Maher bounces back after being fired by ABC

Bill Maher returns to television Friday night with the first of 13 new installments of his HBO public-affairs talk and comedy show, “Real Time With Bill Maher.”

His opening-night guest is Michael Moore — and Maher can’t wait.

“I hope I have a little more centrist appeal,” Maher says, comparing himself to Moore. “I do lean left, but there are plenty of times I have backed the conservatives — on the death penalty, unions, personal responsibility, the military.”

During his three months off, Maher missed the opportunity to discuss several key news events, including the prison scandal in Iraq. He’s been honing material by continuing his stand-up act, but can’t wait to start hosting a live talk show again.

“It’s always hard to get the momentum back,” Maher says, “and some of the audience is saying, ‘Oh, you’re coming back? I thought you were fired again.’ “

He chuckles.

Almost three years after making a Sept. 11-related remark on “Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher” that got him fired by Disney-owned ABC — Disney also being the corporation that refused to distribute Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” — Maher can afford to laugh.

Midway through his third season of “Real Time” (Fridays at 11 p.m.), he’s happier now. His show, and its guests and their interaction, are very different — entirely by design.

“When you do a one-hour show, especially on a pay-cable network with no commercials, you want to make that the best possible product you can,” Maher says. “The criterion for guests for the last show was fame.”

That mixture — a rock star here, a comic there, a congresswoman over there — “wore off over time,” Maher admits. “I look back and I think, ‘If I hadn’t gotten fired, I wouldn’t be happy still doing that.’ “

The “Real Time” format has evolved into a much more civilized and thoughtful program. It has similar elements each week: Maher begins with a brief monologue, conducts an interview via satellite, then welcomes three guests to the studio to debate whatever topics he throws their way.

He ends each show with “New Rules,” in which he elicits laughs even from such topics as the various regimes in Haiti (“Haiti is like that one store in the mall — whatever you put there, it doesn’t work”).

“I don’t want people yelling,” Maher says. “I did it 10 years ago. … I tell my guests beforehand, ‘We wouldn’t be yelling if we weren’t on TV, would we?’

“In 10 years, maybe those other shows will all be doing it this way — but I don’t think so, because it’s a lot harder to do. It’s easier to have a cockfight. And look, I used to do it. I’m telling you, my hands are dirty. But we outgrew it. This is a different era, different channel.”

It was Sept. 17, 2001, when Maher infamously said: “We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it’s not cowardly.”

That led to advertisers pulling out of the show, which led to his being fired.

“I was sitting under a sign that said ‘Politically Incorrect,’ ” Maher recalls, emphasizing the irony. “But it was a traumatic time. I get that. … I apologized for the timing. I never apologized for the content.”

What bothered him about ABC’s decision, Maher says, was that the people who got “Politically Incorrect” taken off the air were the ones who never watched it. He doesn’t consider it censorship, though, because he was able to land another show, getting a career boost in the process.

“All you have to do is fight back,” Maher says. “This country does give you that opportunity.”