THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 6, 1994 TAG: 9406040034
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
DATELINE: 940606 LENGTH: Medium
The answer is not much.
{REST} ``Dave's quite happy to get his checks in the mail and go on with his life,'' said Harry Anderson, who plays the lead on ``Dave's World,'' which is on tonight at 8.
It's in reruns until September, when the show moves to 8:30 behind a new sitcom, ``The Boys Are Back,'' co-starring Hal Linden and Suzanne Pleshette.
Why CBS is bringing ``Dave's World'' back for a second season is a mystery to me. It's a mediocre sitcom that struggled to stay among the Top 40 shows in the ratings in its first season.
I have a category for ``Dave's World'': TV shows I've watched twice and never intend to watch again unless I'm laid up in a hospital bed in a body cast and can't reach the remote.
Other series in that category are ``Wings,'' ``Coach'' and ``Thunder Alley,'' a show starring Ed Asner that ABC premiered not long ago.
It got high ratings initially because the network put it in a hammock between two showings of ``Home Improvement,'' TV's No. 1 show. Next season, ``Thunder Alley'' will stand alone on Wednesday at 8 p.m. before the new ``All-American Girl,'' showcasing Korean-American comic Margaret Cho.
Asner is going to lose the ratings war at 8 to either ``The Nanny'' on CBS or Bill Cosby's new mystery series on NBC.
Here's another little category of mine for network series: Shows that every other TV critic in America is crazy about but me.
I put ``Frasier,'' ``The John Larroquette Show'' and ``The X-Files'' in that category. I like science-fiction on TV but not ``The X-Files,'' because the writers create endings that frustrate me. Just once, I'd like to see the FBI bag an alien.
When ``Frasier'' goes head to head with ``Roseanne'' Tuesdays at 9 p.m., next season, ``Frasier'' will finish second. ``Roseanne'' has more laughs.
NBC last season gave ``Frasier'' one of the best time slots in TV - right after ``Seinfeld'' and before ``L.A. Law.'' Next season, ``Madman of the People'' (starring VMI graduate Dabney Coleman) will follow ``Seinfeld.''
That show will do well in the ratings for about a month, or until Coleman scares off more than half of the ``Seinfeld'' audience. Hasn't Coleman always run off viewers? Remember him on the edge in ``Buffalo Bill''?
Another of my TV categories: Shows that have been on for ages but that I can't find time to watch. That list includes ``Murder She Wrote,'' ``Family Matters,'' ``Full House'' and ``The Commish.''
Next season, I will catch the first episode of ``Murder'' just to see how Angela Lansbury is getting around on her new artificial hip.
Her show and ``60 Minutes'' will miss the strong lead-in that professional football delivered to CBS on Sunday nights. Fox bought eight CBS affiliates in major markets just months after winning the rights to the NFL games.
That's why David Letterman refers to his network as CBS lite.
Getting back to ``Dave's World'' and Anderson, with whom I shared a buffet dinner not long ago in Los Angeles, Barry's contribution to the series is slight. Beyond letting the producers use his name, he has written one line of dialogue. Barry appeared in one episode in which he spoke 23 lines.
The producers agreed to use the line he suggested just to be nice to Barry, Anderson said. He doesn't read Barry's column because it's published in Los Angeles on Mondays, which is Anderson's day off.
He withdraws completely from ``Dave's World'' on his day off.
Reading Barry's column wouldn't be much help to him or the writers, said Anderson, who added: ``His columns have no dramatic lines to them. They don't go anywhere.''
Instead, it is the essence of Barry's work you see on the series, Anderson said. ``Snappy and sarcastic comments.''
Isn't one season of that enough?
by CNB