THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 23, 1995 TAG: 9508230029
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
IT'S ABOUT over, couch potatoes of America.
The great summer drought or the long, dry season of reruns ends this month - first with a drip and a drop, then with a deluge of new programs.
Let it be known that the 1995-96 television season begins officially for better or worse tonight at 8:30 on the Warner Brothers almost-a-network with the premiere of ``Kirk,'' a sitcom starring Kirk Cameron from the late but never great ``Growing Pains.''
``Kirk'' is about kids without parents trying to make it on their own.
Now where have I heard that idea before?
I'll sum up Cameron's new sitcom for you in one word: Forgettable. I figure it will last about as long as the McNeeley dude in the Tyson fight.
What this August is all about for serious TV viewers is the countdown to the return of ``Star Trek: Voyager'' on the other almost-a-network, United Paramount. Next Monday, Kate Mulgrew and her crew return at 8 p.m. on WGNT in a season opener that is darn good science fiction. Darn good.
Fashion note: Mulgrew as Capt. Janeway is still wearing her hair in a bun.
The ``Voyager'' premiere starts when the starship crew spies a 1937 Ford pickup truck loaded with manure floating in the cosmos.
How did it get there, for heaven's sake?
In this episode, the Voyager's crew answers a question that has haunted us for years: Whatever happened to Amelia Earhart on her flight around the world?
If you miss this one, you'll hate yourself.
Also on Aug. 28, UPN launches a new show, ``Nowhere Man,'' which stars Bruce Greenwood as a photographer who wakes up one day to find his past has been wiped out. His wife doesn't recognize him. His keys don't fit the locks to his studio. He is, like, nowhere, man.
On Tuesday, Aug. 29, the premieres on UPN keep coming with episode No. 1 of ``Live Shot,'' which is about life in a TV newsroom. This is a drama, not a 1990s update of ``The Mary Tyler Moore Show.'' On Sept. 5, UPN breaks out its third new series, ``Deadly Games.'' Characters in video games come to life. The bad news is that they tend to be evil. Leonard Nimoy created the series.
Come Aug. 31, Fox starts its new season at 8 p.m. with the return of ``Living Single'' followed by a new sitcom, ``The Crew.'' That one is about looking for laughs at 30,000 feet up. The other big networks will wait until early or mid-September to bring out the bulk of new programming.
So, for now, it's reruns or ``Kirk'' on the WBN.
Cameron, who played Mike Seaver for seven seasons on ``Growing Pains,'' said he was offered plenty of scripts after that sitcom signed off about four years ago, but none of them stirred his creative juices. The kid made a pile of money on ``Growing Pains,'' and did very well when the show moved to syndication.
He could afford to wait for the right show to come along. Cameron thinks that ``Kirk'' is it.
``I wasn't going to come back to series television until I found a show I could be excited about for the next four, five or six years,'' he said. ``I believe this is a cool, hip show that everyone who is my age or so will love.''
There's an angle here worth mentioning.
Cameron, who has sprouted to 22, co-stars with his wife, Chelsea Noble. The plot is this: Kirk's aunt, who has been taking care of his younger sister and two brothers, decides to marry at age 75, move to Florida from Manhattan, and leave the kids in the care of big brother Kirk.
Noble plays a medical student who lives across the hall.
She's bright and lovely. The Cameron character is bright and almost as cute. In sitcom heaven, they would get together eventually. But the plan this time, say the producers, is that the two will never bond.
How does that work for actors who are wed in the real life?
``It's great playing characters who aren't living the same life we are,'' said Noble. ``Kirk'' premieres tonight at 8:30 on the WB affiliate seen on cable in Hampton Roads (WWOR). It will start on the local Warner Brothers' affiliate, WVBT, Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Kirk Cameron
by CNB