THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 9, 1995 TAG: 9509080096
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By Larry Bonko, Television Columnist
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
THIS JEFF FOXWORTHY dude has been all over the place lately doing stand-up comedy 48 weeks a year, appearing in his ``You Might Be a Redneck If. . . '' videos, schmoozing with Jay and Dave on late-night TV, grinding out comedy albums (``Games Rednecks Play'') and now this.
He's starring in his own sitcom on ABC.
Sooner or later, every stand-up comic who ever tossed out a one-liner at The Improv or Comedy Store will have his or her own network sitcom. It's TV's hottest trend.
This fall is Foxworthy's turn.
He'll play a husband and father who owns a cooling and heating business on ``The Jeff Foxworthy Show,'' which premieres on ABC Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. before sliding over to its regular time period on Saturdays at 8 p.m.
This is the month of deliverance for America's couch potatoes who endured the long, dry summer of reruns. In the week ahead, three networks break out a truck load of new programming with ABC introducing five shows, including the Foxworthy sitcom.
CBS lifts the curtain on a new sitcom starring the suddenly sanitized Andrew Clay (``Bless This House'') in a preview on Monday at 8:30 p.m. CBS trots out two new dramas, ``Central Park West'' and ``Courthouse'' on Wednesday starting at 9 p.m. (The ``Bless This House'' regular time slot is Wednesday at 8 p.m.)
On Saturday at 8:30 p.m., Fox brings on David Alan Grier in ``The Preston Episodes'' sitcom. A college professor writes for a gossip magazine called ``Stuff.'' Come Friday at 8 p.m., Fox introduces a silly sort of drama about a guy who just happens to be there when bad things happen. ``Strange Luck.''
And let us not forget that just about everyone's guilty pleasures, ``Melrose Place'' and ``Beverly Hills 90210,'' start their new seasons in the week ahead on Fox. Of ``Melrose Place,'' the network promises, ``If you think things got hot last season, just wait.''
(Laura Leighton, the put-upon Sydney of ``Melrose Place,'' shows up in a deliciously trashy movie on Fox, ``In the Name of Love: A Texas Tragedy,'' on Tuesday at 8 p.m. Not only that. Saturday at 6 p.m., she hosts a show about what's hot in fashion on E! Entertainment Television, ``Rolling Stone Style.'')
And if that isn't enough to make a person happy to be a stay-at-home here in September of 1995, Home Box Office on Saturday at 8 p.m. delivers ``Truman.'' It's an original film starring Gary Sinise as the former infantry captain, farmer, haberdasher, oil prospector, miner and banker who became president in 1945 and changed the course of history.
Sinise is just dandy as Truman in a role that is light years from his work with Tom Hanks in ``Forrest Gump'' and ``Apollo 13.'' Sinise was so pumped up for the Truman role that when he met members of the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles recently, he was still reciting Truman's old speeches.
``I really had to convince myself that I could find the essence of Harry Truman and bring him to life in some believable fashion,'' Sinise told the TV press.
What comic-turned-actor Foxworthy has to do is not unlike what Sinise accomplishes in ``Truman.'' He has to bring to life on TV another character who also comes across as jes' plain folks - himself.
``When I do stand-up comedy, I talk about my life. I talk about my wife and my kids. What I've tried to do with our television show is the same thing - tell about the life of a married guy with friends who are blue collar. Television shows using comics in starring roles work very well when the shows are forums for what they've been talking about on stage. Look at Roseanne, Tim Allen, Brett Butler and Jerry Seinfeld.''
Foxworthy made a name for himself telling people how to recognize the redneck within. ``If you own a home that's mobile, and 14 cars that aren't, you're a redneck,'' Foxworthy says.
Redneck humor in prime time in the politically correct 1990s? In a sitcom? Will it work?
It will, indeed, said Foxworthy, because we are all rednecks under the skin. We'll relate.
``My dad was an executive with IBM. After work, he'd come home, pop a beer and sit on the back porch watching the bug zapper do its work. He had a degree of redneckism.''
Foxworthy is a Georgia Tech grad. A college degree does not disqualify you from redneckism, he said. ``I know college folks been married three times and still have the same in-laws.'' Redneckism.
The second new sitcom premiering on ABC in the week ahead (Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.), ``The Drew Carey Show,'' is ``Friends'' set in a car pool. Carey is also a stand-up comic.
``Maybe This Time,'' starring Marie Osmond and Betty White, has Osmond playing a recently divorced character - somebody in need of friends. ``Maybe This Time'' premieres Friday at 9:30 p.m. before moving to its Saturday night time slot after Foxworthy.
ABC's new dramas include ``The Monroes,'' some of which was shot in Virginia, and the return of Mark Harmon as a Los Angeles private eye and single parent in ``Charlie Grace.''
See ``The Monroes'' Tuesday at 10 p.m., ``Charlie Grace'' Thursday at 8 p.m. followed by ``The Monroes'' in its regular time period at 9. Mini-reviews: ``The Monroes'' works as a 1990s ``Dynasty.'' Harmon needs another layer of cool to make ``Charlie Grace'' click.
The bounty continues to pour from the box in the living room in the week ahead with this programming:
Barbara Walters on ``20/20'' Friday on ABC at 10 p.m. chats with former four-star general Colin Powell. Can wily ol' Barbara get Powell to admit he'll run for the White House next year?. . . Walter Cronkite, who has chatted with a few presidential candidates on TV, is back on the tube Wednesday at 10 p.m. with a special, an update in the battle to save the environment, on Discovery. It's ``The Cronkite Report: Environment Beware: Counterrevolution.''. . . With all the buzz about capital punishment lately, A&E ``Investigative Reports'' is timely with a two-hour special on the death penalty. ``The Executioners'' will be seen Sunday at 8 p.m. Bill Kurtis hosts. . . The hip ``Politically Incorrect'' with Bill Maher starts a new season on Comedy Central Tuesday at 11 p.m. It's Maher, the panel, opinions, laughs. Fun. . . . Clarissa alert! Nick at Nite on Saturday puts on ``The Clarissa Explains It All Marathon'' starting at 8 p.m. hosted by (who else but?) Clarissa herself. . . . More marathons! On Sunday, the Sci-Fi Channel reels off 14 episodes of ``Max Headroom'' starting at 1 p.m. Wasn't that the coolest TV show, ever? OK. ``Clarissa'' is cooler. . . . On Sunday at 9 p.m., The Learning Channel takes up the rather deep question, ``What is beautiful?'' as part of the ``Understanding'' series. Is math beautiful? Is science? Is Candice Bergen? You bet. She hosts ``Beauty.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Jeff Foxworthy...
Photo
Gary Sinise...
by CNB