Le Show

Le Show is a weekly syndicated public radio show hosted by satirist Harry Shearer and carried on many National Public Radio stations.

The show began in 1983 and ran under various titles for several months before "Le Show" was selected from the results of a listener contest.

The program is a bit of a hodgepodge -- satirical news commentary alternates with music and sketch comedy. Shearer, an impressionist who is probably best known for his voice work on The Simpsons, writes the sketches and performs all the voices.

Recurring features include:

• Apologies of the Week
• Tales of Airport Security (sent in by listeners)
• Bad Day at Black Rock (behind-the-scenes parody of CBS news)
• The Trades (Harry reads trade magazines)
• Extra Access Tonight (lampoon of various entertainment news shows)
• Strictly from Blackwell (Mr. Blackwell presents a show from Beverly Hills)

Among the presidential and political parodies are:

• Nixon in Heaven
• Clintonsomething
• 41 calls 43 (George H. W. Bush calls George W. Bush)
• Dick Cheney: Confidential (parody of hard-boiled detective stories)
• The Gore Room (Al Gore and Al Franken host a liberal talk radio show)

Le Show usually originates live on Sunday mornings from "The Le Show Dome" at KCRW in Santa Monica, ("The city known around the world," Shearer says in his signoff, "as the home? of the homeless.") but is occasionally recorded at other NPR stations when Shearer is on the road.