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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 16, 1991                   TAG: 9102160357
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Ben Beagle
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

YOU `THIRTYSOMETHING' PEOPLE CAN KEEP YOUR SOAP OPERA

You may also have been asked how you felt about Nancy Weston's ovarian cancer.

If you are like me, you had no idea what "thirtysomething" is.

It is a television series and if I didn't spend all my nights either trying to finish "Bleak House" at last or to keep from falling asleep too early, I would have known this.

Although I have not seen this show, it seems to me to be very close to a soap opera, which I have shunned since the late 1930s.

I felt a little guilty and did some research after drawing a blank on Gary and Nancy.

This research, on behalf of all of you ignorant clowns, was detailed, serious and thorough - the kind that men and women in this profession are highly trained to do.

That is, I punched up this basket on the old computer that has public relations news releases in it and found one on the show and Gary's untimely departure.

Next Tuesday night, I found, you can start the next episode at Gary's funeral and go on over "to the Steadman home where Michael, Hope, Nancy, Elliot, Ellen and Melissa try to come to terms with Gary's unforeseen death."

And from what this guy who helped to "create" and produce this show said, it looks like this is going to take some time.

He said: "When something like this happens, it has a resonance for a long time to come."

This tends to make me think the Steadmans ought to be sure they have enough eggs for a fairly big, and long, breakfast.

Maybe even a Bloody Mary or two.

Oh, I forgot. Gary's wife, Susannah, comes to town and is really miffed that Michael has taken care of "most of the details" attendant upon Gary's exit.

Right. Like picking out the coffin and enviable stuff like that.

Producers said in the news release that Gary's death "left viewers stunned" and had phones "ringing off the hook."

Well, I should say so, for Pete's sake. What do you expect - Gary kicking off like that?

Another of the people responsible for this show, was quoted as saying: "Not in all my years in this business have I seen a series so full of emotionality and such a sense of reality that permeates the viewer."

OK, boys. You want to go over to the Steadmans next week and pick over the funeral meats and maybe get yourselves permeated, you go right ahead.

I know all I want to know and it's back to "Bleak House" for me.