THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 3, 1994 TAG: 9409020134
SECTION: TELEVISION PAGE: 01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 122 lines
WHEN THE National Football League finished its blitzing and bruising on CBS in years past, you got Mike Wallace, Andy Rooney and the tick, tick, tick of the ``60 Minutes'' clock. Now that Fox Broadcasting (WTVZ, Channel 33) is carrying the NFL on Sundays, what will that network put on at 7 p.m. to hold the macho-man audience that was all wrapped up in a professional football doubleheader?
Answer: A macho-man series called ``Fortune Hunter,'' starring a dude who can't make up his mind about who he is. In the title role of rogue and super agent Carlton Dial, is Mark Frankel ripping off James Bond or Indiana Jones? Decide for yourself. The premiere airs Sunday night as does the first episode of two new Fox sitcoms, ``Hardball'' at 8:30 and ``Wild Oats'' at 9:30.
And let us not forget that on Wednesday nights at 8, a Brenda-less ``Beverly Hills 90210'' returns.
On Thursday night at 9, Fox will trot out another series, this one from ``Law and Order'' producer Dick Wolf - ``New York Undercover.'' In this hippest of big-city cop shows, one partner is black, the other Hispanic.
``Hardball'' is about how much fun it is to play Major League Baseball when there isn't a strike. It has the cast of characters you see in almost every movie or TV show about baseball - the rookie pitcher who is a simpleton, the manager with a heart of stone, the penny-pinching team owner and the smart-aleck old pro pitcher who keeps the plot moving.
``Wild Oats'' shows us how oversexed the Generation Xers are. If they weren't, would the characters in this sitcom be dropping such lines as, ``Your idea of fun is having cheap sex with an anonymous woman who doesn't eat too much''? This is for people who think ``Herman's Head'' is great TV.
Fox is sure it has a star of the future in ``Fortune Hunter's'' Frankel because he scored big with women in test showings of the series. And he clicked with men, too. He is a hunk who would be better served if the producers dropped the high-tech angle in this series which has Agent Dial being steered on his risky missions by a computer nerd played by John Robert Hoffman.
Frankel doesn't need the prop.
When he met TV reporters in Los Angeles not long ago, Frankel conceded that he is playing Dial as Harrison Ford might have played him. ``You have to have a sense of humor in even the most dangerous and difficult of situations. I'd say my character is more a high-energy, sweaty, dangerous Indiana Jones type than a cool, calm, super smooth James Bond type.''
``Fortune Hunter'' isn't great TV drama - the producers haven't come up with any really interesting bad guys so far - but it could make it on Frankel's sex appeal alone. ``Hardball''? No chance. TV audiences hate shows about baseball.
As for ``Wild Oats,'' it traffics in broad humor and double-entendre, which made ``Married With Children'' a wildly popular Fox sitcom. It has a shot.
What a big TV weekend it is. Fox will showcase three new shows, highlighted by ``The Simpsons'' moving to Sunday nights.
The ``Stars Across America'' Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon also will be televised. Locally, WAVY will carry the 21 1/2-hour big show starting Sunday night at 9. The local cut-ins will originate at the Patrick Henry Mall in Newport News.
The 29th MDA telethon will have what the 28 others have had - Jerry Lewis pouring out emotions while big names in show business entertain viewers. Aren't we all grateful for the chance to see Charo again?
Speaking of marathon TV. . .
The Family Channel - the cable giant right in our backyard - brings reruns of ``Evening Shade'' to its viewers starting Monday at noon. It won't be one, two or even three episodes of the series starring Burt Reynolds as good ol' coach Wood Newton, but eight full hours of ``Evening Shade.''
The Family Channel will air two episodes of ``Evening Shade'' Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. starting on Tuesday. There are 101 episodes in the series,
Another Labor Day telethon? Yes, indeed. The Sci-Fi Channel will reel off 18 hours of ``Tales From the Darkside'' starting Monday at 9 a.m. It isn't ``The Twilight Zone,'' but ``Tales from the Darkside'' is nicely demented sci-fi, about half as entertaining as ``Tales From the Crypt.''
Also on Labor Day, A&E fortifies its claim as the classiest cable network by bringing on reruns of the too-good-for-TV NBC series, ``Law & Order,'' starting Monday at 11 p.m. A&E begins with episode No. 1 when George Dzundza was Chris Noth's partner. Remember him?
I don't know about you, but I happen to think that Nirvana's ``Heart-Shaped Box'' is the best music video of the year, and therefore would not be surprised if it wins an MTV Music Video Award. Your humble columnist's favorite competition in the ``MTV Video Music Awards'' is Best Video from a Film, a category in which Bruce Springsteen (``Streets of Philadelphia'') is heavily favored.
The Madonna of Bad Taste, Roseanne, will host the awards show at New York City's Radio Music Hall on Thursday night starting at 8. To whip viewers into a frenzy in advance of the awards' ceremony, MTV will preview the nominees Saturday at 1 p.m. and again on Sunday at 2 p.m.
I can't ever get enough Anthrax.
When you're taking on a subject as weighty as the story of human evolution, you want a big, big name involved. Is Walter Cronkite big enough for you? He'll be front and center on A&E for ``Ape Man: The Story of Human Evolution,'' a four-part series beginning Sunday at 8 p.m.
Cronkite will explain early on that in the gene pool, we're closely related to the chimp, which is sure to offend chimps and creationists.
There is life after ``Beverly Hills 90210'' as Shannen Doherty proves on Friday night at 10 when she stars in ``Jailbreakers,'' the latest in the new wave of drive-in films appearing on Showtime in the ``Rebel Highway'' series. The plot: mischievous girl falls for handsome young hoodlum. It won't be stretch for Doherty.
Here's your chance to leap ahead to the new fall season, and get it done in one hour flat. Tonight at 9, E! Entertainment Television has scheduled ``E!'s Complete Guide to Fall TV '94'' with appearances by a lot of familiar faces (Hal Linden, Suzanne Pleshette and Martin Short, to name a few) trying for the big money and steady work that a successful series brings.
And in case you haven't heard, The Movie Channel this month began its fifth consecutive ``September Movie Channel Challenge,'' during which the channel will run a month of movies without repeating even one! See 1,046 kisses and hear 701 screams. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Macho-man series ``Fortune Hunter,'' starring Mark Frankel, left,
and John Robert Hoffman, will try to hold the audience from the
National Football League games. It premieres Sunday night at 7 on
Fox.
Rose Marie and Dann Florek play ``Hardball'' Sunday night at 8:30
p.m. on Fox.
by CNB