LateLine [TV Series] (1998)

This just in: Nightline meets The Mary Tyler Moore Show in Lateline, an ensemble TV sitcom about a late-night news-and-issues series with a show-within-a-show format, incorporating real-life guests and using digital time updates and video to contrast "on-air" scenes with the filmed footage of the main story. Al Freundlich (Al Franken) is a correspondent on the latenight Lateline, a series headed by the somewhat sinister executive producer Vic Karp (Miguel Ferrer), with the help of sharp producer Gale Ingersoll (Megyn Price), assistant Mona (Catherine Lloyd Burns), witty guest booker Briana (Sanaa Lathan), intern Raji (Ajay Naidu), and anchorman Pearce McKenzie (Robert Foxworth). Al Franken (Saturday Night Live) and John Markus (Cosby Show) are the creators and executive producers, with Andy Ackerman (Seinfeld) producing and directing. Variety praised Lateline as "sly, edgy, spirited, charmingly cynical and populated by a bevy of lovable eccentrics who don't treat a punch line like a medicine ball." Premiered March 17, 1998 on NBC. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi