Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 4, 1995 TAG: 9502090009
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JONATHAN STORM KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: PASADENA, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
Like the robin, most will come with fanfare in late winter or early spring and disappear quietly before the leaves turn. But unlike the birds that fly south, most TV shows will never come back.
One or two may find their way, as they have in past seasons. Remember that ``Seinfeld'' kicked around in the spring and summer before getting a fall slot. ``Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman'' premiered on New Year's Day. ``Northern Exposure'' started in July.
Any attempt to set the prime-time schedule more than a week or two in advance is doomed. Most premiere dates have not been announced, and everything, as always in TV programming, could change.
But you can anticipate, or dread - among others - the reworked ``Martin Short Show'' on NBC; an ABC comedy loosely based on some of Philadelphia's sports-talk radio personalities; a CBS sitcom starring big George Wendt from ``Cheers''; and two Fox shows in which young cuties slip off into parallel dimensions.
The following four shows seem the best of the crop set to premiere before May. All found favor with some of the nation's TV critics, who screened either a pilot or some clips of each one at their twice-a-year schmooz-a-thon. (Warning: Five minutes of clips can be a very flimsy judgment base.)
``VR 5,'' Fox: The buzz is high about telephone lineman Sydney Bloom, in what looks to be a special-effects extravaganza from one of the creators of ``China Beach.'' Or maybe you call her a linewoman, since Sydney is a she, and she is played by long-legged Lori Singer from the feature ``Footloose,'' which is one big reason why male TV critics like this show.
Ill-at-ease in the real world, she's a major-league computer hacker who manages to tap into an advanced state of virtual reality, where she meets all sorts of characters. Both good and bad, they include her dead dad, the neuro-bio whiz (David McCallum from ``The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'') and a long-lost twin sister.
``The Station,'' NBC: Phil Hartman (``Saturday Night Live'') leads a cast of younger comedians, including Dave Foley from ``The Kids in the Hall'' and Andy Dick from ``The Ben Stiller Show,'' in this fluff set at a New York all-news radio station.
The cast is good. The creator was executive producer of HBO's ``The Larry Sanders Show,'' and this show - it seems like the 748th in a line of young-adult ensemble comedies and it is one of three midseason shows set in the broadcasting biz - may rise above a tired genre.
``Hope & Gloria,'' NBC: Another sitcom whose pedigreed talent spells promise despite its standard premise, it's about two seemingly incompatible neighbors, the WASP-y TV talk-show producer Hope Richardson and the loud and ludicrous hairdresser Gloria Utz.
Cynthia Stevenson, Bob Newhart's neurotic daughter in ``Bob,'' plays Hope. Jessica Lundy, Edward Woodward's perky assistant in ``Over My Dead Body,'' plays Gloria. The executive producers used to work on ``Cheers.''
``Under One Roof,'' CBS: It's a drama about a black family, set in Seattle and starring James Earl Jones, Joe Morton and Vanessa Bell Calloway. The producer comes from another family drama, ``A Year in the Life,'' which was artistically distinguished, if unsuccessful in the ratings.
The sprawling family includes a grandfather, his daughter and son, the son's wife and two children, and the grandfather's young foster son. The principals promise that television's only black family drama will aim for universal themes, with racial topics providing piquancy.
by CNB