| This article is � The Morning Call Newspaper Company Click here to conduct another search Date: Sunday, September 8, 1991 Page: F01 Edition: THIRD Section: ARTS & LEISURE Column: Corrections: Memo: NETWORKS' CURES APPEAR WORSE THAN LAST YEAR'S MALADIES by SYLVIA LAWLER, The Morning Call Where have all the viewers gone? Away. What are network programmers doing this season to woo them back? Not a heckuva lot that would make a body sit up and take notice. Burned by last season's quirky failures like "Cop Rock" and even the trendy-for-a-time "Twin Peaks," the networks reacted with singularly unimaginative remedies. Instead of striking out for new territory, what they did after they yanked 16 of prime time's hour-long dramas like "China Beach," "thirtysomething" and "Equal Justice" was pull their heads back into their shells and retreat into the tried and true. Based on recent screenings of most of the pilot episodes that sold 27 new series to the three networks and Fox Broadcasting, there seems not a lot to get excited about. With few exceptions, nobody's taking chances. This could be a season like last, one that produces not a "Roseanne" or a "Murphy Brown," not a single memorable break-away-from-the-pack hit. Then again, if you're thrilled with having Redd Foxx back on television, you might react differently. Of the newcomers that will be butting heads in a bid for your attention over the next three weeks, 18 are prime time television's most saleable commodities -- half-hour comedies. I wish I could say I laughed a lot. ABC dumped its quality dramas last May to add more of those comedy half-hours to its schedule. With combined network viewership dropping below the 60 percent mark, the networks locked in their tightest race in years, the advertising dollars declining and the bean counters tightening their hold on corporate purse strings, the Big 3's pledge that "there'll be some changes made" rings a little hollow. Not this year. Fox tried to break the traditional concept of a season, the one that sees all the new horses charge out of the starting gate at the same time each fall, by announcing plans for a 52-week year (although the fourth network-wannabe still only fields five nights a week of programming). Fox launched the gladiatorial "Ultimate Challenge," the promising "Roc" and fresh episodes of its surprise hit, "Beverly Hills 90210" this past summer. But the networks says their studies show that viewers get out of the television habit in summer, not returning until after Labor Day, so why waste the resources? And, in a statement unmatched for candor, ABC Entertainment president Robert Iger said his network would give up its chances at winning the season in the interests of profitability. Iger says he'll hold back his more original programming to deliver financial gain during the all-important May sweeps period. Meanwhile, NBC and CBS say they want to regain their former status as givers of quality, but the reality as seen in several of their pilots suggests otherwise. CBS says further that its cost structure has been contained over the recent painful years, that this is the year it will emerge as king of Nielsen's hill, thanks to ratings momentum supplied by the World Series, Super Bowl and Winter Olympics. But I saw nothing to equal its latest critical and popular series successes, "Evening Shade," "Northern Exposure" or "The Trials of Rosie O'Neill." Will there be a place for the thoughtful viewer this season? It's usually thorny to tell from screening a single pilot episode that may not turn out to be typical of a series -- and in the case of Gary David Goldberg's ("Family Ties") new entry, "Brooklyn Bridge," there was no pilot, only a script to read -- but generally I'd say that the familiar look and sound even of the touted, quirky "Torkelsons" resembled business as usual, recycled business at that. Two of the dramas (three if you count Goldberg's comedy-drama half hour "Brooklyn Bridge" set in 1956 Flatbush) share the idea of the past as prologue. Whether it's just a nod to nostalgia, coincidence or something more, both Sam Waterston's new series "I'll Fly Away" and the ensemble post-war drama "Homefront" are set in formative times that laid the groundwork for the America of today. ("The Carol Burnett Show," which moves from half-hour anthological repertory on NBC to a one-hour variety format on CBS, will not debut until Nov. 1.) Here are glances at the six new dramas or comedy-dramas that bow this month and next: "I'll Fly Away" -- Waterston, playing a single parent very much in the lawyerly Atticus Finch mold assumed by Gregory Peck in "To Kill a Mockingbird," shares billing with Regina Taylor, as his household's black housekeeper. It's the South in the late 1950s, and the winds of change whistle through the conservative racial and social politics of the day. This is a caring show, one you want to like enormously