ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 13, 1996 TAG: 9604160043
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES ENDRST THE HARTFORD COURANT
I was watching Don Johnson's new series ``Nash Bridges'' the other night on CBS, and it got me thinking.
Seeing Johnson back on the air in his satisfying, well-rated, no-brainer of a cop show made we wonder why so few TV stars are able to come back after they've already made it big.
It's not easy, that's for sure.
Just ask Mary Tyler Moore.
She tried it several times and failed (most recently in CBS' ``New York News'').
Her former TV husband Dick Van Dyke, on the other hand, has had some success with CBS' ``Diagnosis Murder,'' though it's not work that's likely to end up in the television hall of fame alongside ``The Dick Van Dyke Show.''
A few have made it - though rarely as big as they did their first time out.
Carroll O'Connor of ``All in the Family'' fame hung in there with ``In the Heat of the Night,'' and Andy Griffith scored with ``Matlock'' 20 years after ``The Andy Griffith Show.''
But it's anybody's guess as to how Bill Cosby or Ted Danson will do in their new sitcoms for CBS.
CBS is heavily invested in Cosby. It has a long-term commitment to the show, which a network publicist describes as a comedy ``about a guy with a Type A personality, forced to retire against his will, who now finds his outlet in railing against all of the everyday nuisances that the rest of us have learned to endure.''
Yes, ``The Cosby Show,'' which ran from 1984 to 1992, was a classic, a show that propelled NBC to the top and made the network and Cosby millions.
But Cosby couldn't buy an audience for his syndicated revival of ``You Bet Your Life'' in '92 or ``The Cosby Mysteries'' on NBC in '94.
Danson, best known as Sam Malone of ``Cheers'' - which ran for 11 years on NBC and will probably run forever in syndication - will co-star with his wife, Mary Steenburgen, in a sitcom that (like Cosby's) is still untitled.
They'll play a divorced couple working in a newspaper where she's the boss.
And look for another star from an NBC '80s hit - ``Family Ties'' star Michael J. Fox - to return next fall in ABC's ``Spin,'' a half-hour comedy in which Fox will play the deputy mayor of New York.
Don't count on TV history repeating itself, though.
Life on television isn't like life in the movies.
If you're a movie star, your fans take you in small doses.
Television is relentless. Unforgiving.
Movie stars, even on video, are just visiting the average American household. Television stars take up residence - if they're allowed to move in.
And once the TV audience welcomes particular personalities into their home for an extended stay, they become like family.
That's not necessarily a good thing once the show is over.
It's an all-or-nothing kind of affection, which, at least from where I sit, seems to mean the stars have only a few choices.
They can:
``Play it again, Sam'': In other words, stars can repeat themselves like Jerry Mathers of ``Leave It to Beaver'' (1957-63) did with ``The New Leave It to Beaver' in the '80s. Unfortunately, though Mathers probably made some money, ``The New Leave It to Beaver'' was a pathetic show and, for fans of the original, a sorry end to some happy memories.
Change directions and formats: Griffith, Van Dyke and O'Connor went from sitcoms to dramas, from family shows to crime-fighting shows.
Stay away and build an appetite: Though ``Cheers'' didn't end so long ago, it seems as if Danson has been away forever. Too bad George Wendt (otherwise known as Norm) didn't wait a little longer; ``The George Wendt Show'' in 1995 had one of the shorter runs in TV history.
Work with a partner, take the focus off yourself and act your age: One of the most admirable traits about Johnson's new series is that he lets the young guys do the real rough stuff.
Keep punching and aim for the mid-section: Tony Danza may not be the greatest actor in the world, but he's been in one great show - ``Taxi'' - and another enormously popular show ``Who's the Boss?'' His most recent effort, ABC's ``Hudson Street,'' was a bomb, but you know he'll be back because we've all gotten used to his TV face.
He should consider himself lucky.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CBS' ``The George Wendt Show'' had one of the shorterby CNBruns in the 1995 season.