Interview: Dan Cortese is on a “Crash Course”

Dan Cortese is a fun actor to watch as we discovered on such sitcoms as What I Like About You, Veronica’s Closet and most recently, Surviving Suburbia.

But tonight on ABC, you can see Dan as his charming and funny self as co-host (with Orlando Jones) of Crash Course, a show that has five teams, including a set of neighbors, brothers-in-law, a married couple, a mother-son pair, and a couple of best friends, compete on an extreme driving course to win money.

The show premiered last week and airs at 9 p.m..

The very handsome Cortese, featured last month as a Greg In Hollywood Morning Man, insists that Crash Course is a lot more than just a competition show.

“What it really is is a comedy, a relationship show,” he says. “We’ve got five teams of two that compete and do these stunts that stuntmen don’t even get to do. You get to know and like or dislike these couples. We openly cheer against people and tell them to their face: “You suck! I want you to go home. I don’t like your attitude, I don’t like your wife.” It’s something completely different on television. It’s really a unique, fun show and what’s fun about it is it’s not a show that takes itself seriously.”

I wondered what appealed to Dan about the gig: “The very first show I ever did, MTV Sports, what was attractive about that and I think what made that successful was that there was nothing else like it on television and I got to do and say whatever I wanted to and they [edited] it the way they wanted to. Same thing with this one.”

And his enthusiasm is genuine.

“I’ve been doing this for 19 years and you know when you’re promoting something that’s a piece of shit and you know when you’re promoting something that’s good,” he admits. “Look, this show isn’t curing cancer but it’s a fun show to watch. We liken it to when you drive fast you crash on the road and everyone slows down to look. You get to do that for an hour with this show.”

Okay, he has made the case for Crash Course pretty convincingly so I’ll tune in. Even if it is crap, I’ll get to see Dan who I have been absolutely smitten with since he co-starred as Jennie Garth’s fireman boyfriend-then-hubby on the sitcom What I Like About You. The two enjoyed wonderful comic chemistry on the show Dan says made him especially popular among moms and their daughters.

“That was some of my best work,” Dan says. “I would read these scripts and every day I would go to work and say to Karen Lucas, who was the showrunner at the time, and I’d say, ‘No guy would ever say this to a woman.’ She’s like, “Shut up. It’s my fantasy. That’s why you’re a fireman, that’s why we have you in tight shirts. Just read the lines.”

I tell Dan he was every woman’s dream, every gay man’s dream.

“That’s good!” he said, laughing. “A fan is a fan. I’ll take it as long as I can get it.”

Dan, who turns 42 in two weeks, has worked continuously in television with his other series being Rock Me, Baby and The Single Guy.

“It is one of those things with television where it’s ‘Dan’s great at playing the good looking dumb guy, that’s what he does. If you need a good looking dumb guy who can hit his mark and hit the punchline, he’s your guy. It is tough to play against type.”

While Dan has perfected playing the handsome good guy, he relishes any opportunity he gets to play bad like he did during a stint on the original Melrose Place as the brother of Jake Hansen (Grant Show).

“I got to play a guy who killed two people on CSI: Miami and I loved it!”

He laughs, realizing it sounds a little twisted, then explains: “It’s something you can sink your teeth into. An interrogation scene with David Caruso. It’s so different than what I’m used to getting so when you do get a job like that, you’re excited about it.”

“I always want to play against type,” he adds. “The fact that I’ve basically made my living as a television actor, in television you tend to get pigeonholed where they’ll be like, ‘You know who we need for this? We need Dan because Dan plays that guy.” But I would love to have like a film role where I could play completely against type. I love dark movies, I like dark comedies. Anything like that that.”

Below are pics from two of Dan’s sitcoms, What I Like About You and Veronica’s Closet. He’s an asset to any show!