Disney (Sun., April 12, 9 P.M. ET)
A
For many people, going to see Taylor perform is a comforting annual ritual, as the singer-songwriter acknowledged on the title track of his 1985 album, That's Why I'm Here: "Some are like summer coming back every year/ Got your baby, got your blanket, got your bucket of beer."
This year you don't have to wait for the balmy season to blow Sweet Baby James into an outdoor venue near you. This lovely musical special finds the most soulful and durable of the '70s troubadours rehearsing for his latest tour in a big old breezy barn on Martha's Vineyard, the Massachusetts island where he makes his home.
Taylor's repertoire takes in recent material ("The Frozen Man") as well as the old favorites ("You've Got a Friend"). Seeing him play these songs in such an intimate setting is ideal—like having J.T. performing right in your living room.
CBS (Sun., April 12, 9 P.M. ET)
B
In 1939 four poor young black women (Lynn Whitfield, Vanessa Williams, Jasmine Guy and Vanessa Bell Calloway) share a single room in Harlem. They must endure all manner of trials, including the men in their lives (Mario Van Peebles, Michael Warren, Darnell Williams and John Di Aquino). About the only release they have is jitterbugging at the storied Savoy Ballroom.
Debbie Allen directed this standard gals-with-dreams melodrama, giving it a fatalistic twist. But an attractive cast, rich period detail and good choreography add zest to a dour plot.
Showtime (Sun., April 12, 9 P.M. ET)
B+
Newhart, who is returning next season to CBS to play a comic-book artist in the new comedy Bob, dusts off his old stand-up chops for this Pasadena performance. Not surprisingly, the sitcom king's sketches are pretty situational. He gives you a character and a premise and then launches into an "I think it might have gone something like this..." spiel.
So, among other routines, you get Newhart's classic sketch about a PR man advising Abraham Lincoln prior to the Gettysburg Address ("You typed it? Abe, how many times have we told you: on the backs of envelopes. It looks like you wrote it on the train coming down. We're getting good play in the press on that one").
The material is familiar. But Newhart still has impeccably dry wit, timing and the best pregnant pauses since Jack Benny.
TNT (Mon., April 13, 8 P.M. ET)
C
Christmas in April? Who's going to tell tyro director Arnold Schwarzenegger he's out of season?
In this romantic comedy, Kris Kristofferson is a heroic forest ranger in remote Colorado. Dyan Cannon is the host of a Connecticut TV cooking show. Her off-camera life is a good deal different from her TV persona's. So when her producer (Tony Curtis) concocts a prime-time Yuletide special for her with Kristofferson as a guest, it requires the creation of a shimmering Martha Stewart fantasy, which soon starts coming apart at the seams.
The farce unfolds without subtlety—not to mention humor. Arnie is a muscle-man director, rubbing our noses in everything we're supposed to notice and laugh at.
>PORTRAITS OF ARTISTS
TWO DISTINCTIVE TALENTS ARE IN THE spotlight this week. On Bravo's arts program, The South Bank Show (Thurs., April 9, 8 P.M. ET), British host Melvyn Bragg talks insightfully with playwright Arthur Miller about the state of the theater and the themes in Miller's plays—including his latest work, The Ride Down Mount Morgan, which was produced in London last October and concerns a salesman quite unlike Willy Loman. On PBS, American Masters presents Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (Fri., April 10, 10 P.M. ET), filmmaker Chuck Workman's effusive and fascinating study of the pop artist and the people who surrounded him.
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!
