THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 29, 1995 TAG: 9504270036
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 1 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 150 lines
FIRST IT WAS SHARON Stone slumming as trailer trash in an episode of ``Roseanne.'' Now it's Melanie Griffith playing a madam named Dora DuFran on CBS in the miniseries ``Buffalo Girls,'' which starts Sunday at 9 p.m.
Her 'do will make Dolly Parton jealous. A waterfall of curls.
Hollywood's leading ladies are telling us that they are not too big for the small screen.
Executive producer Suzanne de Passe wasn't so sure about that when she began casting ``Buffalo Girls,'' based on Larry McMurtry's novel about Calamity Jane, who may or may not have existed. De Passe approached Griffith's agent about playing Dora, only to be told, ``Do you think that Melanie would ever do television?
Never, darling. Never.''
Undaunted, de Passe sent the script to Griffith, who loved it. The actress, who was one kind of a working girl in feature films, agreed to play a working girl of another kind in ``Buffalo Girls.''
While meeting with TV writers in Los Angeles recently, Griffith said, ``The script was too good to pass up. It was a very un-television kind of a television script.''
Griffith, Anjelica Houston (who plays Calamity Jane), Jack Palance, Sam Elliott and Peter Coyote all share the same sin in ``Buffalo Girls.'' They act as if they were in a Warner Brothers cartoon - way over the top.
And wait until you hear that Dublin lad, Gabriel Byrne, try to pass himself off as Teddy Blue, American cowpoke and dirt farmer.
Said Byrne to TV writers, ``As a kid growing up in Dublin, my one fantasy was to play a cowboy.''
I bet.
Houston, who was almost noble working with McMurtry's dialogue in ``Lonesome Dove,'' is positively campy in buckskin as she plays Calamity Jane. Half the men in the West thinks she's a man until the equivalent of a wet T-shirt dunk in a river sets them straight.
``There's evidence to support the fact that there were at least seven Calamity Janes living in the West at one time. The myths that surround her make part an interesting one,'' said Houston.
Seven Janes? No, thanks. One is enough.
``Buffalo Girls'' is the first shot to be fired in the big TV war known as the May ratings sweeps.
The folks at Home Box Office say they don't play the ratings game. But isn't it curious that HBO schedules blockbusters at a time when the networks are striving to attract the year's largest viewership? HBO on Saturday at 8 p.m. premieres ``Tyson,'' a cable original with Michael Jai White in an underwhelming performance as the former heavyweight champion.
It is obvious that the man was chosen for his physique, not his ability to deliver lines. He has a hard time bringing to the surface the darkness that is in Tyson's soul. Tyson was arrested 38 times by the time he was 13.
While White fails to light up the screen in the title role, George C. Scott as Tyson's friend and mentor, Cus D'Amato, and Paul Winfield as the Oil Can Harry of Boxing, Don King, are just great. It's a hoot when King accuses others in boxing of ``blemishing the profession.''
In ``Tyson,'' the producers used shots of the Nervi dome and interior of Scope in Norfolk to simulate arenas in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Japan, even. The crowd scenes were taped during a recent fight here involving Our Favorite Champion, and darling of HBO, Pernell Whitaker.
Let's keep talking sports.
Major League Baseball is back on the playing field and back on ESPN.
``Sunday Night Baseball'' begins anew on Sunday at 8 p.m. with the Texas-Boston game. See Jose Canseco of Boston flex his muscles against his former mates. WPEN, the Peninsula station now available to Cox Cable's subscribers, will carry 40 Baltimore Orioles games including the Saturday night game at 8 with the Minnesota Twins.
Will the fans welcome back baseball or pout and stay away in protest of a strike that deprived America of the playoffs and World Series last year?
I say they'll forgive and forget.
While the TV networks continue to do a miniseries or two for the sweeps, it's doubtful you will ever again see a saga to match the 18-hour ``The Winds of War.'' A&E brings back the story of Victor ``Pug'' Henry, played by the too-old-for-the-part Robert Mitchum, on Sunday starting at 8 p.m.
A&E will air the 18 hours in seven episodes.
