A
Bob Newhart joins Judd Hirsch at a restaurant table for little more than a minute in the Sept. 15 premiere of this series—long enough to raise hopes for a continuing comedy feast. Hirsch silently sets Newhart's place from a sitting position, earning a bonus laugh by tossing a napkin onto his lap. Newhart, with his deliciously offbeat timing, mutters a funny line between mouthfuls of salad. And already we're thinking of making a standing Monday-night reservation.
The premise is The Odd Couple cum The In-Laws. George (Newhart) is a square widower who owns a bookshop on Martha's Vineyard, Mass. Leo (Hirsch) is a raffish magician and Mafia bagman who shows up on the island for the wedding of his long estranged daughter Casey (Bess Meyer) and George's restaurateur son Ted (Jason Bateman). Having run afoul of Las Vegas mobsters, Leo will be taking refuge in George's spare bedroom, adding stress and zest to the bookseller's quiet life. Hirsch and Newhart are a study in comic contrasts: glib and stammering, tall and short, Jew and gentile. Both know from rich experience (The Bob Newhart Show, Taxi) that sitcom acting is nothing without reacting. If this show reaches its potential, they'll be feeding off each other for years.
CBS (Mondays, 10 p.m. ET)
B+
The first nine minutes will leave you breathless," says a CBS ad for the Sept. 22 premiere of this drama series. "The next 51 will blow you away." The claim is overstated time-wise—unless you're blown away by commercials and promos for the late news—but essentially correct. The new cop show from executive producer Steven Bochco (NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues) gets off to a stunning start with a chaotically violent action sequence in which a crazed but cool gunman wreaks havoc on the street, while a sniper joins the assault from above. The principal shooter dies under questionable circumstances while in police custody, setting off a community controversy and an investigation that will play out in coming weeks. The rest of the opener, if not as potent as advertised, does a solid job of introducing the large cast in badges and blue, led by Jon Tenney, Dylan Walsh and Gary Basaraba.
That said, there are a few misdemeanors: the over-the-top scenes between an agitated cop (Titus Welliver) and his shrewish wife (Jana Marie Hupp); the sneer of Hill Street vet James B. Sikking as an Internal Affairs Bureau lieutenant (can't an IAB officer be a good guy for once?); and the mix of Brooklynese and police patois that makes some dialogue hard to understand.
Syndicated (check local listings)
D-
On the other hand, what are a few misdemeanors compared with the felonious stupidity of this "action-comedy" series? Inspired by the Police Academy movies (of which, incredibly, there were seven), it takes place in a municipality with an apparently official policy of recruiting more nitwits into law enforcement. This may be all you need to know about the level of humor here. The academy's drill sergeant (Rod Crawford), who can't keep his toupee from falling off, says things like "Back off, butt breath!" Shot in Vancouver, the premiere (airing the week of Sept. 22) includes a hockey match between police cadets and a biker gang. Were the producers padding to fill the hour, or does this scene constitute legally required Canadian content?
ABC (Tuesdays, 9:30 p.m. ET)
B+
Like George & Leo, this promising sitcom from writers Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (City Slickers) stars two known quantities and proves there's no match like a mismatch. Kevin Nealon (Saturday Night Live) is TV comedy writer Ted Hiller, lanky, laid-back, slightly goofy. Richard Lewis (Anything but Love) is his partner Neil Diller, neurotic, self-absorbed, anything but calm. Ted has a smart wife (Jordan Baker) and three fairly well-behaved kids (Faryn Einhorn, Jonathan Osser and Jill Berard). Neil is newly divorced and saddled with sole custody of two alarmingly worldly children (Kyle Sabihy and Allison Mack).
The likable Nealon looks more at home on a sitcom set than he did at SNL 's "Weekend Update" anchor desk. Lewis leans on his stand-up mannerisms in the Sept. 23 premiere, but with time he should find his character. Eugene Levy (SCTV) is strong as the writers' boss, so look for office humor in Dick Van Dyke Show tradition. And the kids earn good marks.
>Orphaned Sitcoms
THE REBIRTH OF SOMETHING SO RIGHT
FOR A TV SERIES, CANCELLATION, LIKE death, used to be irreversible. Not anymore. Last spring NBC announced it was not renewing Something So Right, its freshman sitcom about a two-career couple (Jere Burns and Mel Harris) trying to bring up their respective kids from previous marriages. But then something extraordinary happened: Something, which had scored decent ratings last season, did even better in summer reruns—by winning its Tuesday night time slot. In August came word that ABC had picked up the show as a midseason replacement.
Something thus joins the ranks of other orphaned series that have found new homes, including JAG (booted by NBC and enlisted by CBS last January), The Naked Truth (ABC to NBC, also last season) and Clueless (ABC to UPN, starting this month).
What's behind all these reincarnations? Something's executive producer Judd Pillot thinks it's one-upmanship. "The network that picks up the orphan really wants to stick it to the network that let it go," he says. In fact, says co-star Burns, who signed a development deal with ABC right after NBC axed his show, "NBC wanted [Something'] back and assumed ABC would let me out of my deal." No way. Luckily, Burns's fellow actors were still available, so they'll soon reunite for their debut season on a new network. Pillot is relieved. "We're happy to have parents again," he says.
- Contributors:
- Monica Rizzo.
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!
