Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 8, 1993 TAG: 9311250315
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Tom Shales
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That is, this year's mediocrity may be a tiny bit better than last year's.
The extremes are always what make news. In that spirit, we bravely pick the five best and five worst of the new fall shows. First, the best:
``Lois and Clark'' dares to reinvent Superman, and does a delightful job of it, at least to judge from a 20-minute preview provided by Warner Bros. The series follows Clark Kent's progress as a young man discovering his otherworldliness and his nascent romance with Lois Lane. In the title roles, Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain are not just super, they're super-duper.
A charming combination of romantic comedy and special-effects adventure, ``Lois and Clark'' could unite parents and kids in front of the TV screen as few recent shows have done. (ABC, Sundays, premiering Sept. 12)
``Frasier'' brings back Kelsey Grammer as psychiatrist Frasier Crane in a sitcom that's more than just the inevitable spin-off from ``Cheers''; it has an edgy lovability all its own. Crane has migrated to Seattle and a plush apartment into which his monumentally irascible father, played by John Mahoney, decides to move. The results are plainly painfully funny. (NBC, Thursdays, Sept. 16)
``NYPD Blue,'' the much-discussed and much-condemned new Steven Bochco cop show, is the hot item among fall programs for its unusually strong language and flashes of semi-nudity. But beneath the brouhaha, a solid and potentially gripping urban drama takes shape. For adults, of course. (ABC, Tuesdays, Sept. 21)
``The Nanny'' stars Fran Drescher, of the 1991 flop ``Princesses,'' stealing her own show as a flinty gal from Flushing who on a fluke lands a job as governess with a rich widower whose apartment reminds her of Caesar's Palace. The culture-clash comedy is funny and, in its own way, touching. (CBS, Wednesdays, premiere date to be announced)
``Boy Meets World'' essentially updates ``Dennis the Menace,'' but with wit replacing the slapstick. Ben Savage plays a semi-bratty 11-year-old with the bad luck to have his teacher (the Mr. Wilson figure) living next door. The teacher is played with dauntingly imperial dignity by William Daniels of ``St. Elsewhere,'' and the sparring matches between man and boy are fun to watch. (ABC, Fridays, Sept. 24)
And now, the worst of the new fall shows:
``Family Album'' is a shrill and irritating sitcom about two whiny yuppies who move to Philadelphia to be closer to their parents, only to find themselves in nonstop conflict with the people they fear they are becoming. More yelling than at your average boxing match. (CBS, Fridays, Sept. 24)
``Moon Over Miami'' brazenly but feebly attempts to imitate ``Moonlighting,'' this time with extremely aggravating actors in the lead roles: a supposedly wacky heiress who ditches her groom at the altar and a smugly smart-alecky private eye. It's like one of those insipid Taster's Choice commercials blown up to an hour. (ABC, Wednesdays, Sept. 22)
``The Trouble with Larry'' gives even stupid sitcoms a bad name. Bronson Pinchot apes and gapes his way through a labo
rious reworking of the old bit about the presumed-dead husband showing up to find that his wife has remarried. Insufferable succotash. (CBS, Wednesdays, premiered Aug. 25)
``seaQuest DSV'' probably won't glub its way into your heart unless you are under the age of 7. The much-ballyhooed Steven Spielberg undersea saga seems a ludicrous and claustrophobic throwback to 1`Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.'' Screen time is divided between models of submarines clunking around a studio tank and shots of people at onboard computers insisting that the whole world hangs in the balance. (NBC, Sundays, Sept. 12)
``Daddy Dearest,'' a sitcom about a neurotic therapist and his hateful old father, seems too loud, coarse and nasty even for Fox. Richard Lewis and Don Rickles play sonny-boy and daddy-man. ``Maybe you're retarded,'' dad bellows at son. ``You always had an awful big head when you were a kid.'' That should give you some idea. (Fox, Sundays, Sept. 5)
by CNB