Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 7, 1993 TAG: 9309100379
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON MILLER KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``Big Wave Dave's,'' which premieres Monday night (at 9:30 on WDBJ-Channel 7), and ``Ned Blessing: The Story of My Life & Times,'' which bows Aug. 18, will both start six-episode summer runs this month. Two more CBS backup shows - ``Tall Hopes'' (Aug. 25) and ``The Building,'' (Aug. 20), also are getting early trial runs before the fall TV season starts in September.
Network programmers say the surprise-filled August gives CBS a chance to gauge public interest in the backup shows, so additional episodes of the more successful ones may be ordered at midseason when they are expected to replace ailing fall programs.
The network probably has another motive as well: The August assault will give them something to help blunt the competition from Fox, which has decided to launch its fall season in late August, and the cable networks, which also will be premiering many series in August.
``We were rolling over and playing dead in summer before,'' CBS Broadcast Group President Howard Stringer told TV editors in June. ``Now at least we're giving them something in August.''
It's also likely that CBS will stick with any August show that booms with viewers, keeping the momentum going while doing any necessary polishing needed on late-opening fall shows.
The first of the new batch - ``Big Wave Dave's'' - is a breezy comedy built around an eternally irresistible idea: Quitting your job to start over in a beautiful resort area where the living is easy. It's loaded with good characters, played by an ensemble of familiar actors, including Adam Arkin, David Morse and Jane Kaczmarek.
Morse plays Dave, a dreamer whose marriage has just broken up, leaving him depressed. On a freezing day in Chicago, he proposes his latest harebrained scheme: opening a surf shop near the beach on Oahu. Amazingly, it's just the idea his two best buddies - Marshall (Arkin) and Richie (Patrick Breen) - have been waiting to hear.
Lawyer Marshall has just been fired by his law firm while Richie is consumed by the need to turn his life around and go somewhere new where all the girls won't immediately peg him as a nerd.
Ultimately, they wind up running a surf shop they call ``Big Wave Dave's.'' They know little about surfing and nobody in Hawaii, except for a crusty beachcomber (Kurtwood Smith), whose name is, believe it or not, Jack Lord. Their puny business is held together by Marshall's lawyer wife, Karen (Kaczmarek).
The laughs come pretty fast in this sitcom, and the most surprising thing about it is that David Morse produces so many of them. Best known for his dramatic parts - especially his long-running role as Dr. Jack Morrison on ``St. Elsewhere'' - Morse is the comedy find of this show.
Next up is ``Ned Blessing.'' Created by Bill Wittliff, director of the network's hit miniseries ``Lonesome Dove,'' the show began as an offbeat western movie that Wittliff did for the network two years ago. It finally was aired in April 1992.
Then starring Daniel Baldwin as outlaw-turned-lawman Ned Blessing, the project was something of a disaster because of its unsettling mix of comedy and western violence. Wittliff has recast the title role with Brad Johnson (``Always'') and reconciled all the battling elements of his original concept.
The result is a pleasing action show that could propel Johnson toward stardom, especially now that the western is making a comeback on the heels of both ``Lonesome Dove'' and Clint Eastwood's Oscar-winning ``Unforgiven.''
``Tall Hopes'' (Aug. 25) is a so-so sitcom starring Anna Maria Horsford (``Amen'') as the mother of two high school boys: athletic Chester (Terrence Dashon Howard), a would-be NBA superstar, and dreamy Ernest (Kenny Blank), an aspiring filmmaker who wants to be the next Spike Lee. It's not obnoxious, just nothing special.
Finally, there's ``The Building,'' the least conventional of all. It's written by and stars the engaging Bonnie Hunt (``Grand,'' ``Davis Rules'') from Chicago's famed Second City comedy ensemble; she is co-executive producer with David Letterman.
It's an ensemble comedy situated in an apartment building in Chicago that's right across from Wrigley Field. Like ``Seinfeld,'' it's not really about anything, except funny people who walk into each other's lives through Bonnie's apartment.
by CNB