Today's cuppa: Barry's Classic Blend Irish tea
Just a quick reminder that "Larry the Cable Guy's Star-Studded Christmas Extravaganza" airs tonight on CMT. Below find the text of 
a syndicated feature story I did on the special, and here's a link to an
earlier blog post I did with Larry (a k a comic and actor Dan Whitney).
The guy on the phone says he's Larry the Cable Guy, the proudly redneck, sleeveless member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, known for saying "Git-r-done."
Then he says he's Dan Whitney.
And under neither name does he have a Southern accent.
"If it's a TV interview, I do it in character," he explains. "But if it's a paper interview, I just do it as myself."
A Nebraska native who spent part of his youth in Florida, where he now lives, actor/comic Whitney created Larry for a radio call-in show.
"This character was developed over the years," he says, "because I was a little kid, and I hung out with old farmers. All I did my whole childhood was hang out at a cattle barn and load and unload cattle trucks. I'd listen to their stories and listen to how they talk, and it made me laugh.
"Then when I went to Florida, I picked up the Southern accent. ... I just combined everything together and made that character."
While Larry doesn't look much like Santa Claus, an elf or a reindeer, he's now the centerpiece of his second Christmas special, a 90-minute show called "Larry the Cable Guy's Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza," airing Friday, Nov. 21, on Country Music Television (CMT).
Taped this past summer as a live, free event at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) in Nashville, the event features Toby Keith, Terry Bradshaw, Charlie Callas, Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall,
Lewis Black and Blake Shelton in pretaped segments.
Appearing with Larry the Cable Guy in comedy sketches are co-host Tony Orlando (who was the co-host of Larry's first Christmas special, last season on VH1), Fred Willard, Joey Fatone, Ross "The Intern" Matthews, ventriloquist Terry Fator, Victoria Jackson, Jennifer Aspen, Nadine Velazquez and Angela Little MacKenzie.
Montgomery Gentry, Rodney Atkins and Emily West perform musical numbers.
According to Whitney, the special is based on the classic Christmas variety shows of the 1970s.
"I grew up on Bing Crosby's show and Andy Williams'," he says. "They don't do them anymore."
As to why he thinks the variety show has gone out of fashion, Whitney says, "I have no idea. I couldn't tell you why, because people still like them. The people making the shows don't think people still like that anymore. I know people still like it.
"I always thought those variety shows were great, but everybody that used to do them are either dead or in their 90s. So, hopefully the special still continues to do good, because I'd like to do one every year."
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