THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 9, 1995 TAG: 9512070028
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, Television columnist
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
SOAP QUEEN Deidre Hall, who often visits Virginia Beach to see her twin
sister, Andrea, opens up her private life to a primetime audience Sunday at 9
on ABC in ``Never Say Never: The Deidre Hall Story.''
She lays out for all to see the frustrations of 20 years of infertility
and, finally, the joy of motherhood with the help of a surrogate. To quote
Hall, it was 20 years of ``being shot full of hormones, knocked out and cut
open by doctors.''
Her quest for motherhood ends happily when a surrogate mother named Robin
(played by Eve Gordon) enters the lives of Hall and her husband Steve Sohmer.
She has given the Sohmers two children, ages 3 1/2 and 1.
It was a long, painful, difficult path for all to walk here. A friend once
told Hall, ``This baby thing is not for you. You've tried every way known to
man to conceive and it's not happening.''
And when the surrogate birth was arranged, the trials did not end. Hall was
warned that she might not get to keep the baby, that she could be setting foot
into a legal thicket. The tabloid press chased the story from every angle,
even ambushing Robin in the ladies' room.
The Sohmers were criticized by some churchgoers.
No matter. The ending is a happy one. This is a four-Kleenex evening before
the tube. Andrea Hall Gengler plays herself in the film.
WHAT ELSE does TV have to offer in the week ahead to take your mind off the
fact that you haven't started your Christmas shopping or even thought of
addressing your Christmas cards? Plenty, including a really good and really
surprising episode of ``Party of Five.''
On Sunday at 8 p.m., Home Box Office shows Michael Jackson in a two-hour
concert taped at a Broadway theater. ``Michael Jackson: King of Pop - One
Night Only'' dishes out more from his over-promoted ``HIStory: Past, Present &
Future - Book 1'' disc. There will also be a duet with sister Janet. The
Beacon Theater is an intimate location compared to the wide open spaces in
which Jackson has done concerts in the past.
Another singer of note will be featured Monday at 10 p.m. on Bravo in
``South Bank Show: Clint Eastwood.'' Yes, he sings. Didn't you see ``Bronco
Billy''? ``Paint Your Wagon''? The Bravo show is clips plus interviews that
cover Eastwood's pretty darn distinguished career in films. Eastwood on
westerns, which helped make him famous: ``The genre is not dead. It's just a
question of finding a new venue, new people to portray the western.''
Meryl Streep, who co-starred with Eastwood in ``The Bridges of Madison
County,'' is among the big names that appear in ``Stars in the Making'' on CBS
Wednesday at 9 p.m. This is one of those easy-to-assemble specials that show
what big, big stars such as Streep, Tom Cruise, Michael Douglas and Dustin
Hoffman had to endure before they got The Big Break. Fun stuff. Joe Regalbuto
of ``Murphy Brown'' is the guide here.
There will soon be a film about the life and times of Richard M. Nixon in
movie theaters, but before that happens, TNT beats producer Oliver Stone to
the punch with ``Kissinger and Nixon'' on Sunday at 8 p.m. Under layers of
heavy makeup, Beau Bridges plays Nixon and Ron Silver is cast as Henry
Kissinger. This is a primer on how the U.S. got out of the war in Southeast
Asia and a not-so-pretty portrait of how Nixon used and abused the power of
the presidency. Interesting but a tad too long.
The folks over at The Family Channel headquarters in Virginia Beach know
how to put their viewers in a holiday mood. They break out the Shirley Temple
movies. ``Shirley Temple Classics Week'' begins Monday at 3 p.m. with Temple
in ``Dimples.'' FAM, as they liked to be called at the channel, keeps the
holiday mood going on Sunday at 9 p.m. with ``Holiday Greetings from the Ed
Sullivan Show.'' See Gene Autry sing about Rudolph and Bing Crosby croon about
having a white Christmas.
Elsewhere in the Land of the Picture Tube, former Pittsburgh quarterback
and a winner in four Super Bowls, Terry Bradshaw, hosts ``Sports Illustrated
1995 Sportsman of the Year'' Sunday at 7 p.m. on Fox. Who's your choice? Tonya
Harding? Yes, women have won five times in the past. . . It's time for another
of those well-crafted but slow-moving ``Hallmark Hall of Fame'' holiday
specials. This time it's ``Journey'' on CBS Sunday at 9 p.m. Jason Robards,
Meg Tilly and Brenda Fricker, minus British accent, co-star in this piece
about a restless young mother, farm folk taking pictures of cows, and, well,
lots of talking and staring. . . Bet you never knew that Jupiter is larger
than all the other planets in our solar system put together. In ``On Jupiter''
(Monday at 9 p.m.), the Discovery Channel tells all about the planet with a
storm three times the size of Mother Earth raging at all times.
Be advised, all you ``Party of Five'' fans, that come Wednesday at 9 on Fox
there will be a giant surprise before the scheduled wedding of Charlie and
Kristen. And you may not like what you see. Fox says I can't reveal more than
that. . . See dogs who live better than people in New York City on The
Learning Channel Sunday at 8 p.m. in ``Dog Day in Manhattan: Dog Stories.''. .
Roads: A Season for Music.'' Included will be ``the governor's musick'' from
Colonial Williamsburg. . . Another program note from WHRO: The PBS outlet this
month is showing the wonderful documentary, ``Victory at Sea,'' Monday through
Friday at 11:30 p.m. It hasn't aged a bit in 50 years. . . Had enough of
Howard Stern? If not, catch E! Entertainment Television's ``Howard Stern's
`Miss America''' Friday at 10 p.m. It's about the shock jock on a book-signing
tour.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
"Never Say Never..."
TNT PHOTO
Beau Bridges, left, as Richard Nixon and Ron Silver as Henry
Kissinger in TNT's ``Kissinger and Nixon,'' which premieres Sunday
at 8 p.m.
by CNB