THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 2, 1995 TAG: 9412310041
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 169 lines
JOHN MATOIAN, the new president of Fox Entertainment, was on the job only a few days when he shook up the network's Monday-night schedule. He gave the Sunday-night lineup a new look, too.
The changes kick in tonight.
Matoian concluded that viewers who are hooked on the outrageously wicked ``Melrose Place'' Monday night at 8 were not the type to stick around at 9 for ``Party of Five,'' a nice little series about orphans in San Francisco that even Newt Gingrich could love.
A former CBS exec, Matoian decided what Fox needed was another outrageously wicked series to follow ``Melrose Place.''
Enter ``Models Inc.'' starting tonight at 9.
As for ``Party of Five,'' a critically acclaimed series almost totally ignored by Fox's viewers, it finds a new home Wednesday at 9 p.m. after ``Beverly Hills 90210.''
That's a much better match, said Matoian.
``It's another effort to get `Party of Five' up and running,'' he said.
There's been a whole lot of Monday night movin' and shakin' going on over at CBS, too.
``Northern Exposure'' has aired Mondays at 10 for six seasons. Don't look for it tonight. ``Chicago Hope'' now has that parking space.
CBS moved ``Northern Exposure'' and ``Love & War'' to Wednesday night starting this week. CBS completely remade its Wednesday-night lineup while assembling a January prime time schedule with 10 changes in it.
The other TV networks weren't quite so busy with the saws and hammers, but as the second season begins tonight, there's a trend that's as obvious as Fran Drescher's Bronx accent.
It's the year of the comeback.
Tonight at 9:30 on CBS, you'll find comeback No. 1 - ``Cybill,'' in which Cybill Shepherd of ``Moonlighting'' returns to series TV as a single mom who shows she's not too old to get men into bed with her. Lots of one-liners about what gravity does to the body.
Also on CBS, starting with an hour special Wednesday at 8, Delta Burke brings back her Suzanne Sugarbaker role in ``Women of the House.'' She flopped in an ABC series set in Nashville. Burke tries again as the widow of a congressman who takes his seat in Congress.
What else would you expect from producers Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who are great friends of the Clintons? Expect more inside-the-Beltway humor than you get on ``Murphy Brown.''
Speaking of ``Murphy Brown,'' one of the supporting actors in that cast breaks out into a series of his own. Robert Pastorelli, who played painter-turned-nanny Eldin, stars as the head of a Manhattan messenger service in ``Double Rush.'' It premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m.
Corbin Bernsen, last seen on network TV as ``L.A. Law's'' suave Arnie Becker, goes back to work at 8:30 p.m. next Monday on ABC as a sportscaster on ``A Whole New Ballgame.'' In the past, shows about sports have arrived dead in the water.
And on Fox, you have the comeback of comebacks beginning Sunday at 7:30 p.m. when Don Adams and Barbara Feldon return as Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 in an all-new ``Get Smart.'' They debuted as those characters in 1968.
There will be another new Fox show on at 8:30 Sunday nights - a series in which John Leguizamo leads a company doing sketch comedy.
After ``Married . . . With Children,'' network TV's longest-running sitcom, Fox is borrowing ``Dream On'' from HBO. If you've seen the series on Home Box Office, you're aware that the adventures of Martin Tupper often include romps with women who show much flesh.
Not to worry, parents.
Fox spokesman Joseph B. Earley has cranked out faxes to the TV press that say the series has been tidied up for over-the-air broadcast. ``As each episode of `Dream On' was created for HBO, executive producer John Landis ensured that the adult-oriented scenes were re-shot for a broadcast version without nudity or expletives.''
``Dream On'' debuts on Fox with the pilot episode. It's a series with a clever twist - images of old black-and-white movies and TV shows pop up on the screen to mirror what is going on inside the head of Tupper, a divorced book editor played by Brian Benben.
And still another ageless performer rides the TV range again when William Shatner, ol' Capt. James T. Kirk of ``Star Trek,'' appears in ``TekWar,'' a series on the USA cable network based on his novels. Greg Evigan stars in the series, which begins Saturday at 7 p.m.
``Tekwar'' is decent sci-fi. But as one critic put it, Tek is not Trek.
