mandy patinkin

movies, on TV and on Broadway, Mandy Patinkin has played an FBI criminologist, a surgeon at a Chicago hospital, a vengeful swordsman, the revolutionary Che Guevara, even the devil.

In concert, Patinkin plays a mailman. He doesn't put on a postal uniform or wear a bag on his shoulder, but that's how he thinks of himself as he delivers the words and music of great songwriters. "These guys are phenomenally gifted," he says. "I just get to be the mailman."

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"These guys" include Randy Newman, Paul Simon, Adam Guettel, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Claude-Michel Schonberg, Stephen Sondheim ("always"), Yip Harburg, Rodgers and Hammerstein. They're the creators of songs Patinkin himself would have written, he says, "if I could write."

He may not write songs, but Patinkin and his piano accompanist, Paul Ford, have a handle on some 10 hours' worth of them, which means that a Patinkin concert is never entirely predictable. He keeps track of which songs he sang the last time he performed in a particular venue and tries not to repeat them, although he makes exceptions.

Sometimes he and Ford change the program during the sound check, or even in the middle of a show. They keep a lot of sheet music handy, he says.

Although he's better known for his acting, thanks to movies and TV, Patinkin's first love is singing. He's constantly on the lookout for good stage roles, singing or non-singing. "I'm meeting with everyone in the theater about everything under the sun."

He's choosy. He might leap at the chance to do Shakespeare, Chekhov, Albee or Arthur Miller, but isn't overly excited about contemporary scripts. Much of "the material that exists for actors is not challenging for me. It's the same kind of work."

This may explain why Patinkin, 54, recently gave up the starring role as FBI profiler Jason Gideon on the CBS TV series "Criminal Minds."

"All we're able to say is that it's because of creative differences," Patinkin says, reiterating his official statement. "You're welcome to think whatever you like," he says, "but I'm very grateful to be free," especially to concentrate on music.

He is working on an album of cantorial (Jewish liturgical) songs and, in addition to his solo concerts, Patinkin performs concerts with Patti LuPone. He and LuPone costarred in "Evita" on Broadway. (Both won Tony Awards in 1980.) They have an eight-concert run scheduled for late October in Philadelphia. "We hope to do that throughout the rest of our lives," Patinkin says.

Patinkin, who is married and has two sons, is a noted model railroader. He is aware that the Macomb Center, where he performs Friday, isn't far from the Lionel Trains Visitor's Center in Chesterfield Township. He may not go this time
So tonight is the season premiere of CBS's semi-hit Criminal Minds, which means we're also nearing the finale for Mandy Patinkin's tenure on Criminal Minds. You may recall that the temperamental actor refused to show up to the set of his program when shooting began on the new season back in July, and eventually quit the show entirely, citing "creative differences." (In a hilarious move, the person who winkingly told reporters that "'creative differences' is a euphemism for 'personal issues'" was not some unnamed insider but the president of CBS Entertainment.)

But Patinkin, who is being replaced by Joe Mantegna, returned to shoot a finale for his character, Jason Gideon. We're sure that wasn't awkward at all. ("Uh, hey everyone, I left you all in the lurch and doomed the show, but I just wanted to come back to say good-bye!")

Tonight's episode is a holdover from last season ― a case set on a college campus that was reportedly pulled owing to similarities to the Virginia Tech massacre. So it's unclear whether this is Patinkin's swan song or whether that happens next week. But whenever it does happen, how will Patinkin go out? Certainly in our dreams it's with a full song-and-dance number, but given the grimness of Criminal Minds, it's more likely he's facing a grisly decapitation. Luckily, Joe Mantegna is on the case!

This is one of the most competitive hours of the week with few scripted series to be found: Deal or No Deal (NBC at 8), Kid Nation (CBS, E! at 8), Dancing With the Stars' results show (ABC, CTV at 8) and America's Next Top Model (CW, Citytv at 8). Only Fox and Global are a bit different with the sitcoms Back to You (both networks at 8) and 'Til Death (both networks at 8:30). Another alternative can be found on PBS, which offers 2 1/2 hours of Ken Burns' seven-part documentary series The War (WNED at 8).

