THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 6, 1996 TAG: 9607040054
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: 82 lines
LET'S CALL IT Week of the Weird.
In the days ahead, television presents the story of a former homeless HIV-positive transvestite prostitute named Sara who now lives as a man.
And a series that celebrates the era of films when creatures with atomic brains and giant leeches took over the silver screen.
And a documentary on a supermarket tabloid that says Elvis is alive and well on the moon.
``P.O.V,'' the unconventional PBS series that's a forum for independently made films from real life, on Tuesday at 10 p.m. premieres ``The Transformation,'' which follows the evolution of Sara the streetwalker to Ricardo the married man. He was rescued from his former life by a street preacher. ``P.O.V.'' introduces viewers to the ways of the drag queens here.
On Saturday at 7:30 p.m., The Sci-Fi Channel brings on a new series, ``Trailer Park,'' hosted by Tom Davis that revives coming attractions from the Cold War days when Hollywood was grinding out films about mutant life forms created by radiation. As the title ``Them!'' flashes on the screen, it's followed by the words it stands for - terror, horror, excitement, mystery.
Each episode will have seven or eight unedited trailers - ``Tarantula,'' a creeping, crawling monster! - with Davis and director-writer Nicholas Meyer adding the commentary. It's a bite-sized version of ``Mystery Science Theater 3000.''
The Learning Channel on Saturday at 10 p.m. (``Tabloid Frenzy'') looks inside The Globe, a supermarket tabloid. This is the paper that headlined President Clinton's meeting with a space alien who endorsed his presidency in 1992. The Globe's editors tell us that the aliens in 1996 are undecided between Clinton and Bob Dole. No waffling on Elvis, however. The Globe said he's on the moon for sure.
A&E contributes to the Week of the Weird Monday at 8 p.m. on the ``Biography'' series with ``Richard Pryor: Comic on the Edge.'' Pryor takes part, explaining how being famous is harder than it looks.
This TV quirkiness extends to coverage of Major League Baseball's All-Star game in Philadelphia on Tuesday (8 p.m. on NBC). The night after the game on Comedy Central at 10, Nick Bakay will host ``Comedy Central's All-Star Special,'' to show you the All-Star doings behind the scenes. Offbeat programming featuring interviews with beer vendors and other stuff you won't see on the networks or ESPN.
ESPN's coverage will be more conventional. On Monday starting at 7:30 p.m., ESPN puts on the ``All-Star Gala'' with programming that includes the home-run derby and a celebrity all-star softball game. ESPN will also have pre-game coverage starting at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, and then immediately after the game until midnight.
Also celebrating baseball's star showcase, The Learning Channel on Sunday at 9 p.m. has scheduled ``When It Was a Game,'' an award-winning documentary first seen on Home Box Office. It shows baseball's superstars from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s in home movies, away from the playing fields and frolicking in spring training. See the Polo Grounds again. See Mickey Mantle when he was young and strong. Wonderful series.
And here are four other cable specials of note:
``The Human Experience'' - The Learning Channel on Saturday night at 9 begins a 13-part series about almost everything we humans go through from dieting, living with pets, fears and phobias, flirtations, multiple births and flying in and out of the most dangerous airports in the United States. These reports first appeared on ABC news magazines.
``Urban Heartlands: Neil Simon's New York'' - The Disney Channel has been calling on famous folk such as Gore Vidal, Garrison Keillor and Simon to show viewers their favorite places and to reflect on the start of their careers. It's a good idea. Simon on Tuesday at 9 p.m. ponders life as a most prolific playwright, visiting Broadway today and remembering how it used to be.
``Crazy Horse'' - When the white man and his army, the dreaded bluecoats, were pushing the American Indians off the western frontier and onto reservations - the U.S. government called it dispossession - Ogala Sioux warrior Crazy Horse wasn't having any of it. He wouldn't be bought with fat bacon, coffee and sugar. This TNT original (Sunday at 8 p.m.) is about the last days of the great Indian wars led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.
``Around the World in 80 Days'' - The Family Channel, noticing that Pierce Brosnan's turn as James Bond in ``Goldeneye'' brought in $350 million at the box office, revives Brosnan's TV image in ``Around the World in 80 Days'' starting Saturday night at 6. ILLUSTRATION: Ron Tom photo
Tom Davis looks at science-fiction movie trailers from Cold War days
on "Trailer Park," a weekly series that debuts at 7:30 on the Sci-Fi
Channel. by CNB