and not only because it's about a small town prosecutor forced to re-evaluate his stance on racial equality. Joshua Brand and Josh Falsey, the creators/producers who wrought "Northern Exposure," "A Year in the Life" and "St. Elsewhere," are known for concocting a special quality and they have. It's a sweet, well-meaning piece of work, but whether it can gather steam leading off the night is something else again. There's nothing wrong with slow, unless you find yourself looking at your watch too often. And for me, Waterston is competent but overrated. If this series can't hold an audience leading into the two dramas that follow, the established "Heat of the Night" and the marvelous but less solid "Law and Order," look out. Audiences have a clear choice against the comedies "Full House" and "Home Improvement" and the reality-based "Rescue: 911." (8 p.m. Tuesday on NBC beginning Oct. 7 and 8) "Homefront" -- World War II has just ended and in River Run, Ohio, the tumult of adjustment is beginning as the GIs come home. There are KILROY signs, soda fountain counters made of marble, war brides who find resentment in a strange country, and blacks and women who feel displaced and under-appreciated in their own. There is also a large assortment of characters and relationships among three households to get straight. Best-known names in a large cast are sitcom veteran Mimi Kennedy, Kyle Chandler ("China Beach") and Sammi Voss-Davis ("Hope and Glory"). This is the series that displaces "thirtysomething" on the schedule and who knows what the resentment factor is among those unhappy devotees. More seriously, this hour from the makers of "Knots Landing" is more soap than it is "The Best Years of Our Lives," managing to trivialize both substance and events. I'll stick with the meticulous, compelling "Law and Order" on NBC. (10 p.m. Tuesday on ABC beginning Sept. 24). "Reasonable Doubts" -- Pair up two unlikelys: hunky leading man Mark Harmon as a stubborn police detective and the indomitable Marlee Matlin as a deaf assistant district attorney. Get past that hook, with its crafty sexual tensions, and you find a well-made but ordinary police drama. Could it prove to be more than a gimmick is the question. From the makers of "Midnight Caller," this is the kind of series that makes NBC affiliate managers uneasy. Matlin both speaks and signs her role, meaning Harmon often has to relate her thoughts to us. For me, it struck sparks but lit no flames. Its opposition is the news magazine "20/20" and newcomer "Palace Guard." (10 p.m. Friday on NBC beginning Sept. 27). "Palace Guard" -- The prolific Stephen J. Cannell ("The A-Team," "Wiseguys," "Hunter") is at it again with not one, but two series on the fall schedule. Filmed in Vancouver, B.C., "Palace Guard" is another action-adventure, this one about a reformed cat burglar (D.W. Moffett) who gets to head security at a plush hotel chain where Tony LoBianco calls the shots. The love interest is played by Marcy Walker (ex-"Santa Barbara" and Mrs. Stephen Collins in private life). I didn't see it, but those who did dismissed it as more of the same, which usually means popular rather than critical appeal. (10 p.m. Tuesday on CBS beginning Oct. 18) "The Commish" -- Also from Cannell, but with a few appreciable differences. Michael Chiklis (who played John Belushi in "Wired") is the kind of hands-on police commissioner most of us suspect doesn't exist. He's an opera-loving super-cop, with a heart, common sense and love for his men and his wife (Theresa Saldana). And he's smart enough to know a delusional schizophrenic when he sees one. Cannell delivers more comedy than usual in this drama, which offers the unusual device of having several of its characters unburden themselves directly to the camera. Worth a second look. (10 p.m. Saturday on ABC beginning Oct. 5) "P.S.I. Luv U." -- "P.S.I. Luv U." -- Comedy-adventure starring Connie Sellecca as a con artist-turned-informant forced to pose as the wife of a New York cop (Greg Evigan) in the witness protection program in Palm Springs where they work for Palm Security Investigators (P.S.I.). Sellecca turned up her nose at "Baby Talk" for this one. Stylish as usual though, even if it doesn't leave you wanting more. (A two-hour preview at 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 15; moving to its regular time period at 10 p.m. Saturday beginning Sept. 21.) All told, not very valuable trade-ins for the critically-acclaimed hours we lost. In tomorrow's A.M. Magazine: TV fall preview, Part 2, the comedies. 3 PHOTOS by UNKNOWN. CAPTION: `Homefront' with David Newsom and Sarah Brewer is more soap than substance. CAPTION: `Palace Guard' may have mass appeal. CAPTION: Connie Sellecca and Greg Evigan star in `P.S., I. Luv u' Saturdays on CBS. top | feedback | search archives | home | sitemap � 2000 THE MORNING CALL Inc. Marketplace Archive Access Changing |