VH-1 (Sat., Sept. 3, 8 p.m. ET)
A
Johnny Cash was a late cancelation at the recent rain-soaked Woodstock '94. Hey, it's the mud people's loss. You will appreciate just how true that is when watching this potent concert special, strikingly shot in black and white last June in New York City.
The country icon plows through a set that includes "Folsom Prison Blues," "Ring of Fire," "I Walk the Line" and "Ghost Riders in the Sky."
You won't find any flash or wasted energy in Johnny's show. He cut out the frills about four decades and 200,000 hard miles ago. The Man in Black just presents the essentials: a man on a stage playing the music that reflects his wrinkled, resilient, thoroughly American soul.
Fox (Sundays, 7 p.m. ET)
C
Mark Frankel plays Carlton Dial, the ace operative for Intercept, a high-tech international retrieval organization. He's dashing, unflappable, quippy and absolutely irresistible to the ladies. In his tony British accent he introduces himself as "Dial. Carlton Dial." Remind you of anyone?
No, not Floyd the Barber. I was thinking of James Bond. So, obviously, was Fox. But this 007 knockoff is so callow and cartoonish, it won't make anyone forget Roger Moore—or even George Lazenby for that matter. Because our hero is a mercenary, not a government agent, you can forget the license to kill. In fact, with several lawsuits pending against Intercept, the only gun Dial can legally carry shoots tranquilizer darts. Dial's annoying refrain when leaping into action (whether antagonistic or romantic) is, "You just said the magic words."
Sure it's weak and witless entertainment, but it's harmless enough. And that may be all you can handle after your brain has been pounded into tapioca by six hours of football. The show's only real asset is Frankel, who could give Lucky Vanous a run for his torso. Uh-oh! I believe I just said the magic words.
The Discovery Channel (Sun., Sept. 4, 7 p.m. ET)
B+
Medical researchers have discovered that human sperm counts have been dropping dramatically for decades. More and more of the sperm that are produced are deformed. Pediatricians are noticing sharp increases in instances of non-descending testicles and urethral defects. Prostate and testicular cancers are increasing rapidly. Among aquatic wildlife species, mutations of the male reproductive systems are proliferating at an even faster rate. What in the world is going on here?
This documentary convincingly argues that the problem may be certain compounds used in pesticides, pharmaceuticals, plastics, construction materials and industrial chemicals—synthetic hormones that mimic the female hormone, estrogen. These substances have been leeching into our lakes, rivers and drinking water and, scientists suspect, playing havoc with male endocrine systems. This suspenseful scientific mystery may be the scariest film you'll see on TV this year.
Showtime (Sun., Sept. 4, 8 p.m. ET)
D+
James Woods and Kate Capshaw play a married pair of teachers. In the adjoining house live a raucous blue-collar couple (Randy Quaid and Lucinda Jenney) who have a habit of making noisy love in the backyard. Even good fences cannot make good neighbors when the refined reside next to the uncouth. So a dispute over a lawn sprinkler escalates into savagery.
I kept waiting for this tedious film to turn a corner, to make a point, to do anything. But all it ever attains is a queasy tone, neither as funny nor as frightening as it aspires at various times to be. What a stupefying waste of a talented cast!
A&E (Sun., Sept. 4, 8 p.m. ET)
C+
In this four-part science series airing over consecutive nights, the venerable one, Walter Cronkite, serves as the host for a refresher course on paleoanthropology. Following the fossil trail, the study establishes the forces that slowly shaped the process of natural selection. It examines the adapt-or-die imperative of survival that pushed us from swinging in the high-canopy forests of Africa to walking erect on any number of continents.
The visual re-creations are good, but the narration is redundant. This pensive safari on the origins of man promises more than it delivers.
Fox (Sundays, 9:30 p.m. ET)
C+
They're roommates in Chicago. Jack (Tim Conlon) is a sleazy, superficial skirt-chaser. His roomie Brian (Paul Rudd) is a sweet, sensitive type. Both of them have feelings for sharp and vivacious Shelly (Paula Marshall), whose roommate is dizzy Liz (Jana Marie Hupp). Through their eyes, we experience the war of the sexes as it is fought in the Rush Street trenches.
The result is a brittle and often crude sitcom. Once again Fox has fashioned a contempo-comedy that succeeds in being the wrong kind of hysterical.
The really intriguing aspect of Wild Oats is how much Conlon's Lothario character resembles that of '50s sitcom star Bob Cummings. The haircuts, their manners, their occupation (photographer) and preoccupation (girls) are exactly the same. It's some kind of bizarre TV doppelganger. Except, that is, I love Love That Bob, while Wild Oats I could sow or leave.
>TUBE: Walter Cronkite leads a tour of man's evolutionary past in Ape Man; Johnny Cash brings his stentorian voice and presence to the concert stage
SCREEN: It's hard to imagine woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as a couple to die for in Natural Born Killers; Bruce Willis plays a shrink marked for murder in the too-pale Color of Night
SONG: Patti Loveless is heavenly on When Fallen Angels Fly; Lynyrd Skynyrd's Unplugged has no energy; Jeff Buckley is amazing on Grace
PAGES: Tom Clancy plots a lot in Debt of Honor; Walter's daughter, Kathy Cronkite, talks to depressed celebs in On the Edge of Darkness; Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up on audio
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
