NBC describes this TV movie as "based on Shakespeare's classic story"—as opposed to "Shakespeare's classic play." A press release contains this quote from costar John Glover, apparently designed to reassure Shakespeare-phobic viewers: "People are a little intimidated by the language, but we don't have the language." Will someone explain to us why this is a good thing?
With the poetry out, what's left is the fantastic plot, incongruously adapted to Civil War times. The magician Prospero has become Gideon Prosper (Peter Fonda), a benevolent Mississippi plantation owner exiled on a bayou island after being usurped by his evil brother (Glover). The character of Ariel (Harold Perrineau Jr. from Oz) is now Gideon's black servant, sometimes transformed into a bird. When Gideon uses his magic to affect history on the battlefield, the whole thing seems cuckoo.
The low-key style that served Fonda so well in his Oscar-nominated Ulee's Gold role doesn't work for Prosper/Prospero, who needs a charisma that the actor can't provide. The script gives Fonda two lines of actual Shakespeare at the end, and we admit he seems less than comfortable with the language.
Bottom Line: The Bard's magic gets lost in the translation
VH1 (Tuesdays, 10 p.m. ET)
Since rock stars often flame out, the concept of this series should be sure-fire. Show a performer in his or her heyday—the sold-out tours, the frenzied fans, the sometimes scandalous behavior—then ask the musical question, "Where are they now?" It helps to come up with surprising or ironic answers—something besides "still performing, but to smaller crowds"—and the Dec. 15 premiere has a few. Devoted to the "bad boys of rock," the hour offers current snapshots of such middle-aged outlaws as Alice Cooper (plays lots of golf) and Ted Nugent (manufactures beef jerky). With its zippy pace and cheeky tone, the show has attitude, all right, but it leaves us wondering what our attitude should be. After all the flippant references to irresponsible and/or illegal conduct by the likes of Billy Idol and Donnie Wahlberg, are we supposed to be suddenly sobered by a trip to the heroin hell once inhabited by Three Dog Night's Chuck Negron?
Bottom Line: Not rock-solid, but it rolls along
ABC (Sun., Dec. 13, 7 p.m. ET)
"Small-Town Sleuths with Talking Pets" sounds like a panel on Ricki Lake's syndicated daytime talk show. Instead it's the premise for a Wonderful World of Disney television movie in which Lake stars. Murder She Purred: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery, based on a Rita Mae Brown novel, is an enjoyable light whodunit for family consumption (excluding viewers who are too young for any mention of murder).
Lake, who charmed moviegoers in John Waters's Hairspray (1988) five years before taking up the talk show racket, is quite likable as Mary "Harry" Haristeen, a Virginia postmistress trying to figure out whether her handsome new neighbor (Linden Ashby) bumped off a local businessman. She has help from her archly suspicious cat Mrs. Murphy (voiced by Blythe Danner) and her constantly hungry dog Tucker (Anthony Clark), who can get sidetracked by a dirty piece of cheese. The pets have ways of guiding Lake in the right direction, but they converse only with fellow animals. This is no Dr. Dolittle, just a nice diversion.
Bottom Line: The cat's meow
AMC (Tues., Dec. 15, 10 p.m. ET)
American Movie Classics should have called this The Great and Not-So-Great Christmas Movies. We appreciate the clips and commentary on It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story, but Santa Claus: The Movie and The Preacher's Wife don't belong in the same time capsule with the classics. Still, the special (narrated by Shirley Jones) does a fine job of telling the Scrooge story by interweaving footage from several versions of A Christmas Carol. And it spreads a lot of cheer in a single hour.
Bottom Line: Have a merry montage
CBS (Sun., Dec. 13, 9 p.m. ET)
To be deeply moving, a film must be credible on some level. That's why the well-acted Grace & Glorie failed to touch us as intended.
