THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602010052
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
DATELINE: PASADENA, CALIF. LENGTH: Long : 122 lines
WHEN TED DANSON and Mary Steenburgen played a married couple in the NBC miniseries ``Gulliver's Travels,'' they liked it so much that they wed soon after filming concluded in Portugal and the United Kingdom.
The four-hour miniseries, featuring some corking good special effects from Jim Henson Productions, signs on Sunday night at 9 and continues Monday night at the same hour.
Producer Robert Halmi Sr. and director Charles Sturridge departed a bit from Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel, framing the miniseries in flashbacks that begin as Gulliver returns home after a nine-year voyage to Lilliput, Brobdingnag, the flying island of Laputa and a land ruled by horses or Houyhnhnms. With tales like that, is it any wonder they pack him off to the funny farm when he returns to England?
This narrative takes a bit of getting used to - are you watching the past or present, you'll be asking yourself - but once you adjust to Sturridge's technique, the reward is four hours that will carry you away from the drab little real world we all live in.
``We finally have the computer technology to match Swift's imagination,'' said Sturridge when he met with TV writers here recently.
Unlike other film treatments of Swift's work, which concentrated on showing Gulliver as the 72-foot-tall giant among the Lilliputians, the NBC miniseries also includes Gulliver's voyage to Brobdingnag, where the roles of giant and tiny person are reversed, his meeting with the Sorcerer (Omar Sharif), his adventures in the land of horses with more sense than humans, and his flight on an island kept aloft by magnetism.
``Here's something for the family to watch together,'' said Danson. ``As for taking on the role, the director told me that I had to throw myself completely into the imaginary circumstances, and that if I reverted to 20th century cynicism, I was dead.''
The supporting cast includes Peter O'Toole, Sharif, John Gielgud, Alfre Woodard, Geraldine Chaplain, Edward Woodward, Ned Beatty and Edward and James Fox. Not bad. O'Toole is a hoot as the emperor of Lilliput. And to see Gielgud in even a small role, extracting sunshine from cucumbers, is a grand moment.
``The story about Gulliver's travels has never been done on the screen completely until now,'' said Sturridge. Four voyages in one. Must-see TV.
With the arrival of the February ratings sweeps, the networks will do almost anything to crank up the ratings, and that includes bringing on new series.
And melding one series with another.
CBS last week introduced comic Louie Anderson in a new sitcom, ``The Louie Show,'' and on Monday at 8 p.m., ABC breaks out a family drama, ``Second Noah.'' This is about the unbelievable Becketts, a family that adopts both children (eight so far) and animals (watch out for the snake in the bathroom).
``The Louie Show,'' set in Duluth, shows that Minnesota is no bag of laughs, and ``Second Noah'' tries to be too many things - a kids' show, a show about teen angst, a show about a Mr. Mom, a fantasy. Too, too much.
Elsewhere in series TV, the cops from ``Homicide: Life on the Street'' cross paths with the guys from ``Law & Order'' on Wednesday at 10 p.m. on NBC in a two-part episode that works pretty darn well. It's interesting to see how the guys from a show like ``Law & Order,'' which is filmed with conventional camera techniques in Manhattan, work in the world of ``Homicide,'' with its jerky camera shots and wide-open production style in Baltimore.
Some crossovers fall flat. This one doesn't.
The two-parter concludes Friday night at 10.
On ``Home Improvement,'' on ABC Tuesday night at 9, Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) faces pressure from Jill (Patricia Richardson) to have a vasectomy. Beware wives with knives . . On ``Mad About You,'' on NBC Sunday at 8 p.m., some of the gang from ``Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In'' drop in. How do Henry Gibson, Arte Johnson, Gary Owens and JoAnne Worley manage that? A dream sequence . . . On Tuesday night's ``Wings'' at 8 on NBC, Jay Leno and Bryant Gumbel make cameo appearances. Didn't we just see Leno at the cops' favorite Bawl-mer bar on ``Homicide''? We did, indeed. The man is everywhere.
Public Broadcasting's ``Act Against Violence: Help Wanted'' on WHRO Saturday night at 9 will include a segment produced by Channel 15 about Norfolk teens who solved the problem of pizza companies refusing to deliver in their neighborhood by starting their own business, Pizza-Ria! The new delivery business serves Roberts Village and Bowling Green. On the show, you'll also hear from volunteers helping to make communities safer. Co-hosts include Robert Townsend, Anita Baker and Ossie Davis. Here's your chance to step up and do something about reducing violence that involves kids.
Also upcoming: CBS on Sunday at 9 p.m. airs the ``Hallmark Hall of Fame'' special, ``The Boys Next Door.'' Life in a home for mentally challenged men based on Tom Griffin's play. . . . The Faith and Values Channel on Wednesday night at 9:30 begins re-runs of ``Brooklyn Bridge,'' the series about growing up in 1957 Brooklyn which never caught on when CBS showed it. . . . New fantasy-adventure series premiering on The Disney Channel Monday at 7:30 p.m. It's ``Spellbinder,'' which is about a 14-year-old (played by Zbych Trofimiuk) who is hurled into a parallel universe way back when, even before the Industrial Revolution. Before MTV. . . The King - no, not Elvis - is profiled on TNT Sunday at 7 p.m. in ``Clark Gable: Tall, Dark and Handsome.'' Is it true that Gable romanced Loretta Young, who gave birth to their daughter? TNT checks it out. . . . A&E sends Bob Vila into the Deep South for ``Bob Vila's Guide to Historic Homes of America'' starting Sunday at 8 p.m. when Vila tours homes in the Northeast. On Feb. 11, he's in Virginia at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. ILLUSTRATION: Peter O'Toole, center, plays the Emperor of Lilliput in
"Gulliver's Travels." The four-hour, two-part miniseries based on
the Jonathan Swift tale begins at 9 p.m. Sunday on NBC. Part Two
begins at the same time Monday.
Ted Danson portrays Gulliver, and Mary Steenburgen plays his wife.
The two stars wed after the filming.
NBC
Gulliver (Ted Danson) is captured and tied down by tiny Lilliputians
in the NBC miniseries ``Gulliver's Travels,'' premiering Sunday
night at 9 and continuing Monday at the same time.
DISNEY CHANNEL
``Spellbinder,'' a Disney Channel fantasy-adventure about a teen
(Zybch Trofimiuk, right) zapped into a parallel universe, debuts at
7:30 Monday.
FILE PHOTO
At 8 Monday night, The Nashville Network will air a special, ``Not
Fade Away: Remembering Buddy Holly.''
by CNB