TV REVIEW : The Further Misadventures of the Boys of Spinal Tap

They’re aging. They’re vapid. They’re too bleedin’ loud. They play pseudo-mystical and occasionally even pseudo-satanic songs when not taking golf practice with Kenny Rogers. This could only be one. . . . Well, it could only be a few hundred bands, but in this case, at least, it’s Spinal Tap, returning to the screen after an eight-year absence in the hourlong special “A Spinal Tap Reunion� (tonight at 10 on NBC Channel 4).

This televised sequel to the satirical 1984 feature “This Is Spinal Tap� has the hapless lads from Leeds back together for a comeback concert at London’s Albert Hall--now they truly do know how many holes it takes to fill it, John Lennon--and reminiscing about glory days that never were in locales both English and American with fellow stars both real and fictional.

The concert setting provides new misadventures for these middle-aged juveniles, like the flying harnesses that don’t quite drop all the members down to stage level in the opening “Tonight We’re Gonna Rock You Tonight,� or the Stonehenge replica that this time is too big. A highlight familiar to tour veterans is Nigel Tufnel’s lengthy guitar solo during “Diva Fever�--including such post-Hendrixian stunts as throwing horseshoes at the instrument, or playing it with a toe while juggling--while, backstage, fellow band members get facials or leave for dinner.

True journeymen off-stage as well as on, Tufnel (Christopher Guest) demonstrates the collapsible wine glass he’s invented, singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) takes us by his wife’s New Age shop in Pomona and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) joins up again with his elderly dad’s failing phone-sanitizing service.

Some of the best bits involve “This Is Spinal Tap� players reprising their cameos, like ex-promotion man Artie Fufkin (Paul Shaffer) noting his dismissal for--what else--sexual harassment, or Lt. Hookstratten (a very funny Fred Willard) explaining how his unpopular decision to book the band at his Air Force base haunts him to this day. Celebrity reminiscings come from Jamie Lee Curtis, Martin Short--doing a hilarious ecstatic jig--and an uncharacteristically subdued Robin Williams, who’s so touched by his nostalgia he offs himself.

This “Reunion� is consistently amusing and captures some of the canniest moments of the recent real-life “Break Like the Wind� tour. Yet anyone familiar with Spinal Tap’s shtick can’t help but bemoan that the show should be even funnier. The three principals are all brilliant extended-improv comics and no doubt filmed hours of deadpan gems, but the special feels like it’s been pieced together by editors possessing only a minimal clue as to what’s riotous and what’s passable. Compared to the messiness of the filmmaking here, maybe “This Is Spinal Tap� director Marty Di Bergi (Rob Reiner) wasn’t such a hack after all. Then again, if the titular band had all the expert technical support it needed, it wouldn’t be Spinal Tap, would it?