Show of the week
"Beware another Vietnam." We've heard the refrain time and again during the past quarter-century, most recently when NATO launched its air war against Serbia. And it's no wonder the Vietnam experience made us leery of military intervention far from home. The conflict in Southeast Asia, which this important documentary calls the "defining event for an entire generation," cost more than 58,000 American lives, caused bitter domestic divisions and ended in defeat.
But we can't understand the legacy of Vietnam without examining the origins of United States involvement. A Descent into Hell, narrated by Martin Sheen, devotes the bulk of its three hours to explaining how belief in the "domino theory" (if Vietnam fell to the Communists, country after country would follow) compelled Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson to lead America slowly and unsurely into a quagmire. The story may sound dry, but it's anything but, thanks to candid interviews with key players—including former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, whose fitting last words are "We were wrong"—and startlingly clear audio tapes of Kennedy and Johnson questioning, agonizing and rationalizing in White House meetings and phone calls. You'll want to break in and plead, "Mr. President, you've really got to step back and reassess this Vietnam thing."
Bottom Line: Fascinating study of disastrous decision-making
TLC (Sat., Aug. 7, 9 p.m. ET)
The "streetwise magic" of Naomi Campbell. The "Sistine Chapel beauty" of Christy Turlington. This two-hour program about the world of modeling starts out sounding like a puff piece on pretty women. But director-host David Bailey, a veteran fashion photographer, does more than toss bouquets at the queens of the runway. In fact, some of the breezy documentary's most memorable (though not most attractive) characters are men.
John Casablancas, head of Elite Model Management, looks very much the fat cat as he sips a libation in a limo and calls Campbell "selfish in a way that goes beyond imagination." Interviewed in a hot tub, the perfectly named F. David Mogull explains how his Model Search America company takes in money for herding would-be glamor girls through mass auditions. And speaking of guys on the make, Bailey laughingly confesses to having slept with 300 to 350 models, "give or take 100." By the time we get to the "terrible pressures" that contribute to drug abuse on the modeling scene, the picture doesn't seem so pretty after all. But surely Bailey exaggerates when he says these lovely mannequins have "one of the toughest jobs in the world."
Bottom Line: Not deep but diverting
FX (Tuesdays, 10 p.m. ET)
Consider this moment from the second episode (July 27) of the new animated series from executive producer Tom Snyder (Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist): The Marquis de Sade, that famously kinky Frenchman who died in 1814, is being interviewed in 1999 by Dick and Paula, married hosts of a low-rent TV talk show in Worcester, Mass. The marquis's mother-in-law heckles him from the audience. "He's a sadist!" she cries. "He'll take a piece of chicken, take a bite and put it back!" If you're laughing as hard as I did, you're a potential fan of The Dick & Paula Celebrity Special, where the humor is often historical (upcoming guests include Charles Darwin and Napoleon Bonaparte) and always warped. Remember Martin Mull's '70s talk show spoof Fernwood 2-Night? Picture something similar in the form of a squiggly cartoon. Dick & Paula sags in the scenes devoted to backstage staffers, but those celebrity interviews are truly special.
Bottom Line: Makes talk show history
CBS (Mondays, 8:30 p.m. ET)
Given the failure last year of UPN's notorious The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer (low farce in the Lincoln Administration), the future would seem bleak for sitcoms set in America's distant past. But this offbeat show, starting a six-episode run Aug. 2, travels way back to 1621 to see if Pilgrims can be funny. There's something unappetizing in the pilot's jokes about disease and starvation in the Plymouth colony, and the ravings of Cloris Leachman as a sex-starved grandma get old fast. On the plus side, Tim Dutton and Kirsten Nelson are engaging as married settlers, and only a Puritan could fail to laugh when their 10-year-old daughter (Amy Centner) is accused of witchcraft for advising the colony's dentist to sterilize his pliers.
Bottom Line: At least this New World is different
>Sunday, Aug. 1 YOU ASKED FOR IT NBC (8 p.m. ET) And now you're gonna get it. Phil Morris is host for a summer revival of the old stunts-on-request series.
Monday, Aug. 2 SHOWDOWN AT SHERWOOD ABC (8 p.m. ET) Fore! Tiger Woods and David Duval square off in match-play golf.
Tuesday, Aug. 3 JUST SHOOT ME NBC (9 p.m. ET) A Woody Allen impersonator woos Maya in this clever repeat.
Wednesday, Aug. 4 HISTORY'S MYSTERIES: THE FIRST DETECTIVE History Channel (8 p.m. ET) Do some undercover work with a 19th-century Paris policeman who was a master of disguise.
Thursday, Aug. 5 BIOGRAPHY: BILL BRADLEY A&E (8 p.m. ET) Here's a scouting report on the ex-hoopster taking his shot at the White House.
Friday, Aug. 6 HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET NBC (10 p.m. ET) Part 1 of a strong rerun features Reed Diamond as a cop turned private eye.
Saturday, Aug. 7 HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK HBO (9 p.m. ET) Taye Diggs makes Angela Bassett feel so young in this 1998 romance.
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!
