchic life force.” He portrays a self-centered lawyer who indulges in illicit encounters with women and drugs.

“Russell is a very, very good lawyer, and like a lot of high-functioning professionals he is a victim of his own compulsive behavior,” Platt told the Los Angeles Times. “Professionals [like him] tend to lubricate their denial and think that they don’t have a problem.”

While Azaria and Platt are friends in real-life, the friendship in the show between Huff and Tupper is a more complex one, as the psychiatrist silently watches his lawyer and friend indulge in self-destructive behavior.

“There are times when Huff wants to say more and doesn’t,” Azaria described to the Los Angeles Times.

While Azaria is no stranger to television – he has successful stints on “The Simpsons,” “Friends,” and “Mad About You” under his belt, but his NBC sitcom “Imagine That” was cancelled in 2002 after just two episodes – “Huff” is a shift in format.

“This is my first hour drama, and we really hit new heights,” he told USA Today. “The series builds, and by episode three it’s very intense and funny at the same time.”

While initially reluctant to return to a starring television role following the failure of his sitcom, Azaria realized that “Huff” wouldn’t be like other shows.

“I realized cable was the place for me,” he told the Inquirer. “You can go to those dark, weird, harsh places if you want to.”

Azaria shifts formats again in “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” a theatre side project that opens in Chicago in mid December and heads to Broadway in February.

With its blend of drama and comedy, “Huff” appears to defy convention – The Los Angeles Times called the show “richly curious.” Azaria just calls it honest.

“Life tends to hand you a lot of horror, happiness, joy, misery and sadness,” he told the Times. “That’s what we’re shooting for.”