'POLITICALLY INCORRECT' SWAN SONG IS TONIGHT

It's pretty clear that Bill Maher thinks ABC and its parent company,
Disney, never got the joke.

"I guess they thought all those years ago when I said 'Politically
Incorrect' was the name of the show that I was kidding," Maher said in a
recent interview. "But I wasn't kidding, and I'm proud of that. I'd rather
lose the show than who I am."

And losing the show -- "Politically Incorrect" -- is precisely what
happened to the contrary, iconoclastic, sharp-tongued Maher. Tonight's
installment of his political talkfest (12:05 a.m. Saturday, Ch. 7) will be
his last after four seasons on Comedy Central and five on ABC.

The network pulled the plug on the veteran stand-up comedian, who often
appears in concert and at clubs in the Bay Area, back in May. His show --
which features four celebrities hashing over the news of the day with Maher
- -- will initially be replaced by "Up Close," a "Nightline" spinoff with Ted
Koppel as host. But in January, the bad boy of late night TV will see his
spot taken by yet another "politically incorrect" comedian: Jimmy Kimmel,
the co-host of Comedy Central's testosterone-drenched "The Man Show."

But while Kimmel comes off as a jovial good ol' boy -- his sly,
self-deprecating wit helps -- Maher was anything but warm and cuddly. He
was arch, snide and often condescending. That was what made his show a hit
when it first came on the air; it was also what eventually ended
"Politically Incorrect."

This season probably would have been Maher's last since ABC was pretty open
in its desire to find a late-night show that could draw more than the 2.5
million viewers who regularly tuned into "Politically Correct."

But the flash point that triggered the show's demise came on Sept. 17,
Maher's first night back on the air after Sept. 11. Conservative
commentator Dinesh D'Souza, a regular on the show, had opined that the
terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon were cowards.

"We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away,"
Maher snapped back. "That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits
the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."

It was a classic Maher riff but this one triggered potshots from the White
House, a boycott by advertisers and the desertion of several key ABC
affiliates. If ABC had any doubts about ending Maher's run, they were
pretty much washed away on one night.

There are lots of reasons "Politically Incorrect" will be missed. Maher was
a different, if sometimes irritating, voice on the political and cultural
scene. The show tackled issues and offered perspectives on issues that are
largely absent elsewhere on TV. (Maher himself was liberal on some issues,
conservative on others and Libertarian on many.) And celebrity guests --
actors, sports stars, comedians -- often proved more articulate than you
might have thought.

But over the past two years, you could see the show petering out. Some of
what Maher tried was forced, striving for controversy when there was no
real controversy to be found. The show had started to dip down to
third-tier celebrities who couldn't compete with Maher's fast wit and
caustic commentary.

In other words, "Politically Incorrect" was starting to show its age, and
its place in American pop culture was starting to slip away.

So tune in tonight for one last 30 minutes with Maher -- conservative
commentators Ann Coulter and Arianna Huffington, comedian Christopher Reid
and singer-actress Michelle Phillips are the guests -- and enjoy one last
debate. It's doubtful we'll see anything like "Politically Incorrect" again
on network TV any time soon.