The new Tom Green trades crass for class

When you talk about starting a new millennium off on the wrong foot, comedian Tom Green seemed to be in a league of his own for a while.

There was the brief, ill-fated marriage to actress Drew Barrymore. There was the release of “Freddie Got Fingered,” a movie so irredeemably awful that it even alienated many of Green’s hard-core fans.

And let’s not leave out the diagnosis of a testicular malignancy.

But when his reaction to the medical crisis was to produce a one-hour TV show on his treatment, “The Tom Green Cancer Special,” it was clear that this guy had some serious survivor karma working for him.

These days, the 32-year-old Canadian native is doing a lot more than merely surviving. His hourlong MTV gab-fest, “The New Tom Green Show” (airing weeknights at midnight), was just picked up for an additional 12 weeks after premiering in June, and some are calling his suddenly slick handling of the format “Lettermanesque.”

Few were making such comparisons back in 1999 when Green’s first effort for MTV was in production. The bizarre half-hour was an exercise in shock TV, not without its entertaining elements but definitely not for the prudish, squeamish and a whole lot of other “ishes.”

In filmed bits, Green molested farm animals, toyed with road kill, placed obscenely positioned nude sculptures on his parents’ front lawn, and generally misbehaved in a manner designed not to stretch the limits of good taste, but to put those limits through a shredder.

How out-there was he? Consider that next month’s DVD release of 2001’s “Freddy” includes a PG-rated version of the film. It’s three minutes long.

But Green has reinvented himself for the new talk show. The slacker attire and attitude are gone, and with them his previous predilection for seeing how quickly he could send guests running off screaming.

Now, dressed in stylish suits and settling in nicely behind a desk on a cool-looking set, the outrageousness has been dialed-down enough to allow him to conduct actual interviews with the likes of Marilyn Manson, Chris Kattan, Tom Arnold and Carmen Electra.

Wacky high jinks still ensue, but when things threaten to get totally out of hand, it’s still a trifle odd to hear the voice of reason coming out of Green’s mouth.