9 P.M. TO 10 P.M.

The biggest gamble of the season? Can Joe Mantegna really replace Mandy Patinkin on Criminal Minds? The actor, last seen as a regular on Joan of Arcadia, agreed to join the series after Patinkin surprised everyone when he announced he wouldn't be coming back for another year, though it's possible he may still show up tonight in a few scenes. In the season premiere, called "Doubt," a college is shut down when a killer goes after female students. Note that tonight CTV airs this one before Dancing With the Stars (CTV at 7; CBS at 9).

10 P.M. TO 11 P.M.

I still say Life (10 p.m., NBC and Global) faces almost insurmountable survival chances up against Dirty Sexy Money (10 p.m. on ABC) and an old standby, CSI: New York (CBS, CTV at 10). CSI: NY's new season opens with Mac (Gary Sinise) and his team finding blood on the crown of the Statue of Liberty, the work of a vigilante killer who is after a well known musician.

In honor of the new fall TV season, I've been developing a show of my own.

It's called "BFF," which is the text-messaging term for Best Friend Forever. You hear BFF everywhere now, in cellphone commercials, on TV shows, in everyday conversation. Since this phenomenon is so prevalent and annoying, it's a natural for a laugh-tracky new sitcom.

"You're my BFF," the little guy says.

"You're my BFF too," I tell him right back.

See, that's how it works. Till recently, I've never been a big believer in friendship. Now I believe that friends can be worthwhile, even enjoyable.

"BFF" will star Greg Kinnear as me, a guy in search of a best friend who instead ends up married and living in the suburbs with his four children, none of whom like him very much, unless it's Friday night and they need money for Starbucks or some insipid Dane Cook movie.

When that's the case, they'll come slinking around with their hands out and smiling like Ryan Seacrest. In fact, Seacrest will probably star as one of the children. Probably the oldest daughter, lovely and patient.

"Hey, Daddy," Seacrest will say, "can you please pay my rent this month?"

This stuff just writes itself. The little girl, meanwhile, will be played by Little Red Riding Hood (out of work since the '60s), who will flounce around in too-tight jeans, screaming, "MY PRINTER DOESN'T WORK! MY PRINTER DOESN'T WORK!" The boy will be played by the Big Bad Wolf, who usually won't audition but we'll insist.

The little guy? He'll be played by the little guy himself, who, like me, can't distinguish between TV and real life, so we'll be able to sign him very, very cheap. My wacky, fun-loving friends Paul and Don? Tim Conway and Mandy Patinkin. They'll be married -- you know, to give it the "edge" today's TV requires.

And that's our little show. Oh, wait, I forgot to cast my wife. Is Ingrid Bergman available? What about Hepburn? Either Audrey or Kate will do.

Whoever it is, she'd need to have a smile like sunlight through a wineglass and the sense of smell of a fine chocolatier. My wife, she's always smelling things I can't. Faint little personal gases and dead things under the house. It's like she has an extra nose somewhere.

"Maybe Dana Delany," I say.

"Maybe what?" she asks.

"To play you on TV," I say.

I like to toss it out there, the long-shot notion that my wife will soon be the subject of a prime-time show. She seems so depressed lately. Each morning, I can see the fatigue in her face, a melancholy that sweeps across her pretty jaw line like moon shadow.

It's caused by the mind-numbing vocals of yet another early-morning children's show. The Wiggles, of course, are the worst -- four metrosexuals in "Star Trek" shirts who look like they've had too much Thorazine. Our parents had Sinatra. We have the Wiggles.

"It's a Wiggily party. . . . " they sing over and over and over and over and over and over, till God gets a migraine.

"I really need a vacation," my wife said the other morning.

"Like I don't need a vacation?"