You may have been too busy watching fancy fare like Top of the Lake or Bates Motel to care, really, but the 16th season of Dancing with the Stars premiered last night.
This go-around features your fit Olympians, Aly Raisman and Dorothy Hamill; your professional reality star Bachelor, Sean Lowe; and, naturally, Andy Dick, who may just be the show's breakout star. So there's that.
Yes, Dick, the actor and "comedian" probably best known for his innumerable drug problems and various outbursts, is being hailed as the underdog of the season. The New York Post ran with the headline: "Can Andy Dick Save 'Dancing with The Stars?'" Which, no, but okay.
Dick's message on the show was all apologies and redemption—this coming from the man who Jon Lovitz has held responsible for Phil Hartman's death—but he apparently impressed the judges, landing in second to last place. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba told him, per the Post's Sean Daly, that there is something "charming" about him. ("Charming" is a turnaround for the man whose name is associated with public urination and anti-semitic tirades.) She continued: "You reminded me of watching the ugly duckling come to life. You touched me with that dance."
Even Entertainment Weekly recapper Annie Barrett was impressed, even though she writes that Dick's segment started out as kind of depressing: "But the depressing part melted away during their foxtrot—turns out Andy Dick really is taking this seriously and has…wait for it…a decent sense of rhythm!"
Daley posits that Dick's presence, good or bad, might help boost ratings, given that he's something of a loose cannon to put it lightly. So America, or at least the portion of America who watches DWTS, are you ready to let Andy Dick back into your hearts? Was he ever in your hearts? (Probably not, right?)
You can him rehearsing here:
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