USA (Wed., March 20, 9 P.M. ET)
B-
Pierce Brosnan is an English professor who teaches a course in mystery writing. Then he gets framed for a coed's murder and must solve the case before the police catch him. Dey Young, Antoni Corone, Raphael Sbarge and Mark Taylor costar.
This academic thriller has more plot twists than most USA movies, even if it slogs through them at a heavy-footed pace. In any case, Brosnan's presence is a reminder that his Hibernian suavity has been sorely missed on the tube since Remington Steele went off the air.
PBS (Thurs., March 21, 9 P.M. ET)
B+
In this febrile Victorian thriller, Beatie (Highlander) Edney plays a young heiress who misplaces her trust in a villainous uncle (Peter O'Toole).
It's a gothic trove: family skeletons, innocence deceived, musty manor house, ragged ruffians, ghostly apparitions, banging shutters, stormy nights and lugubrious cello music. Unlike NBC's vampire fogfest, Dark Shadows, this movie earns its air of menace and mystery. And that's quite an accomplishment because, like most foreign TV shows, this British production uses much more natural light than we are accustomed to and thus looks, well, pale and unnatural. Director Peter Hammond, however, creates striking visuals through imaginative camera angles and numerous reflected images.
There are wonderful performances by O'Toole, the very worm-eaten soul of decadence as the uncle, by Alan (A Very British Coup) MacNaughtan as the girl's imperious father and by Jane (Piaf) Lapotaire as her sinister, sadistic governess.
Be sure to catch Mystery! host Diana Rigg's introduction. The story of Sheridan Le Fanu, who wrote the 1864 book Uncle Silas, on which this film is based, is truly macabre.
ABC (Fridays, 9:30 P.M. ET)
D
With all the months they've had to work on this sitcom, you'd think it would be funnier. The series, based on the film Look Who's Talking, was pulled from the fall lineup when star Connie Sellecca dropped out at the last moment. Julia (Newhart) Duffy has stepped into the lead as the single mom with the precocious infant whose thoughts are audible to viewers and to other babies.
George (Sunset Beat) Clooney, William (My Blue Heaven) Hickey and stage actor Lenny Wolpe are the three workmen constantly banging away at Duffy's Manhattan loft and intruding in her life.
The show employs not just a laugh track but a canned chorus of oohs and aahs to let the audience know whenever the infants are being adorable. And it needs every bit of cuteness it can squeeze out of them because the prepuerile humor is so feeble. ("Danielle," Duffy's 9-month-old tells another tot, "you're so beautiful. You make me really want to drool. I mean, more than usual.") The trick is to coax the tiny star (actually stars, since Mikey, like most TV toddlers, is played by twins) into registering an expression appropriate to the wisecracks delivered in the voice of Tony Danza.
Baby Talk succeeds fairly well in that task, but maybe it should have spent less on baby wranglers and more on writers.
NBC (Sun., March 24, 9 P.M. ET)
D
Dale (Dream Street) Midkiff and Alex (Desperado) McArthur are best friends who graduate from a Texas police academy together and eventually have a falling out when one begins to take the law into his own hands. Lucinda Jenny, Loryn Locklin, Terry O'Quinn and G.D. Spradlin costar.
Rarely is a "based on a true story" project so unconvincing. That's due to a combination of the acting, the movie's backlot look and the script, which presumes a more extensive geographic knowledge of San Antonio than most of us are likely to have. "In Alamo Heights," says McArthur, "a cop is a public servant. On the South Side, a cop can be somebody." Then everyone exchanges meaningful glances. Well, in Utopia Mews, this hysterical hash might earn a higher mark, but here in Bedrock Square it gets a...
Syndicated (check local listings)
B
Nia Peeples, the Polynesian-looking version of Valerie Bertinelli who proved herself a buoyant bundle cohosting MTV's Street Party, gets her own vehicle, a lively late-night music and dance show.
It's a mature Dance Party USA, a more risqué Soul Train, and it has become a must-stop on the R&B-rap promotional circuit. M.C. Hammer, EPMD, Monie Love, Johnny Gill, Big Daddy Kane, Yo Yo, Jasmine Guy, Alexander O'Neal and Peeples's husband, Howard Hewett, have all performed.
Peeples is more a cheerleader than a host, displaying a style borrowed from her executive producer, Arsenio Hall, whose talk show is followed by Party Machine in most markets. But her energy covers a lot of flaws. Her drippy deejay, Austin Little, on the other hand, has absolutely no redeeming qualities.
Though the guest docket gets a little obscure some nights, this is one of the saucier shows on TV—the antithesis of a warm glass of milk before retiring.
CBS (Tues., March 26, 9:30 P.M. ET)
C
Former soap actress Lauren Holly was the only remotely good thing about Andrew Dice Clay's Adventures of Ford Fairlane. David Andrews was the principal reason that Pulaski: The TV Detective was a cult cable favorite. They're the stars of this objectionable new courtroom series.
She's the ambitious prosecutor who likes classical flute. He's the flippant defense attorney who prefers sweaty games of squash. The show's achievements end with that premise and promise.
Neither of the characters is clearly drawn, so Andrews, who in the past has exhibited a scruffy, Don Johnson-esque élan, here is merely smug, and Holly is limited to making faces.
If the scripts improve when this show moves into its regular slot, Thursdays at 9, these two actors might be able to make it into something special. But postpilot writing on a series almost always moves downhill.
>American Playhouse raises the curtain on its 10th season with two big-ticket programs. Bernadette Peters and Joanna Gleason star in the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods (PBS, Wed., March 20, 8 P.M. ET). Peopled by Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and other fairy-tale characters, the frisky fable moves from facetious in the first act to fatalistic in the second. Friday (March 22, 9 P.M. ET) brings The Grapes of Wrath, the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's heartrending—and Tony Award-winning—adaptation of John Steinbeck's Dust Bowl saga, starring Gary Sinise and Terry Kinney.
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!
