THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 18, 1995 TAG: 9503170042
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 175 lines
JUST WHEN YOU thought prime time television in general and Fox Broadcasting in particular had overdosed on science fiction, here comes another fantasy fix. ``Sliders,'' a series in which four people go hurtling through a ``wormhole'' in a kid's basement into a universe that parallels 1995 Earth, premieres on Fox Wednesday at 8 with a two-hour episode.
``Beverly Hills 90210'' takes the night off and not a minute too soon. Luke Perry's been looking bushed lately.
The network launched ``The X-Files'' last season, added ``VR-5'' earlier this month, and now brings on ``Sliders'' to attract the young, hip sci-fi viewers that advertisers covet. ``Star Trek: Voyager'' was launched in syndication in January, and late last year, NBC put ``Earth 2'' on its schedule. A sci-fi blitz.
Add to this genre ``Sliders,'' which borrows from the 1966 ABC series ``The Time Tunnel.'' Here's the hook: Each week, the travelers in San Francisco (Jerry O'Connell, Sabrina Lloyd, Cleavant Derricks and John Rhys-Davies) slip into a world that sort of looks like the world we live in now, but different.
In one parallel universe, the Communists have won the Cold War. Scary. In another, it's the nuclear winter with the sun just a distant memory. The Golden Gate Bridge is buried in a glacier. Weird.
In the premiere, Derricks plays rhythm and blues singer Rembrandt ``Crying Man'' Brown, who ``slides'' into a new universe while riding in his convertible Cadillac. He eventually returns to Earth the way it really is, but Brown's Cadillac and its tail fins are still missing.
And just when you thought prime time television had overdosed on another concept - sitcoms set in a television or radio station - here comes one more.
NBC starts up ``NewsRadio'' on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. One hour later, ``Pride & Joy'' debuts on NBC. No radio or TV angle here, but the show has other sitcom staples: parents and their kids. This time around, they are new parents.
``NewsRadio'' is an ensemble show - also a much-copied idea since the success of ``Seinfeld'' - with Phil Hartman of ``Saturday Night Live'' playing a character not unlike Ted Baxter on the old Mary Tyler Moore sitcom.
When Hartman quit ``SNL,'' it was to appear in an NBC series built around him and the characters he played on that show. Later, he reconsidered and agreed to take a smaller role in a sitcom setting.
``I didn't want to be the next person to go down in flames trying to bring a variety program to prime time,'' Hartman told TV writers in Los Angeles not long ago. ``When I saw that Martin Short's variety show on NBC had failed, I got scared. I shivered in the corner naked with the lights out for six weeks. I'm very happy to be part of this talented ensemble.''
These are tough times for ``SNL'' with ratings down and criticism on the rise. There has even been talk of dropping the show in its 26th year. But that won't happen, said NBC's West Coast chief, Don Ohlmeyer, when he spoke to the TV press.
He insists that the ``SNL'' players limit themselves to that show and not sign movie deals that divert their attention and energies. ``The show is in a bit of a slump right now,'' said Hartman. ``It needs an infusion of talent. It needs another Eddie Murphy, Dennis Miller or Dana Carvey. If that happens, the overall chemistry of the show will improve.''
Rumor: Carvey is returning to ``SNL'' next season.
The ``NewsRadio'' pilot involves a nerdy type played by Dave Foley of ``Kids in the Hall'' who has been hired as the radio station's news director. Trouble is, he can't get up the nerve to fire the guy he's replacing.
It comes with the usual assortment of offbeat sitcom characters.
The 51 cable networks, some of which are guilty of presenting hours of violent and tasteless programming, hope to make things right with the viewers by declaring March 19 through March 25 Voices Against Violence Week.
The programming in the week to come ranges from a focus on young people's involvement in crime (on A&E) to films for the entire family on American Movie Classics to programs about life inside big-city gangs on The Discovery Channel.
The Virginia Beach-based Family Channel offers its voice to Voices Against Violence Week with a documentary series, ``Heroes of the Street,'' hosted by Scott Ross. Part 1 premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. with Chuck Norris aboard to help bring discipline and self-esteem to the kids. The series continues March 26 and April 2 at 9 p.m.
Home Box Office uses its ``America Undercover'' series to aid the cause of curbing violence with ``5 American Handguns'' on Sunday night at 10. Family and friends appear on camera to speak almost matter-of-factly about how guns in the hands of kids brought suffering and death. Most touching is the segment about a popular police officer in New Plymouth, Idaho, who was cut down by a 14-year-old driving a stolen car.
Showtime contributes to Voices Against Violence with an original film, ``Zooman,'' in which a city bus driver played by Louis Gossett Jr. seeks to avenge the shooting death of his young daughter. ``Zooman'' airs Sunday at 8 p.m. It's a lesson in how fear and apathy perpetuate neighborhood violence.
In one scene, the Gossett character installs this sign on his front porch: ``The killer of our Jackie is free on the streets because our neighbors will not identify him.''
When he met with the TV press in Los Angeles recently, Gossett talked of the violent youths as ``lost babies'' who need to be rescued. That is one reason he did the film for Showtime. ``We need to solve the problem of losing young people to the gangs and the crime that goes with them. With my place in the entertainment field, I hope to get others involved in solving the problem by doing pieces such as this film.''