Also on Sunday, and also on the world-at-war theme, The Discovery Channel offers a special on the evil man whom Pug Henry meets in Part 1 of ``The Winds of War.'' Learn about Nazi documents confiscated by the Soviet Union after World War II in ``The Search for Adolph Hitler'' at 9 p.m. The Learning Channel on Thursday at 9 p.m. presents the story of one of Hitler's greatest generals, Edwin Rommel. The program is ``This Century: Rommel.''
And on a lighter note, ``Home Improvement'' on Tuesday at 9 p.m. on ABC marks its 100th episode. Crisis in the Taylor household! Jill's sister, Carrie, makes a surprise visit. Not only that. Tim's brother, sister-in-law and twin girls also barge in on the Taylors. Don't worry. It'll be fun.
Over on NBC Saturday night at 8, ``Empty Nest'' signs off after seven seasons with Kristy McNichol returning to the series for one last appearance. The finale is in two parts. Laverne (Park Overall) is about to elope, Carol (Dinah Manoff) decides against marriage, Harry (Richard Mulligan) heads for Vermont and Barbara (McNichol) returns.
I don't know about you, but I'll miss the dog, Dreyfuss.
My offbeat pick of the week: ``Viva Vietnam: A White Trash Adventure Tour,'' which premieres on Comedy Central Sunday at 10 p.m. Comic Tom Rhodes visits Vietnam, where his warrant officer father once fought with U.S. forces as a helicopter pilot. Rhodes, 28, calls it a hip history lesson.
``It shouldn't offend anyone,'' he said. Best scene is when Rhodes takes over a 12th-grade English class.
And if that isn't enough to keep you in your La-Z-Boy for hours on end in the next week, consider this programming:
Virginia-born Spencer Christian and his sidekicks from ``Good Morning America'' on ABC begin a European tour on Monday at 7 a.m. Break out the passports, guys, because this train stops in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. . . . Also on ABC, the film that made an Oscar winner out of Clint Eastwood: ``Unforgiven.'' It airs Sunday at 8:30. Bet ABC did a bunch of editing to make this dark film acceptable for a prime time audience. . . . Sunday at 2:30 p.m., WVEC makes it official. This has been one horrible sneezin' season. The program is ``Hampton Roads: The Allergy Zone.'' Pass the Kleenex.
David Copperfield, the illusionist who makes airplanes and statues disappear with ease while he walks through the Great Wall of China, returns to CBS for the May sweeps with ``The Magic of David Copperfield XVI: Unexplained Forces'' on Monday night at 8. David strolls through the blades of an enormous fan. And he makes snow. Touch your TV screen at home and magic happens. Honest. . . . The Nashville Network on Saturday at 10 p.m. salutes Virginia's very own Virginia Patterson Hensley of Winchester, also known as Patsy Cline. Lots of vintage clips on ``A Portrait of Patsy Cline.''
Don't you just love it when Julie Andrews belts out ``Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''? Me, too. There's Andrews singing about her favorite things on The Disney Channel Sunday night at 9 in ``The Sound of Julie Andrews.'' It's a concert setting with Andre Previn conducting. . . . The Sci-Fi Channel Saturday night at 7 begins a salute to ``Star Trek'' that stretches into the wee hours of the morning. After two ``Star Trek'' flicks come ``Leonard Nimoy's Trek Memories'' at 1 a.m. followed by ``Star Trek's 25th Anniversary Special.''. . . If Charles Dickens were alive today, would be he be writing ``Star Trek'' scripts? ``Phasers on stun, Tiny Tim!'' You can catch Dickens as the social critic Sunday at 9 p.m. on ``Masterpiece Theater'' when Alan Bates stars in ``Hard Times.'' Dickens sees Victorian England as far less than heaven. Visit depressing Coketown. . . If you've gained your knowledge of the medical profession from watching ``ER,'' I suggest you see the real thing on ``Nova'' Wednesday at 9 p.m. in ``Making a Doctor.'' The Nova producers track seven Harvard Medical School students as their careers begin. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Peter Coyote portrays...Buffalo Bill Cody...Anjelica Houston...Reba
McEntire...
Photos
From left, Micahel Jai White is Mike Tyson and George C. Scott is
Cus D'Amato in ``Tyson'' Saturday night at 8 on ABC.
``A Portrait of Patsy Cline'' airs Saturday night at 10 on The
Nashville Network.
In a rare solo concert setting, Julie Andrews offers an evening of
music on Disney Sunday night at 9.
by CNB