THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 10, 1996 TAG: 9602090090
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
AFTER REJECTING earlier scripts, and telling producer David L. Wolper he was not interested in reprising the role of the guilt-ridden priest in ``The Thorn Birds,'' Richard Chamberlain reconsidered.
The result: ``The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years,'' a four-hour miniseries on CBS starting Sunday at 9. It concludes Tuesday at the same hour.
If this is the best script Wolper's writers could produce, the others must have been truly dreadful, because the sequel is TV tripe. It's the theme of the 1983 miniseries played over and over with soap-opera dialogue.
Chamberlain, as Ralph de Bricassart, the priest who loves the church and Meggie O'Neill in equal measure, returns to agonize again over his dilemma.
``I fell in love once, and my whole life has been a battle to decide if I love Meggie more than God,'' de Bricassart says in Sunday's episode.
When meeting with TV writers in Los Angeles recently, Wolper admitted that author Colleen McCullough, on whose writings both miniseries were based, wanted no part of this project beyond cashing Wolper's checks. Smart woman.
Here's the wafer-thin plot of ``The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years'' in a nutshell: Archbishop de Bricassart is in Rome in 1943 as Nazism and fascism sweep Europe. In the Australian Outback, Meggie (by Amanda Donohoe from ``L.A. Law'') is raising a son fathered by the priest. A two-year drought makes life miserable for the sheep ranchers.
The two lovers never expect to see one another again, until the priest is sent back to Australia to look after the church's interests and begin planning for a post-World War II influx of refugees.
The whole darn affair flares up again. The drought breaks but their passion burns on. They do it as the storm rages.
Donohoe as Meggie doesn't have the sensuality of Rachel Ward, who created the role 13 years ago. Her 1940s wardrobe is dreadful. And Bryan Brown, who gave ``The Thorn Birds'' much of its drive and energy, has been replaced by Simon Westaway, who is merely loutish.
The brute ``steals'' his son away from Meggie without realizing that Dane isn't his son at all. There will be hell to pay when he finds out.
How will Father Ralph sort out this mess? Surely not by using his fists. Oh, no? Wolper notes that although the original ``Thorn Birds'' covered 42 years in the lives of Cleary family, great chunks were omitted. Now, he's caught us up by padding the sequel with long courtroom scenes.
Chamberlain of late has been touring in ``My Fair Lady'' and not doing much before the camera.
``I now think of myself as a Hawaiian beach bum who paints and occasionally acts,'' he told TV writers via satellite from Zurich. ``I do not pursue acting with the same avid ambition I used to. I'm going through a period of thinking that I've sort of wasted these past 35 years on acting.''
Is ``The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years'' a waste of the man's time? Yes, and ours, too.
With the arrival of Black History Month, two cable channels in the week ahead are presenting some darn good programming. Bravo on Saturday night at 9 premieres ``Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones,'' followed by ``Leadbelly'' at 11, the story of blues singer Huddie Ledbetter.
The network's salute to Black History Month continues Sunday at 11:30 a.m. with ``Masters of American Music: Sarah Vaughn - The Divine One,'' ``Opening Shot: Brandy'' at 5 p.m. and ``South Bank Show: Voices of Rap'' at 7.
On Home Box Office Monday night at 10, the role of black men and women in sports, from baseball's Negro leagues to the Olympics, unfolds in Part 1 of ``The Journey of the African-American Athlete.'' Part 2 will be seen on Feb. 19 at 10 p.m. This documentary reflects on a time in the United States when, to some, integration in sports meant a white golfer and a black caddy.
What with Valentine's Day on the calendar, February also is the month of lovers. The ``Biography'' series on A&E follows that theme with ``Adam & Eve: Lost Innocence,'' on Monday at 8 p.m. On Tuesday, A&E features the life of Rudolph Valentino in at 8 p.m. . . . On Wednesday, The Travel Channel at 9 p.m. begins a four-part series, ``Romantic Inns of America,'' hosted by Judith Moen, who worked for a time at WTKR in Norfolk . . . On Tuesday at 8 p.m. on The Nashville Network, Leeza Gibbons talks to couples in country music, including Trisha Yearwood and Robert Reynolds on ``Straight from the Heart.''
Here are three upcoming specials worth your time: On Sunday at 9 p.m. the failed war against marijuana growers is featured on ``CNN Presents: Higher Times.'' Pot is an annual cash crop worth $7 billion. One college student made $48,000 growing the stuff in his dorm room.
If you subscribe to the theory that insects will again rule the earth - they were here millions of years before man - you have company in the producers of ``Alien Empire'' on PBS' ``Nature'' starting Sunday at 8 p.m. In Part 1, you'll learn how and why insects survived for eons. Bet you didn't know there are serial killers in the bug world. And vast insect armies. And giant weevils.
The Discovery Channel on Monday night at 10 rolls out a three-hour miniseries about the end of the Romanov empire in Russia in ``Last of the Czars.'' The documentary includes interviews with eyewitnesses who lived in the last reign of the czars and czarinas, including 113-year-old Alexander Davydovich Briansky, who saw the coronation of Nicholas II. Briansky looks mighty spry for 113. Discovery shows that six months after the czar's family appeared in films ``happy and carefree,'' the dynasty crumbled.
And speaking of coronations, they'll announce nominations for this year's Academy Awards Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. E! Entertainment Television will be in Los Angeles with Kathleen Sullivan and Steve Kmetko when the big moment arrives. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
[Richard Chamberlain and Amanda Donohoe]
DISCOVERY CHANNEL photo
The Discovery Channel presents ``The Last of the Czars'' Monday
night at 10.
A&E photo
A&E profiles Rudolph Valentino, shown here with Agnes Ayres, Tuesday
at 8 p.m.
by CNB