THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509280533
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
WHAT'S THIS world coming to? The studious, ambitious, virtuous Jessie of the sitcom ``Saved by the Bell'' is on the big screen these days disrobing in ``Showgirls.''
Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, who also played a virtuous teen on ``Saved by the Bell'' when Elizabeth Berkley was cast as Jessie, is seen on ``Beverly Hills 90210'' these days bedding everyone from musicians to artists.
Innocence lost.
Jessie a stripper. Kelly a pot-smoking maneater. What's next?
Screech in a Nine Inch Nails music video?
Mario Lopez of ``Saved by the Bell'' is upholding the series' wholesomeness. He's taken the high road since he quit playing Slater on the original Saturday morning ``Saved by the Bell'' and its brief revival in primetime on NBC.
Starting Monday at 4:30 p.m. on The Family Channel, Lopez hosts a game show for kids called ``Masters of the Maze.'' Contestants ages 10 to 14 compete in a video game come to life.
The folks at Family Channel headquarters in Virginia Beach say they are re-inventing children's programming this fall under a new banner: ``FAM AFTV.''
That's the block of weekday shows from 4 to 6 p.m. that includes the new ``Wild Animal Games'' at 4, ``Masters of the Maze'' returning for a second season at 4:30 and, from 5 to 6, another new series, ``Family Challenge,'' hosted by Ray Combs.
In ``Wild Animal Games,'' children and parents get involved with such stuff as pigs competing in the slalom. In ``Family Challenge,'' it helps if you're good at tossing cream pies.
And there is ``FAM BAM'' for kids.
That's programming for Saturday and Sunday mornings scheduled to begin in November. ``The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends'' 30-minute specials, ``Xuxa,'' ``Heathcliff,'' ``Madeline,'' and ``Popeye'' will be included in ``FAM BAM,'' which will sign on like gangbusters with a mascot to be called - what else? - FAM BAM.
When Tony Thomopoulos became chief executive officer of MTM Entertainment and the chief programmer at The Family Channel, he made this pledge to the Television Critics Association:
``The Family Channel will begin the fall season with a polished and energetic new look.''
The new look includes signature artwork or logos to identify Thomopoulus' makeover of The Family Channel into four parts - ``FAM Primetime,'' ``FAM Sunday Night Movie,'' the afternoon schedule (``FAM AFTV'') and the kids block coming in November, ``FAM BAM.''
The icon is a simple design. It's the outline of a house. ``Home is where the family watches television,'' said the cable channel's senior vice president of programming, Gus Lucas.
The Family Channel has been reborn as FAM, which rhymes with wham-bam, which sums up the action in ``Young Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Hawkmen,'' the first ``FAM Sunday Night Movie Event'' scheduled for Oct. 8 at 7 p.m.
This series from producer George Lucas returns to FAM as part of ``FAM Sunday'' package to be followed at 9 by the ``Columbo'' mysteries.
Thomopoulos promised ``fun'' and ``creativity'' for the new season on FAM. ``Columbo'' is fun, to be sure. But how creative is it to run a series that has been around since 1971?
FAM is also adding ``Newhart'' weekdays at 12:30, 6 and 6:30 p.m. starting Tuesday; ``Highway to Heaven'' weekdays at 2 and 8 p.m., also beginning Tuesday; and another off-network show, ``Christy.'' That starts Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.
More Bob Newhart and Michael Landon? Is that creativity? Energy?
The energy escaped ``Newhart'' and ``Columbo'' a long time ago.
I guess the CEO means energy and creativity as in the Young Indy series, two new ``Hart to Hart'' mysteries and FAM's original films. They include ``Kidnapped'' with Armand Assante in a role originally given to Christopher Reeve; ``Stolen Memories From the Rose Garden'' starring Mary Tyler Moore, Linda Lavin and recent Emmy winner Shirley Knight; and ``Captains Courageous'' with Robert Urich.
Sean Patrick Flanery, who plays young Indy, says he is up to the challenge of bringing fun and energy to The Family Channel, even if it is for just a year. (George Lucas said he won't be making any more ``Young Indiana Jones'' specials after this season).
In ``Attack of the Hawkmen,'' Young Indy plays a photographer who flies reconnaissance missions over the trenches that were the battlegrounds of World War I. He'll cross paths with the German ace Manfred von Richtofen - the Red Baron.
And if you still crave the innocence of Jessie and Kelly on ``Saved by the Bell,'' it's there to behold in reruns weekdays at 5 p.m. on WPEN starting next week and at 5:05 p.m. on TBS.
There is also plenty of ``Columbo'' around, with A&E serving up a full afternoon of Peter (``Just one more thing . . . '') Falk as the cool cop Mondays starting at 1 p.m.
The Family Channel also has plans to air a dozen or so ``Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey'' specials plus more from ``The Very Best of Ed Sullivan'' series. These specials premiered in September on the wham, bam FAM. by CNB