Despite the efforts of reliable Gena Rowlands, we didn't buy the character of Grace, a stubborn, terminally ill senior citizen who leaves a nursing home to live out her remaining days on the family farm, which is being gobbled up by a dishonest land developer. Grace has a regular visitor in Gloria (Diane Lane), a hospice volunteer who left behind her big-city life after suffering a personal tragedy (details of which are revealed gradually). Gloria, whom Grace calls Glorie (inspired by a gospel song called "Grace and Glory"), understandably has trouble grasping the older woman's reasons for refusing to make a will (money is "the root of all evil") or eat anything cooked with electricity (it "tastes funny"). But the two find a common bond and share a few moments of genuine emotion. Unfortunately this Hallmark Hall of Fame entry alternates metronomically between sad and happy scenes, as if the filmmakers feared the audience couldn't handle too much feeling at one time.
Bottom Line: Not a glorious drama
TNT (Sun., Dec. 13, 8 p.m. ET)
"What are you going to do when you get too old to punch any noses?" an attractive female lawyer (Mia Sara) asks a tough but graying cop (Burt Reynolds) in this TV movie. It's a searching question for the star as well as his character. After the 62-year-old Reynolds earned an Oscar nomination for playing an aging pornographer in 1997's Boogie Nights, we figured he might see the advantage of accepting nonpunching roles. But here he is in the first of three TNT outings (the second is due next year) as Logan McQueen, an unorthodox Miami policeman who is slightly over the hill but still quick with his dukes. The poorly developed plot, in which the protagonist is wrongly accused of killing a suspect, is punctuated by tired banter between Reynolds and Charles Durning, as his surrogate father and police partner (looking way overdue for retirement). Reynolds also directed, so he bears some responsibility for a pace so slow that Hard Time sometimes feels like a trilogy in itself. There's a decent twist at the end, but it's not worth waiting for.
Bottom Line: Don't sentence yourself to this
>Sunday, Dec. 13 THE PRACTICE ABC (10 p.m. ET) Who's the boss in court? Guest star Tony Danza does legal battle against our heroes.
Monday, Dec. 14 BIOGRAPHY: MONTGOMERY CLIFT A&E (8 p.m. ET) The documentary series profiles the sensitive, trouble-plagued star of A Place in the Sun.
Tuesday, Dec. 15 JUST SHOOT ME NBC (9 p.m. ET) David Spade is the Grinch in this Christmas tale narrated by Kelsey Grammer.
Wednesday. Dec. 16 KATHIE LEE: CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY CBS (9 p.m. ET) Mrs. Frank Gifford makes merry in a holiday special featuring Pam Tillis.
Thursday, Dec. 17 FRIENDS NBC (8 p.m. ET) Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) has a disillusioning stint in the Salvation Army.
Friday, Dec. 18 CHRISTMAS IN WASHINGTON NBC (10 p.m. ET) Bill and Hillary Clinton show host Brooke Shields how the White House decks the halls.
Saturday, Dec. 19 MOUSE HUNT HBO (8 p.m. ET) Nathan Lane takes on an incredibly pesky rodent in this 1997 movie comedy.
>Nancy Cartwright She might be 31 years older than her animated alter ego, 10-year-old Bart Simpson, but Nancy Cartwright certainly knows the joy of juvenile antics firsthand. "I was a troublemaker," says Cartwright of her childhood. In ninth grade, when learning that her crush was interested in someone else, Cartwright got herself suspended for a day after writing about the pair on a bathroom wall. "My mom put me on hard labor," she recalls. "I had to weed the garden. It was horrible!" Now in her 10th season voicing TV's most mischievous minor, the actress knows her weeding days are over, especially after inking a new Simpsons deal earlier this year that earns her $50,000 per episode. "I don't think they could afford to pay me what I feel I'm really worth," she says. "But I'm totally happy with what we worked out." Cartwright, who lives in Northridge, Calif., with her husband, writer-producer Warren Murphy, and children Lucy, 8, and Jack, 7, also finds herself much more welcome at school than she used to be. "I get surrounded by an entourage of my kids' friends," she says. "It's like, 'Do Bart! Do Bart!.' " She has her reply down pat: "In Bart's voice, I say, 'No way, man!' "
- 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!
