I don&#8217;t know what it is about journalists interviewing people they idolized/heroized/admired in their youth, but the experience is rarely satisfying.</p><p>Such was the case when I had 20 minutes in person with rock &#8217;n&#8217; roll hall-of-famer Elvis Costello in Los Angeles this summer. He wasn&#8217;t giving many one-on-ones and the interview series he was promoting, &#8220;Spectacle With Elvis Costello&#8221; (premiering at 8 p.m. Wednesday on Sundance Channel), looked promising.</p><p>Only later, after I posted an account of my train wreck with Costello, would I learn from other journalists that it was perfectly natural to feel like I&#8217;d spent 20 minutes chasing a squirrel around a barn.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s probably my favorite musician but also has the most breathtaking ego of any I&#8217;ve talked to, which is saying something,&#8221; wrote one veteran beat writer.</p><p>At one point I tried to ask Costello how &#8220;Spectacle&#8221; would or would not be like the HBO program &#8220;Off the Record,&#8221; another interview show hosted by a rocker (Dave Stewart). He said they weren&#8217;t alike at all and added, &#8220;Do you think we could have any programs about using forensics to solve crimes? We could do with a few more programs like that.&#8221;</p><p>OK, thanks for not being too sarcastic about it.</p><p>Costello went on to say that while HBO only puts snippets of musical performances on &#8220;Off the Record,&#8221; Sundance&#8217;s &#8220;Spectacle&#8221; features complete numbers, three per hour. That&#8217;s a major difference, and the one that makes &#8220;Spectacle&#8221; a show worth seeing even when a less than A-list guest is on. (Season 1 features such one-time luminaries as Smokey Robinson, Lou Reed and James Taylor.)</p><p>I&#8217;ve read reports that taping sessions for &#8220;Spectacle&#8221; were less than riveting. &#8220;Poor Elvis was out of his element,&#8221; wrote a blogger for <em>New York Magazine</em> after audience members filed out of a taping that just wouldn&#8217;t end. &#8220;You had to wonder who talked him into this.&#8221;</p><p>But the finished versions of &#8220;Spectacle&#8221; I&#8217;ve seen definitely stick to the screen.</p><p>Costello &#8212; who filled in wonderfully well for David Letterman during his sick leave a few years back &#8212; does no better than hold his own with guests. It&#8217;s the music that makes this show. Elvis accompanying Lou Reed on &#8220;Set the Twilight Reeling.&#8221; Elvis, Elton John (who&#8217;s a producer on &#8220;Spectacle&#8221;) and Allen Toussaint on &#8220;Working in a Coal Mine.&#8221;</p><p>And of course, Elvis being Elvis. He usually opens each hour with his own band, augmented by guest musicians &#8212; he and Toussaint do an inspired version of Elton&#8217;s &#8220;Border Song,&#8221; while guitarist James Burton (who once backed the other Elvis) is an MVP during the hour with Bill Clinton.</p><p>Costello&#8217;s wife, Diana Krall, is the guest on one of the 13 episodes this season, though she is actually interviewed by Sir Elton. But she also pops up during the Tony Bennett episode, where the songmeister announces she&#8217;ll be accompanying him on a number, an apparently unrehearsed moment &#8212; &#8220;I am?&#8221; says Krall.</p><p>I like the serious, gimmick-free approach of the show. For instance, Clinton spends most of an hour talking with Costello but isn&#8217;t asked to pick up his saxophone. He is on stage, however, when Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny perform a solemn instrumental with the politically charged title of &#8220;Is This America (Katrina 2005)?&#8221;