THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 15, 1995 TAG: 9504130054
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 154 lines
CALL IT COINCIDENCE. Call it great timing. Just two weeks after Martin Landau won the Oscar for best actor in a supporting role, he pops up on Easter Sunday and Monday on TNT at 8 p.m. as Jacob in ``Joseph: A TNT Bible Story.''
Landau, in beard and robes, plays a bigger-than-life role that actors love dearly. The dialogue is grand.
``I am Jacob also called Israel and these are my people. We come in peace in search of a land our God has promised would be home to us.''
``Joseph: A TNT Bible Story'' is perfect programming for the Easter weekend. It is the third ``TNT Original'' Old Testament Bible epic from Turner Pictures Inc., following ``Abraham'' and ``Jacob.'' This one is better viewing than the other two because the pace is faster and, heck, there is even a moment or two of lust. Leslie Ann Warren as Potiphar's wife is all over the hunky Semite slave Joseph, played by Australian Paul Mercurio.
Ben Kingsley, who also has an Oscar on his mantel, is cast as Potiphar, chief steward of
the pharoah's court. He makes an impressive entrance at the slave market in which Joseph is sold as one would sell oxen. But this slave on the block in old Egypt is no ordinary slave. He can read and write, and he is a natural-born leader of men.
If anyone can deliver his people from famine, it's this dude.
When asked if this film, seen on a channel that specializes in World War II flicks, might scare off viewers who are not religious, Kingsley asked, ``Who isn't religious? Whether or not we believe in a male god, a female god, a collection of gods, or no god at all, we can still be inspired by the extreme bravery of individuals with faith.''
You expect uplifting programming from the Faith and Values Channel this time of year, and F&V delivers. The cable channel has scheduled Easter programming that includes a sermon from Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu Sunday at 7 p.m., on ``Rejoice,'' and the ``Via Crucis'' from Rome Saturday night at 12:30 a.m. in which Pope John Paul II re-creates Christ's journey to Calvary.
F&V will also carry Easter Mass from St. Peter's on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
At 6 p.m. Saturday, F&V presents ``Songs and Stories of Easter'' followed on Sunday at 4 p.m. by music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The Easter weekend programming concludes Sunday at 10 p.m. with a musical interpretation of Biblical miracles.
On Sunday night at 8, A&E delivers a special two-hour presentation in its ``Biography'' series, the story of Jesus Christ. It's all there, his birth, ministry and miracles.``A look at Jesus the man,'' says A&E.
Want more epic programming? Check out these miniseries:
How can you compress one of James A. Michener's big fat novels into a four-hour miniseries? You can't. So, ABC and scriptwriter Sean Meredith pick and choose from the pages of ``Texas'' to put together ``James A. Michener's Texas,'' which premieres Sunday at 9. The story, set in the 1820s, is about the westward migration of Americans led by Stephen F. Austin. In the miniseries, Austin is played by Patrick Duffy, who gives him a bit more presence and swagger than Michener did in his novel.
``Melrose Place'' devotees will want to tune in to catch Grant Show in beard and high collar playing William Barret Travis. With this being a big, sweeping story of Texas and all, and with Jim Bowie (David Keith) and Davy Crockett (John Schneider) featured, there just has to be a climactic battle at the Alamo. Right? You betcha. It takes up much of Part 2, which airs Monday night at 9.
Kevin Costner, who became fascinated with Indians when he was making ``Dances With Wolves,'' is host and one of the executive producers of ``500 Nations,'' which plays on CBS in four parts starting Thursday at 8 p.m. ``Even in eight hours we were unable to get in all the stories we wanted,'' Costner said recently when he met the TV press in Los Angeles. He and co-executive producer Jim Wilson started with 142 storylines and then reduced them to 22 major pieces.
``500 Nations'' is a history lesson that is easy to take. It's good TV.
I really liked the part when Columbus landed on (stumbled across?) Hispaniola in the West Indies in 1492. He was met by the ``kings'' of six tribes. Columbus wrote in his log that the natives were ``gentle, always smiling and loved their neighbors as they loved themselves.''
That all changed when John Wayne showed up.
Are there other big doings on TV in the week ahead? You bet.
