THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609120061
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: 93 lines
SO, HOW WOULD YOU like your television in the week ahead? Light and fluffy? Try Neil Simon's ``London Suite,'' which launches NBC's fall season Sunday at 9 p.m.
How about really fluffy? NBC on Saturday night at 9:30 televises the Miss America Pageant from Atlantic City, N.J., with a twist - viewers will be asked to vote for the 10 semifinalists by calling a 1-900 number. Remember that poise and confidence mean a lot.
Regis Philbin hosts while his TV partner, Kathie Lee Gifford, stays home with the kids.
If it's more meat you want on your fork, check out two TV events that focus on the November elections - CNN's ``Democracy in America '96,'' a seven-part documentary series beginning Sunday at 9 p.m., and ``Citizens '96'' from Public Broadcasting. The PBS ``Election Survival Guide'' airs Friday night at 10 on WHRO.
And if you prefer a grand feast - broad in scope, beautifully photographed and darn near as riveting as ``The Civil War'' and ``Baseball'' - then settle in for 12 1/2 hours of ``The West'' from Ken Burns and Stephen Ives. PBS also has that.
The voices of 56 actors bring alive the letters, diaries and archives from the settling of what many thought was the promised land. And for some it was. ``A collision of different dreams,'' says Ives of the settling of the vast territories west of the Mississippi.
WHRO has scheduled ``The West'' Sunday through Thursday at 8 p.m. There will be a two-day break, then ``The West'' resumes on Sunday, Sept. 22, continuing through its two-hour conclusion on Sept. 24. (The episodes repeat at 3 a.m.)
Not quite as epic is Simon's ``London Suite,'' but it was a pretty impressive TV undertaking. Hallmark Entertainment flew the cast, including Kelsey Grammer, Michael Richards and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, to London and built elaborate sets after persuading Simon to write a part for Louis-Dreyfus of ``Seinfeld,'' who won an Emmy on Sept. 8.
Did Simon, the most successful playwright of our time, adjust his writing style to suit TV? ``I didn't worry about the commercial breaks. I left that up to the director. With me, there is no difference in doing a play, movie and television. I just write.''
The PBS ``Election Survival Guide'' is perfect for voters who haven't paid a whit of attention to presidential politics until now. Host Dave Iverson catches up with the upcoming debates, campaign commercials and such weighty issues as whether a candidate's suntan swings votes.
CNN's ``Democracy in America '96'' starts with a hard look at economic and social issues, such as raising a family today in a country where the divorce rate has doubled in the last 30 years. ``We'll move beyond covering politics as just a horse race,'' said senior executive producer Pamela Hill.
The series continues through Oct. 27.
Elsewhere in the next week, the four major broadcast networks get serious about the new season, premiering 10 shows including ``The Promised Land'' on CBS, which spins off ``Touched by an Angel'' Sunday night at 8. Gerald McRaney heads up a family that travels America, finding the good and decent people the angels missed on the other show. I like it.
Elsewhere, The Learning Channel on Saturday and Sunday presents the ``Great Books Festival'' from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. both days. Andre Braugher introduces the series about such classics as ``Moby Dick'' and ``Catch 22,'' and looks into the reasons why they endure. . . . There's a pretty good show for kids starting Saturday at noon on ABC. ``Flash Forward'' is about the trials of being an eighth-grader. After eight runs on ABC, this series moves to The Disney Channel. It's the adventures of best friends Becca and Tucker. . . . Long before the Psychic Friends Network, there were people who dazzled the world with sensational predictions. A&E delves into dusty old prophecies Thursday at 9 p.m. on ``Ancient Mysteries with Leonard Nimoy.''
The Family Channel has a theme for its weekend programming - Super Sleuth Sunday. FAM rolls out 10 hours of mystery starting at 1 p.m. with Helen Hayes in ``Agatha Christie's Caribbean Mystery.'' Columbo ends the snooping at 9 p.m. . . . Why is it aliens prefer to abduct guys who are out fishing in canoes? In ``Abducted by UFOs'' on TBS Sunday at 9 p.m., a couple of central figures are Jack and Jim who were (surprise!) fishing in a canoe when aliens allegedly snatched them. ``Incident on the Lake'' is one of three stories told by people who swear they were abductees. . . . Home Box Office says it was a miscarriage of justice when Bruno Richard Hauptman was executed for the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby in 1932. If the events as pictured in ``Crime of the Century'' were as HBO says they were, then German-born Hauptman was, indeed, treated shabbily by U.S. justice. The film premieres Saturday at 8 p.m. I find it hard to separate fact from fiction. . . . The intense ``America Undercover'' series on HBO beams in on psychotic behavior in ``Back from Madness: The Struggle for Sanity'' Tuesday night at 10. It's the story of four patients treated at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital and the Linemann Center. Be warned, it's not a fun hour. . . . The censored-bloopers series will not die. Producer Dick Clark revives it Monday at 8 p.m. on ABC with help from Lea Thompson and Brandy. This one is called ``All-New All-Star TV Censored Blooper-Palooza.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
John Silverman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus star in Neil Simon's "London
Suite" at 9 p.m. Sunday. by CNB