NBC brings back Gene Wilder Tuesday night at 8:30 in ``Something Wilder'' and revives ``Mommies'' tonight with a sneak-preview new episode at 8:30. Its regular time period is Saturday at 8:30 p.m.
Wasn't life without ``Mommies'' insufferable?
Tom Snyder, who's been around TV about as long as Don Adams, leaves cable and CNBC next Monday to do a talkfest after David Letterman's ``Late Show'' on CBS. No word yet if local affiliate WTKR will show Snyder at 12:35 a.m.
ABC is giving Bernsen's new series the 8:30 time period after ``Coach'' on Monday night. That's it for new programming for now, but the network is itching to get ``The Marshall'' and ``Extreme'' with James Brolin on the schedule.
ABC decided that it didn't want its news queen, Diane Sawyer, and her ``PrimeTime Live'' magazine hour buried under NBC's powerful Thursday-night lineup. So, starting Wednesday at 10, Diane and Sam Donaldson move back one night to follow ``Roseanne'' and ``Ellen.''
``My So-Called Life,'' network TV's other darling of the critics, and a show also getting yawns from viewers, will continue with new episodes through January. But after that, it disappears from ABC's Thursday-night schedule, perhaps for good.
Its future will be decided in May, said an ABC spokesman in New York.
Viewers are punching out the e-mail as they rally to save the show.
When Pastorelli of ``Double Rush'' met with TV writers in Los Angeles, he said he wasn't unemployed for very long after leaving ``Murphy Brown.'' The producers of that show were vague about what Eldin's role would be in the 1994-'95 season.
Too vague for Pastorelli. He walked.
``Within hours after talking to my agent about my decision to leave `Murphy Brown,' Diane English called to propose the `Double Rush' project to me,'' he said. ``I had said never again to doing a half-hour show. But after going home to New York City, where I do my best thinking, I called Diane after midnight to say, `Let's make some comedy.' '' English was the brains behind ``Murphy Brown.''
English doesn't deny that ``Double Rush'' is ``Taxi'' updated, a series in which a loud and pushy dispatcher with a heart of gold sends his charges out on crazy adventures all day long. ``It's about a bunch of people who live unconventional lives. If `Taxi' were done in the 1990s, this is the way it would be done,'' she said.
Great opening main-title sequence for this series. Like, breathless.
This January brings big changes for CBS on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, when ``Eye to Eye With Connie Chung'' and ``48 Hours'' appear back to back starting at 9 p.m. It also means adjustments for viewers who watch Fox on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday nights.
With the coming of the National Football League to Fox on Sunday nights, the ratings are higher than ever in the early evening. Trouble is, they fall off after the last whistle blows. Fox brought Matoian over from CBS to hold the young male audience well into prime time.
That would be a cinch if Fox ran ``Dream On'' as HBO runs it. But there is no chance of that. The series has been sanitized for your protection. ILLUSTRATION: PRIME-TIME TV: THE MID-SEASON LINEUP
THE NEW SCHEDULE
[For a copy of the schedule, see microfilm for this date.]
CBS
"Cybill"
Cybill Shepherd portrays a working actress often in conflict with
her conservative daughter (Dedee Pfeiffer).
CBS
"Women of the House":
Delta Burke stars as a former beauty queen who inherits her late
husband's seat in the House of Representatives.
FOX
"Get Smart":
Don Adams is back on the job in an all-new version of the classic
comedy series. "Get Smart" veteran Barbara Feldon will also be back
- this time as Congresswoman 99.
``Double Rush,'' a new series about a New York messanger service,
stars, from left, David Arquette, D.L. Hughley, Adam Goldberg,
Robert Pastorelli, Sam Lloyd, Corinne Bohrer and Phil Leeds.
FOX
Fox airs the new half-hour sketch comedy ``House of Buggin' '' at
8:30 on Sunday nights.
FOX
The critically acclaimed series ``Party of Five'' finds a new home
Wednesday nights at 9 on Fox.
``Double Rush,'' a new series premiering Wednesday night at 9,
stars, from left, David Arquette, D.L. Hughley, Adam Goldberg,
Robert Pastorelli, Sam Lloyd, Corinne Bohrer and Phil Leeds.
by CNB