Now, for a considerable change of pace:
The March pledge drive continues for Public Broadcasting and WHRO in Hampton Roads with music, music, music. A dash of Glenn Miller and a dab of Johnny Cash help loosen the purse strings, obviously. Channel 15 today offers ``Country Music Legends'' at 3:55 p.m., ``Frank Yankovic: America's Polka King'' at 6:45 p.m. At 3 p.m. Sunday, Channel 15 presents ``John Tesh Live at Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra'' followed at 5:25 p.m. by ``Peter, Paul & Mommy, Too.'' Folk music lives! Polkas live!
Tesh, who is usually seen on TV sitting next to Mary Hart on ``Entertainment Tonight,'' shows what an accomplished musician he is in the $1.5-million concert in Denver. For that money, you get Tesh at a grand piano, a 70-piece orchestra, a light show and some nifty gymnastics by former Olympic princess Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner.
Said Tesh when he met with TV reporters in Los Angeles, ``Music has always been a huge part of my life. That's not apparent to the 12 or 13 million people who see me every night on `Entertainment Tonight.' The people think it is all I do.'' Tesh, who first hopped on a piano bench when he was 6, trained at the Juilliard School of Music. He's been with ``ET'' since 1986.
Elsewhere on the tube in the immediate future, HBO on Saturday night at 8 premieres an original film about a 1935 mutiny of officers and men in the 3rd U.S. Cavalry. Don Johnson stars as one of the mutineers who refuse to stand by and watch hundreds of horses slaughtered as the Army phases out the cavalry. ``In Pursuit of Honor'' is a good flick. . . . WHRO on Monday night at 10:30 and Wednesday night at 10 p.m. offers two studies of the World War II Holocaust with ``A Day in the Warsaw Ghetto: A Birthday Trip in Hell'' and ``Diamonds in the Snow.'' The latter is the story of the handful of Jewish children in the Polish city of Bendzin who survived the Nazi atrocities.
Never mind what the movie critics say, what do New York cabbies think about the race for the Oscars? Find out by watching ``Bucky and Vinny Dish the Academy Awards'' on Showtime Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and again on Thursday at 11:35 p.m. Clips galore. . . . More Oscar fever: TNT on Wednesday night at 8 presents ``Inside the Academy Awards.''. . . WGNT continues the 10-hour ``History of Rock 'n' Roll'' Saturday night at 8 with ``Rock 'n' Roll Explodes'' followed on Sunday night at 7 with a segment on punk rock and two pop idols, Madonna and Michael Jackson. . . . And speaking of Madonna, it's Madonna Sunday on MTV starting at 10:30 a.m. with ``Madonna: A Body of Work'' and continuing up to 6 p.m. You'll catch her making a new video, ``Take a Bow.'' . . . Starting Monday night at 9 p.m., it's Phantom Week on The Science Fiction Channel. It starts off with ``Phantom Planet'' followed by ``Phantom from Space,'' ``Phantom Ship'' and the 1925 and 1962 versions of ``Phantom of the Opera.''
See lightning in all its scary splendor on ``Fire in the Sky'' on The Weather Channel Sunday at 8 p.m. Hear people who were struck by lightning and lived to tell about it. . . . Ever wonder who put the words on paper that eventually became the book we know as the Bible? If you didn't, A&E does the wondering for you on Sunday at 8 p.m. with ``Who Wrote the Bible?'' Learn about the lost books of the Bible. Fascinating three hours of TV. . . . John Goodman shows that he is an actor of depth who can handle heavier stuff than Fred Flintstone and Dan Conner on ``Roseanne'' when he stars in ``Kingfish'' on TNT Sunday night at 8. It's the story of a high school dropout named Huey P. Long who rose to governor, the U.S. Senate and also had his eyes on the White House. He also had his eyes on the women.
The Learning Channel on Sunday at 10 p.m. has everything you ever wanted to know about turning skin into an art form. The show is ``Tattoos.'' . . . Also on TLC, ``The Legends of Hollywood: Roger Moore,'' will be seen on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Nice timing here, what with TBS running the James Bond movies every weekend in March. . . . Bravo revives the miniseries ``The Jewel in the Crown'' starting Wednesday night at 8. It's 14 hours about strife in British-occupied India. A classic. . . . James Brolin, who returned to series TV recently in the snowy ``Extreme'' on ABC, hosts ``World of Discovery'' special Saturday at 8 p.m. on the same network. The subject is the orangutan. They are victims of poachers and man using up the apes' forest habitats. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
The Sliders arrive on a world where antibiotics are unknown and an
epidemic is raging. The show, which stars Jerry O'Connell, premieres
Wednesday night at 8 on Fox.
The Showtime film ``Zooman,'' which premieres Sunday at 8 p.m.,
stars from left, Charles S. Dutton, Hill Harper, Louis Gossett Jr.
and Cynthia Martells.
At 3 p.m. Sunday, Channel 15 airs ``John Tesh Live at Red Rocks with
the Colorado Symphony.''
by CNB