Frank Caliendo has always known TV's best moments come late at night.

"I loved 'Saturday Night Live' as a kid," he says. "Those were the days of Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman and Mike Myers."

Now, Caliendo gets his chance. "Frank TV," a swirl of sketches and impersonations, begins a trial run tonight.

Despite his passion for "Saturday Night Live," he didn't get a slot on that show. Instead he did "MAD-tv," not the same springboard. "MADtv people get lost ... That was my great frustration," says Caliendo, 33.

He's been found again. People catch him on "Fox NFL Sunday" and now on his own show.

Getting that far wasn't easy.

Caliendo grew up in Waukesha, Wis., and went to the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He was doing stand-up comedy, strong on impressions, when Barry Katz, a manager and producer ("Last Comic Standing") spotted him.

"He said, 'Fly out to Los Angeles and we'll talk to NBC,' " Caliendo says. "Pretty soon, I was having all these meetings."

The result was "Hype," with young comics doing impressions. It was on WB in 2000, but only for 13 episodes.

That's when Caliendo joined Fox's "MADtv," which wasn't a perfect fit. "It was a little bit over the top," he says. "That isn't my favorite style."

Still, his career flourished. Caliendo began doing Fox's football pre-game show, making predictions as various characters, especially John Madden.

That's a bigger-than-life guy. "Some people tell me they expected me to be 6-foot-4 or something," Caliendo says.

Actually, he's 5-feet-6 and 215 pounds. He's resisted being limited to impersonating wide-bodied people.

Caliendo can just as easily become the thin Al Pacino or the thick Phil McGraw of the "Dr. Phil" show. He does George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, even a blending of David Letterman and Jay Leno.

The key is to give each one good material.

"Clinton will look at you and say, 'I am not here. What is 'here,' anyway?' "

Naturally, some people aren't amused.

"Madden won't come near me, (but Jay) Leno likes me," Caliendo said. "Letterman let me do Dave and Paul (Shaffer) on his show."

A series is difficult for a guy who does sketches. Still, one such show worked well for Dave Chappelle.

That's a starting point for Caliendo's show.

"It's kind of 'Chappelle's Show' meets 'Saturday Night Live' meets 'The Muppet Show,' " he says.

Chappelle simply introduced sketches.

The Muppets went further, creating an in-studio gang between sketches.

Caliendo will do the latter, becoming many of the characters. Some parts will be taped in advance. Others will be done with a studio audience.

"I might be talking and Al Pacino will be sweeping up, grumbling," Caliendo says. "John Madden might be out in the audience. Al Pacino and Robert De Niro might be like Statler and Waldorf, the two old guys on 'The Muppet Show'."

That would involve constantly criticizing the show. Life is hard when you're being critiqued by movie mobsters.