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

DATE: TUESDAY, September 5, 1995                   TAG: 9509070017
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOYCE MILLMAN SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MINING FOR GOLD IN NEW KIDS' TV OFFERINGS

Eager to appease the Federal Communications Commission, networks and local broadcasters are offering more kids' programming this fall than in recent years.

Of course, a good chunk of that programming is still of the action-toy and video game tie-in variety. But there are also some intriguing new shows ahead for kids this season. A few highlights:

For preschoolers, there's ``Britt Allcroft's Magic Adventures of Mumfie,'' a charming new addition to the rotating roster of shows airing weekdays as ``The Fox Cubhouse.'' Allcroft is the creator of the delightful PBS series ``Shining Time Station'' and its ``Thomas the Tank Engine'' segments. The animated, tuneful ``Mumfie'' follows the journeys of a brave little elephant and his friend, Scarecrow.

Also for preschoolers, Nickelodeon debuts the weekly animated series ``Maurice Sendak's Little Bear'' (Mondays, beginning Sept. 11). The first TV series from the legendary children's author, ``Little Bear'' is based on his stories about a cub and his forest family and friends.

Disney keeps the cash register ringing with new series based on ``The Lion King'' and ``Beauty and the Beast.'' CBS's ``The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa'' (Saturdays, beginning Sept. 16) features the wisecracking meerkat (voiced by Nathan Lane) and the flatulent warthog (voiced by Ernie Sabella) in cartoons that often play like warmed-over Hanna-Barbera (in a critics' preview episode, the duo meets up with a quartet of bugs with Liverpool accents - explain that to your kids).

In ``Disney's Sing Me a Story with Belle'' (Sundays, beginning Sept. 10), the brainy heroine of ``Beauty and the Beast'' now owns a book and music shop, where she appears in live action segments (actress Lynsey McLeod plays Belle) to introduce a lesson-teaching musical cartoon.

For older kids, two Jim Carrey blockbusters get the animated treatment, with CBS's ``The Mask'' (Saturdays, beginning Sept 16) and ABC's ``Dumb and Dumber'' (Saturdays, premiering in October). Great role model, huh? Carrey does not provide the voice for either series.

PBS's only new series for kids is ``Wishbone'' (premiering later in the fall), a live-action show designed to introduce children to classic literature via the adventures of Wishbone, a book-loving Jack Russell terrier.

Steven Spielberg continues his creative alignment with the WB network, putting his ``Presented By'' stamp on three new animated series this fall. ``The New Animaniacs'' (Saturdays, beginning Sept. 9) is the further adventures of Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner, manic creatures who wreak havoc on the Warner Bros. movie lot.

A spinoff of ``Animaniacs,'' ``Pinky & the Brain,'' stars two laboratory mice in search of world domination. ``Freakazoid'' (Saturdays, beginning Sept. 9) features a teen computer geek turned superhero who subdues enemies with comic bombardments of digressions, factoids and non-sequiturs. (No, Robin Williams doesn't do the voice.)

Classic cartoons get overhauled for a new generation of viewers in CBS's ``Felix the Cat''f-b (Saturdays) and WB's ``The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries'' (Saturdays).

The power behind the Power Rangers, Saban Entertainment, unleashes more worthless programming you're not going to be able to shield your kids from with UPN's ``Space Strikers'' (Sundays), an animated futuristic space adventure about Captain Nemo and the crew of the starship Nautilus fending off the ``nefarious Phantom Warriors and their dreadful leader, Master Phantom,'' and ``Teknoman'' (Sundays), a Japanese animated sci-fi adventure about a teen space warrior fighting ``the alien Venomoid Warlord, Darkon.''

On Fox, Saban's ``Masked Rider'' (Saturdays, beginning Sept. 9) is a live-action show about Dex, an average teen with a secret life as an alien prince battling the ``intergalactic megalomaniacal emperor, Draygon.''

Back on planet Earth, the syndicated live-action hour ``Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys'' (Saturdays, beginning Sept. 23) takes the beloved sleuths of children's fiction to (gasp) college, while ``National Geographic's Really Wild Animals'' (Saturdays) spans the globe in search of up-close animal encounters.

by CNB