Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 15, 1993 TAG: 9305150301
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL E. HILL THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Given the nature of this cyberpunk-inspired look ahead, some folks may simply choose to switch channels. Those who stay will be challenged as much as they will be entertained.
Welcome to "Wild Palms," a four-night, six-hour ABC series set in Los Angeles in the year 2007. (The series airs Sunday through Wednesday nights on WSET-Channel 13).
Basically, the story centers on Harry Wyckoff, played by James Belushi, who goes to work for Sen. Anton Kreutzer (Robert Loggia) at Channel 3. The folks at Three are very excited about their new sitcom. "Church Windows" isn't simply another show scrambling for laughs and a spot on the Tuesday-night comedy lineup. This high-tech number doesn't just come in the form of images on a TV screen: The characters come to life as holograms right there in your living room.
Nifty stuff. But that's not all that's happening in this piece, created by Bruce Wagner, who wrote and produced the 1989 movie, "Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills." "Palms" is derived from a comic strip he originated two years ago in Details magazine.
Strange things happen from the very beginning, and only in the final hour or so does the show crystalize into the straightforward, violent, bloody confrontation between good and evil to which television audiences have become accustomed.
But in the beginning come the weird things. Such as the mother who suddenly fears her child was taken from her at birth, while she was given an impostor to take home.
And the show deals with dreams. Dreams created. Dreams invaded. Dreams bought and sold - "Everything must go" is a catch phrase. Ah, dreams. Like the one about the rhinoceros in the swimming pool. You've had that one too, huh? Thought so. "Good night, Harry," says temptress Paige Katz (Kim Cattrall). "Dream carefully."
And there are sly references to current times, as when Angie Dickinson, one of the show's villains, is caught on holographic tape in the act of murder. How, an inquiring reporter asks, can you maintain your innocence? Everyone's seen the tape and, after all, seeing is believing. She levels him: "You must be kidding."
If it all sounds strange, it is. "Twin Peaks" fans still suffering withdrawal symptoms will flock to this one. But "Wild Palms" makes "Twin Peaks" seem as simple as an episode of "Barney."
The Palms-Peaks comparison is inevitable, and producer Michael Rauch has thought about it. "In a lot of ways," he said, " `Twin Peaks' gave us the opportunity to do this. It came from David Lynch, also from the feature world, and it was quite successful."
"Palms" carries the executive-producer imprimatur of Oliver ("JFK" et al.) Stone. "In that sense, `Twin Peaks' opened the door for us," said Rauch. "Our approach is different; the subject is different."
One distinction, he said, is that "Palms" will be a miniseries only and won't turn up as a weekly show and risk running out of story lines. "In the end," said Rauch, "what we saw as a pitfall was that `Twin Peaks' went on, and Bruce made it clear that this show wouldn't go on."
"Palms" brings together an imposing cast. Among them, Dana Delany plays Belushi's wife; Bebe Neuwirth plays the star of "Church Windows"; Nick Mancuso plays Tully, an artist; David Warner is Eli, arch-opponent of Kreutzer and his "Wild Palms Group" conglomerate; and Robert Morse does something of a cameo as a very dreary singer and Loggia backer.
There's a lot going on in the show, like the opposition of The Fathers, a Kreutzer-backed cult, and The Friends, Eli's underground organization (the good guys are an organization, the bad guys a cult). And there's the pursuit of the Go Chip, a bio-microchip that promises immortality. (Whenever the characters discuss it, it always sounds like they're talking about a "goat ship.")
So what does it all try to say? "It's about the dangers of cult personalities, the dangers of people becoming comfortable economically and technically and giving up other things for that comfort," Rauch said. "There's the danger of letting others take the rap for things and carrying that to a conclusion," he said, referring to a hint of early Nazi Germany that seasons the proceedings.
by CNB