THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 15, 1994 TAG: 9410140117
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
IF YOU WERE watching ``Vanishing Son III'' on WGNT last Saturday night - who could resist the adventures of the brothers Jian-Wa and Wago? - you saw the good guys shoot it out with the bad guys in old, interesting and downright damp Fort Wool on the Peninsula side of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel.
The producers of ``Vanishing Son IV'' promise other sights and sounds of Hampton Roads in the two-hour film that airs Saturday at 8 on Channel 27. Dee Wallace Stone makes a guest appearance.
Throughout episodes 1, 2 and 3 of the ``Vanishing Son'' saga, Hampton Roads stood in for locations along the Louisiana coast. About a year ago, RA Productions and Cohen/DeLaurentiis Productions, in association with MCA-TV, sent a large cast and crew into our midst to film eight hours of drama for the series.
Remember the explosions in downtown Norfolk? The call for extras? The staged fights along the Newport News waterfront? This area looked good on film.
We've likely seen the last of Fort Wool as a backdrop for Russell Wong and Chi Muo Lo's kick-boxing skills. ``Vanishing Son'' will be seen weekly in syndication next season, but no more shooting is scheduled for Virginia locales.
Hampton operates a tour of Fort Wool that includes a boat ride to the rocks where Brother Wago met his end in last week's episode, along with his squeeze, Vivian Wu, who has star power. The $13.50 tours originate in downtown Hampton. Call 727-1102.
In the week ahead, Dennis Miller returns to live TV. Home Box Office gives him 30 minutes to do with as he will starting Friday at 10 p.m. That's an earlier time slot than he had on HBO last season. Each show repeats Sundays at 11:30 p.m.
Who else is returning to the tube in the next seven days? Your old friend, Young Indiana Jones.
Figuring that ABC made a mistake by letting this character get away from them, the Virginia Beach-based Family Channel struck a deal with Lucasfilm Ltd. to show four films starring Sean Patrick Flanery as young Indy.
First up tonight at 8 is ``Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies.'' This one is set in 1920, with Indy working his way through college in the silent-film industry. Young Indy is ready when you are, Mr. DeMille.
TV mogul Ted Turner must be feeling guilty about owning a major league baseball team with a politically incorrect nickname - the Braves.
He's ordered up a batch of programming for the TNT cable channel that is complimentary to Native Americans, including ``Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee,'' which will premiere Sunday night at 8. Earlier in the month, TNT showed a six-hour documentary, ``The Native Americans.''
As with most of the Turner Pictures' productions I've seen, ``Lakota Woman'' moves with the speed of a glacier. But this film will enlighten you about how well-meaning Christians deprived young Native Americans of their language and heritage while attempting to ``civilize'' them.
``They took away our soul,'' says Mary Crow Dog, on whose biography ``Lakota Woman'' is based.
It's a ghastly sight when Gen. George Custer's 7th Cavalry slaughters 200 Native American men, women and children at Wounded Knee, S.D. On that site 21 years ago, 2,000 Indians - including Mary Crow Dog - staged a 71-day ``occupation.''
Irene Bedard stars in the title role.
It isn't even the eve of Halloween and TV is cranking out programs to give us goosebumps.
The Sci-Fi Channel starts off Boris Karloff Week on Monday at 9 p.m. with a 1932 flick, ``The Mummy.'' On Oct. 24, Sci-Fi launches into Bela Lugosi Week.
PBS has a program about the spirit world on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ``The American Experience: Telegrams from the Dead'' goes back to the days when Americans employed mediums by the thousands to reach into the Great Beyond for relatives who died in the Civil War. Even Abraham Lincoln was hooked.
Aren't we still captivated by spiritualism?
On Sunday at 3 p.m., the Discovery channel sends Arthur C. Clarke in search of people who say that they can cast spells that bring illness and death on ``The Roots of Evil.'' Witness the devil dance of the Sri Lanka cave dwellers. Tonight at 8 on The Learning Channel, the ``Forces Beyond'' series takes up the subject of psychics who help police crack tough crimes in ``Psychic Detectives.''
Also on the TV menu in the days ahead: PBS has signed Bill Nye to star in 26 of his ``Science Guy'' programs starting Monday at 4:30 p.m. Nye's the guy who makes chemistry experiments cool. . . . The crime beneath the sheets, prostitution, gets an airing on the A&E series ``American Justice.'' On ``Prostitution: Sex and the Law,'' you'll hear how the world's oldest profession has turned deadly. . . . WTKR has booked reruns of ``Northern Exposure'' at 1:05 a.m. Monday through Friday, following the show biz videomagazine ``Extra.'' It's a chance to get caught up with the early doings in Cicely. . . . Here's some chewing gum for the brain: On Sunday at 8 on ABC, Dick Clark and Suzanne Somers co-host a special about unusual marriage proposals, ``Will You Marry Me?'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Dee Wallace Stone and russell Wong star in "Vanishing Son IV," which
airs Saturday night at 8 on Channel 27.
by CNB