
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 28, 1990                   TAG: 9007280434
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: 22   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAMES ENDRST THE HARTFORD COURANT
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

PROMOTERS OF CARTOON CLAN DON'T EXPECT RATINGS VICTORY

You don't have to tell Matt Groening, creator of Fox Broadcasting's mega-hit "The Simpsons," that he's got a genuine social phenomenon on his hands.

He's seen all those bootleg T-shirts, too.

"Rampant copyright infringement is the sincerest form of flattery," said Groening at a news conference the other day here, where he and co-executive producers James L. Brooks and Sam Simon were promoting the show.

"I've never been around something with this kind of heat and this kind of momentum," added the Oscar- and Emmy-winning Brooks ("Broadcast News" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show").

But can Fox's cartoon clan - which premiered Sunday nights last January and took off like a ratings rocket - go head-to-head Thursday nights with "The Cosby Show" on NBC and win?

"We actually have an office pool about how we're going to do on our premiere," says Simon, "and I can tell you nobody's predicting a victory over `The Cosby Show.'"

If anything, Fox executives and those involved with the show try to play down the competition, noting that Cosby was "the champ" and that they were expecting nothing more than a second-place finish, one that would give them a toehold on a new night of programming.

Even Fox Entertainment President Peter Chernin says, "There's no one in this company who looks at this as `let's take on "The Cosby Show."' We think if we're really lucky and very fortunate, we're hoping to come in second place."

But if the new episodes, which aren't expected to show up until mid-to-late October, are as good as they sound, who knows?

On the drawing board for America's favorite cartoon clan this fall:

Homer tries a Minoxidil-like product that results in a mane of shoulder-length hair and thus wins him a spot in the executive program at the power plant. Homer also wins a place in the heart of his new male secretary, (with voice by Harvey Fierstein), who has an "unrequited attraction" to the newly coiffed Homer.

Fierstein is just one of a number of special guest voices who will appear in next season's 22-episode order. (There have been only 13 episodes so far, not including the 30-second bits on Fox's "The Tracey Ullman Show," where "The Simpsons" got its start.)

Keep an ear out for James Earl Jones, Tony Bennett and Kelsey Grammer.

Also planned is a Halloween special told in "Tales From the Crypt" fashion that Simon says "may be a little too scary for some of our viewers," enough so that the episode will start with a viewer advisory.

Cowabunga! The Huxtables are gonna have a cow when they hear about this.

by CNB