NBC (Fri., Nov. 19, 9 p.m. ET)
B-
Teri Garr plays a Palm Springs private eye who asks for help from a boozy local cop (Sam Elliott) on a case involving a wealthy man and a fertility clinic.
Based on a Joseph Wambaugh mystery, the movie is full of groaningly labored lines. A bartender warns Elliott, "You're having more blackouts than London in the blitz." Elliott asks Garr, "Can we get off the phone now? This [conversation] has gone on longer than the Lebanese civil war."
Tin-eared dialogue aside, the movie's easy pace and breezy attitude are reminiscent of The Rockford Files. Like James Garner, Elliott is always enjoyable.
Sci-Fi (Sat., Nov. 20, 8 p.m. ET)
B-
Parker Stevenson plays a guy who keeps getting beamed up to a UFO where aliens conduct medical experiments on him that involve sticking a big drill up his nostrils. The Air Force knows all about these visitations. In fact, they use some of the expensive Star Wars technology we've got lying around to shoot the spaceship down and capture one of the aliens, a spindly little guy who looks like he stepped out of a chalky Keith Haring painting. The government's cover-up team brings Stevenson in to try to communicate with the alien. That leads, as these alien movies somehow always do, to an interstate chase.
Along with Hardy Boy Parker, the cast of this clunky but entertaining spectacle is stocked with familiar TV faces like Erin Gray (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century), Chad Everett (Medical Center) and Dirk Benedict (A-Team).
ABC (Sun., Nov. 21, 9 p.m. ET)
B
This miniseries, based on Nigel Hamilton's biography of the assassinated President, unfolds not unlike Shakespeare's Henry V: After years of sowing his wild oats with abandon, our noble hero transforms himself overnight into a valiant leader.
The film's dominant theme is established in the opening scene, in which we see young Jack (Patrick Dempsey) sneak out of a hospital to literally put on the Ritz (or at least go there). It seems that the formative years of the man who would be President were an endless round of sickbeds and swellegant affairs. The crucible that changes JFK from an inveterate prankster and skirt-chaser into the prince of American politics is World War II—specifically the sinking of his PT boat in the Pacific and the death of his groomed-for-success older brother, Joe. The story ends (on Tuesday) with Jack's first congressional campaign, which allowed him to emerge from the domineering shadow cast by his father. Terry Kinney plays the Kennedy patriarch, the browbeating Joe Sr. (with a Boston accent that at times sounds more like Walter Brennan's).
It's a burnished if at times banal bio, elevated by lavish and convincing period detail and Dempsey's roguishly energetic sally through the role. The mini loses much of its wattage on the second night, but Dempsey looks smart in a Navy uniform.
CBS (Sun., Nov. 21, 9 p.m. ET)
C
They're back, all the folks from TV's long-running rustic epic, just as aw-shucks sincere and hug-happy as ever. It's 1963, and they're reconvening on Walton's Mountain for Thanksgiving—a filling holiday for TV's most puritanical crew. But all is not sweetness and light: It's the week JFK is assassinated.
Incredibly, almost all the original cast is back. John-Boy (Richard Thomas, who is profiled on page 79) is now a pious New York City TV personality. Jason (Jon Walmsley) is a struggling musician. Etc. Etc.
There's breakfast conversation such as, "He's been just impossible since his father went to Vietnam." Hey, gotta cram in that exposition somehow. Homilies fly thicker than Christmas shopping catalogs.
So much turkey. So few trimmings.
NBC (Sun., Nov. 21, 9 p.m. ET)
B+
A couple is butchered, and the police investigation first focuses on the eldest of their three adopted children (Roseanne's Johnny Galecki), who has a history of violent behavior. Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, M.D.) plays the quiet, well-behaved son. Slowly, some very ugly facts about this devout, respectable family emerge. (There are parallels to the Menendez murder trial in California, but this film is based on events that took place near Annapolis, Md., a decade ago.)
For a fact-based film, this is unusually dramatic, thanks to a sinuous plot, Craig Baxley's sure-handed direction and good acting, especially a totally spooky, wigged-out performance by Linda Kelsey as the mother. Lisa Banes, John M. Jackson and Gregory Harrison costar.
NBC (Mon., Nov. 22, 9 p.m. ET)
B
Genial St. Louis dentist by day, proud papa in the evening, incredible lover to his wife at night. The character Corbin Bernsen plays is all these things. Of course, this being Sweeps month, he's also got a remarkably nefarious secret life.
Late in the game, Bernsen's wife (Markie Post) discovers that things are terribly amiss. She cooperates with a federal agent (Kelsey Crammer) to take down her murdering mate.
This real-life suspense film, which carries a violence warning, holds one's attention. Bernsen's mother, a storefront palm reader, is played by his actual mom, Jeanne Cooper. And his partner-in-crime is played by Patrick Swayze's brother Don.
>Ted Harbert
ABC'S PRIME-TIME STEWARD REFLECTS ON THE SEASON
No one cares as much about TV as the four guys who head up the entertainment divisions at the networks. After all, they are the ones who put together the prime time schedules. And it is their professional reputations that rise and fall with the ratings. During the next few weeks, we'll ask each of them for a state-of-the-season address. First up: ABC's Ted Harbert. Hottest Rookies: "NYPD Blue, Grace Under Fire and Boy Meets World have popped out the quickest. But they're in strong time periods with terrific lead-ins. I'm very proud," Harbert says, "that Thea is doing so well by itself at 8 o'clock." Disappointments: "Missing Persons and Lois & Clark. They're both doing good jobs, and I just need more people to get a look at those shows."
Wouldn't Mind Borrowing: The John Larroquette Show (NBC) and X-Files (Fox).
On Deck: "We've got The Critic, an animated show from the people who do The Simpsons. Byrds of Paradise is the next Steven Bochco show, set in Hawaii. Tim Busfield stars."
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!
