Life in the '90s, though, is more complex. That's why, on a recent L.A. Law, a whole hour boils down to "Sifuentes and Van Owen ponder their relationship." And if 21st-century scholars rely on TV listings for anthropological clues, what will they make of a recent Sally Jessy Raphaël segment about a transsexual who wanted to undo his/her operation?
CBS (Wed., July 24, 8:30 P.M. ET)
A
Maybe this shtick-com is a mocking parody of old Abbott and Costello shorts. Maybe it's a tribute to Abbott and Costello shorts. Either way, the half-hour summer series, produced by Rob Reiner, is as funny and inventive as network TV gets.
The gimmick, as Reiner explains in his introduction to the show, is that "old" films of the comedy duo Chick Morton (Kevin Pollak) and Eddie Hayes (Bob Amaral) have been rediscovered and are being shown. In "Daffy Dicks," the premiere episode, the pair are private detectives hired by a socialite (Catherine O'Hara) to keep an eye on her cheating husband. The gags are vintage slapstick, but a Lettermanesque irreverence keeps the show accessible even to those who think the only famous Costello is a singer named Elvis.
USA (Wed., July 24, 9 P.M. ET)
C+
Like a Twilight Zone with saddle sores, this TV Western takes three twisty stories and ties them together with one recurring character, a mysterious Man in Black (Bruce Dern).
In one tale, outlaw Dylan McDermott makes a fatal error in a saloon. In another, Mariel Hemingway is a frontier woman warned of a marauding wolf pack, while the final story is about bounty hunter Dern bringing in a body. When Dern is onscreen, the proceedings are darkly funny. Unlike a good Twilight Zone, however, this movie's segments go limp at the end.
A & E (Sun., July 28, 8 P.M. ET)
B+
From the land that brought you caviar pizza comes something equally scary: a five-part documentary on how Hollywood really works. The BBC series uses interviews with Tinseltown's Powers That Are to offer an inside look at the ruthless business of moviemaking. (Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, producers of Days of Thunder, wouldn't allow U.S. showing of a segment focused on them.)
This installment is on the volatility of stardom, comparing James Caan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. A slanted interview with Caan claims his career faded because of too much integrity; Schwarzenegger is shown as a man who lives to promote himself. Too industry-oriented for most viewers, the series is still a fascinating look at how far people will go to sell a movie ticket.
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!
