CBS obviously has come to the Games loaded for polar bear. Though the announcers and hosts have been only fair to middling, the production has been superb, far better than the network's broadcasts from Albertville in 1992. And CBS has been lucky: The competition, the weather, the crowds and the settings, both natural and man-made, have been ideal. Of course no one could have scripted the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding saga.
One cavil: If Alberto Tomba is the most charismatic athlete at the Games—and CBS must surely feel that way, judging by how it has been hyping the swaggering skier—his qualities simply don't translate from the Italian.
ABC (Sun., Feb. 27, 9 p.m. ET)
B-
No way Patrick Swayze was coming back for the third go-round of this florid period soap. Solution? Simple. The sequel kills off Swayze's character...in the opening scene...in a thick fog...without showing his face.
His widow (Lesley-Anne Down) tries to make a go of the ruined plantation Mont Royal with the help of Swayze's best friend and Civil War adversary (James Read). A secondary plot takes us out west to fight the Indians with the black Buffalo Soldiers. The miniseries' dastardly villain is played again by Philip Casnoff, the star of the 1992 CBS biopic Sinatra.
It takes a good deal of prodding to get this big spavined story rolling, with the dialogue doing an unseemly amount of work. So in the middle of a casual chat, we gel expository lines: "You know I wouldn't be alive today if Orry and Charlie hadn't broken me out of that Confederate prison."
This saga of romance, treachery, prejudice and blood feuds requires a large cast loo (see story, page 76), including Homefront's Kyle Chandler, Cathy Lee Crosby, Chris Burke (Life Goes On), Tom Noonan, Stan Shaw, Cliff de Young and returnees Jonathan Frakes, Genie Francis and Terri Garber. That's not counting the obtrusive cameo casting: Peter O'Toole, Robert Wagner, Mariette Hartley, Billy Dee Williams and Rip Torn.
I've yet to see a Civil War-era epic dramatized on TV that didn't look like a bad Disney diorama. (I shudder at the prospect of Scarlett.) This banal but lively six-hour corker (continuing on Monday and Wednesday) is better than most.
PBS (Mon., Feb. 28, 8 p.m. ET)
B
Hosted by noted paleoanthropologist Donald C. Johanson (Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind), this documentary series from Nova, which will air on three consecutive nights, examines the evolutionary chain that led from hairy simians to Homo sapiens.
The first night is an indulgent recounting of Johanson's crucial contribution to his field: the 1974 discovery in the Ethiopian desert of the fossilized remains of Lucy (named for the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"). Dating back more than 3 million years, hers is the oldest hominid skeleton ever found, and it provided the missing link between apes and men. Subsequent nights examine the traits, behaviors and genetic leaps that allowed our species to develop and thrive.
Though the series is lacking in focus and structure, it is an edifying look at the painstaking work done by Johanson and other detectives of the prehistoric. All three nights contain fascinating re-creations of our earliest ancestors, using actors and animatronics.
NBC (Mon., Feb. 28, 9 p.m. ET)
D+
Patty Duke plays a woman who witnesses a brutal attack on a stranger. Ignoring everyone's advice not to get involved, she's soon looking at mug shots and testifying in court against the vile monster (Keith Szarabajka, for whom it's been quite a week: He also plays a heinous and vindictive Army captain in John Jakes' Heaven and Hell). Duke's desire to do the right thing leaves her life in a shambles. Her husband (Dennis Farina) walks out, and Szarabajka, a wily combination of Houdini and Jack the Ripper, busts out of jail to wage a relentless campaign of terror against Duke.
In the midst of the harassment, the movie throws us a few heartening sops: Duke slops drinking, starts painting and learns to handle a gun. But it's cold comfort. At its heart this is the most reprehensible and manipulative kind of woman-in-jeopardy "thriller."
While overacting in a string of overheated TV movies, Duke has slowly turned into the female William Shatner. James Farentino goes a little over the top, too, as a homicide detective. But the salty, profane Margot Kidder is wonderful as Duke's salty, profane best friend.
>AND THE WINNER IS... THIS WEEK, OUTSTANDING PERFORMERS FROM DIFFERENT arenas will be honored at propinquous venues. In its second year, the American Sports Awards, or ESPYs (ESPN, Mon., Feb. 28, 9 p.m. ET), is hosted again by Dennis Miller at Manhattan's Paramount Theater. Among the nominees in 32 categories are Barry Bonds, Mario Lemieux, Steffi Graf and college-basketball star Sheryl Swoopes. Presenters include Bill Murray, Bob Costas, Rosie Perez, Joe Pesci, Bill Cosby and David Letterman. The following night (Tues., March 1, 8 p.m. ET), less than a mile away at Radio City Music Hall, pop music has its turn as the Grammy Awards airs on CBS. In recent years the Grammys have fallen into a pattern of singling out one veteran pop artist for multiple wins. Last year it was Eric Clapton. Before him it was Bonnie Raitt. This year, the likely beneficiary appears to be Sting, with Whitney Houston and Billy Joel probably mopping up the leftovers. Garry Shandling is the host.
>HEAD SHOTS FOR WEEKS IT'S BEEN NAGGING AT ME: THE CERTAINTY that Tonya Harding resembles someone. Finally it struck me. Change the hairstyle and tint and you could be looking at Patricia Richardson, the plucky lady who puts the home in Home Improvement. Or am I watching too much TV? Don't answer that. Maybe I should take up alphabetizing my VHS collection.
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!