United Paramount, that upstart network carried by WGNT in Hampton Roads, which commands a nice-sized chunk of Monday night viewership with ``Star Trek: Voyager,'' brings Richard Dean Anderson back to the tube Tuesday at 8 in ``Legend.'' UPN dropped ``The Watcher'' the week after Kato Kaelin appeared on that series, and picked up Anderson's comeback.
The script calls from him to be a gambling, womanizing, hard-drinking writer of dime novels in 19th century America. He's Ernest Pratt, who acts very much like the hero in his novels, Nicodemus Legend.
My how you have changed, MacGyver.
Since ``MacGyver,'' Anderson had been relaxing and rejecting scripts that he considered trash. Then ``Legend'' came along from Paramount. ``It piqued my interest because I saw the potential for some serious misbehaving. It has elements of discovery, invention and science,'' said Anderson.
The week after the two-hour premiere, ``Legend'' settles into UPN's 8 p.m. time slot on Tuesdays. One of the co-creators of this series is Michael Piller, who also helped launch ``Star Trek: Voyager.''
Earlier in the spring, a group of viewers calling themselves ``Friends of Christy'' were campaigning hard to have the series set in Cutter Gap restored to the CBS schedule. The fan club took out ads in several newspapers asking why, after 11 new episodes of ``Christy'' were filmed, the series is not back on the schedule.
Under that kind of pressure, CBS has scheduled ``Christy'' starring Kellie Martin for two showings starting Saturday night at 8. In the return of ``Christy,'' our heroine considers David Grantland's proposal of marriage. Tyne Daly returns as Christy's friend and mentor, Miss Alice. This is a family drama and a good one. Put it in the category of TV too good for TV.
He's back. And I'm not only speaking of Richard Dean Anderson. Your humble columnist's absolutely most favorite TV character after Columbo is that rumpled ol' teddy bear of a barrister, Horace Rumpole.
PBS and WHRO this month revive ``Rumpole of the Bailey'' on the 9 p.m. Thursday night ``Mystery!'' series. It is great to see him again in wig and robes, emptying a glass of claret down at Pommeroy's. New episodes will run on PBS through May 18.
Leo McKern, who has played Rumpole deliciously well for 15 years, admits that at times he tired of being the Shakespeare-quoting defense attorney. ``I have said that I would never do Rumpole again. But then I realized that it is not a bad achievement to be the star of one of the best written series on television.''
You bet. Just in time for the return of baseball on the field, PBS and WHRO bring back ``Baseball,'' the Ken Burns series that attracted millions of viewers last year. It begins airing on Channel 15 Monday at 9 p.m. Of the recent labor stoppages in baseball, Burns said, ``They can take away the present and future but not the past and tradition of baseball.'' PBS will run the series in nine parts.
On Tuesday at 8 p.m., PBS begins a four-hour series, ``The Human Quest.'' Lots of big questions dealt with here such as who are we? Where do we come from? How can a world population of 6 billion live in harmony?. . . On Friday at 9 p.m., PBS unveils another ambitious project in ``The Nobel Legacy.'' The three-part series features American Nobel science laureates J. Michael Bishop, Leon Ledereman and Dudley Herschbach. See science in a new light. . . . CBS has the perfect holiday film on Sunday night at 9 in ``A Mother's Gift'' starring Nancy McKeon and Will Deal. Pioneer woman gives up singing career to build a home and family. A string of pearls plays a large part in the drama.
The Sci-Fi Channel calls it ``Blockbuster Sunday.'' Starting Sunday at 9 a.m., the channel reels off seven classic sci-fi films starting with a letterbox version of ``Forbidden Planet.''. . . Olivia Newton-John is tall in the saddle in this weekend's presentation of ``Snowy River: The McGregor Saga'' on The Family Channel. The series, set in the Australian Outback, runs Saturday at 6 and 10 p.m. and Sunday at 6 p.m. . . . Saturday at 2 p.m. on WTVZ, it's ``Disney's Spring Break Blast'' from Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., featuring Debbe Dunning of ABC's ``Home Improvement.'' She's Heidi on ``Tool Time'' Haven't you always admired her for her mind? ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Ben Kinglsley...Lesley Ann Warren and Paul Mercuiro...
Photos
Josh Gibson, who played in the Negro leagues, is among those
profiled in a repeat of Ken Burns' ``Baseball,'' which begins Monday
night at 9.
``Rumpole of the Bailey'' airs 9 p.m. Thursday night on PBS'
``Mystery.''
by CNB