Lifetime (Wed., Aug. 29, 9 P.M. ET)
B-
When I first heard the title, I thought I'd be watching the Don Meredith Story. (That's the title of the song the lonesome cowboy used to warble in the broadcast booth on Monday Night Football round about the fourth quarter.)
In fact this documentary, hosted by thirtysomething's Melanie Mayron, dryly dramatizes how the families of addicts and alcoholics can use a technique called intervention to motivate the user to submit to treatment.
With intervention, the family (sometimes friends and even employers), in concert with a trained addiction counselor, confronts the user calmly and cites specific instances of his behavior that concern them, in order to crack the powerful denial system most addicts construct.
Dubiously, the three re-creations of interventions elect to use real people to act out their own painful case histories. But even awkwardly underplayed, the scenes are emotional events. For families trapped on the addiction roller coaster, the technique can also provide hope. The program contends that 90 percent of the people who are confronted in this manner agree to get professional help, a giant first step toward recovery.
PBS (Fri., Aug. 31, 10 P.M. ET)
C+
CBS This Morning correspondent Hattie Kauffman, who is half Nez Perce Indian, hosts this special, an exploration of how Native Americans are trying to hold on to their cultural identity as more and more leave the reservations or marry outside their tribe.
There are two main segments. One concerns Pat Ross, a Hopi woman who, with her half-Sioux children and grandchild, moves back to her mesa village in Arizona. The other discusses the Ignaces, an affluent mixed-tribe family near Milwaukee whose members are seeking to maintain their heritage while living in mainstream society.
The program provides interesting insights into how Indians live today but never really makes manifest how seriously their traditions are threatened by the modern world or how feasible it is for them to avoid the melting pot.
ABC (Sun., Sept. 2, 7 P.M. ET)
B
Curt Gowdy hosts this eclectic celebration of this country's natural splendors.
He goes fishing for tarpon with a meditative President Bush (you'd be meditative, too, if you never caught anything) and visits the so-called Birdman of Harlem, a 19-year-old rooftop pigeon keeper. The best segment, though, shows Indians catching chinook salmon by traditional methods in Oregon. Thanks to a restoration effort, the fish are running once again in the Umatilla River after a 70-year absence.
The program sometimes gets preachy, and it skips around a lot, but the nature footage is excellent, and it's good to see Gowdy, the old American sportsman himself, back in the saddle.
PBS (Sun., Sept. 2, 8 P.M. ET)
B+
A strong special from 3-2-1 Contact, the children's science show, examines the flora and fauna of the Costa Rican rain forest in all their teeming diversity. Then comes the yucky part: an explication of how imperiled this incomparably rich equatorial environment is by human development. Then comes the really yucky part: It's back to the forest for—city kids may want to leave the room at this point—a bug-trapping safari and later a lunch of iguana fricassee.
3-2-1 regular Stephanie Yu, 14, is a very capable host for this kids'-eye view, which includes cute puns, animation and games.
Okay, the same points could have been made in a more economical half-hour format, but let your child watch this persuasive program, and you're likely to have a mini-activist around the house.
Fox (Sun., Sept. 2, 9:30 P.M. ET)
B+
And you thought the Me decade was over? Not if Parker Lewis is representative of the emerging generation. Donald Trump couldn't carry this guy's golf clubs.
Corin "Corky" Nemec plays this high school venture capitalist. He's got concessions on junk food, English notes and concert tickets. As he notes of the kids streaming though the halls, "They're more than just classmates; they're customers."
William Jayne plays Parker's best friend, Maia (Adventures in Babysitting) Brewton his younger sister and Fridays alumna Melanie Chartoff the ogre-ish principal.
The writing is only adequate, but the cast and hip musical score are appealing. The visual gags make this sitcom pilot look like a live action version of a Road Runner cartoon. The following Sunday, the series moves to its regular slot at 7:30.
Lifetime (Weekdays, 7 P.M. ET)
C-
Beginning Sept. 3, this contrived Canadian drama about a TV newsroom precedes the channel's new rerun-rich lineup of L.A. Law, Tracey Ullman and Molly Dodd.
Welcome to the pressure-packed world of local TV news, where they hammer together the nightly broadcast and still keep their love lives active after work. Meet the gimlet-eyed news director (Art Hindle), the dauntless cameraman (Mark Humphrey), the cool-but-compassionate producer (Sara Botsford) and the foxy, ambitious reporter (Cynthia Belliveau).
If that sounds like a pop-up storybook, you're getting the picture. The stabs at a video vérité look and at creating an insider's view of the newsroom seem specious in juxtaposition with the show's artificial dialogue and plotting. The acting isn't any great shakes either.
>Two of our greatest physical comics meet on the Friday episode of The Lucy Show (Ha!, Aug. 31, 3:30 P.M. ET). When Danny Kaye can't get tickets for Lucille Ball and her kids to sit in the audience of his TV show, he offers the disappointed Lucy a bit part instead. After Danny and Lucy get pieces of their costumes caught in the same suitcase, it's time for some Siamese slapstick.
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!
