Well into Part 2 of this four-hour miniseries, a brain-fried Brian Wilson (Frederick Weller) sits at a piano and plays the same chords over and over. But the pop-music saga starts sounding like a broken record long before that.
The Beach Boys charts the surfin' supergroup's career from the fun, fun, fun songs of the early '60s through a period of turmoil and decline to a joyous comeback concert in the mid-'70s. But the key to the drama is found in its subtitle: An American Family. Add "dysfunctional" and you've got the picture. Murry Wilson (Kevin Dunn), manager of the band and father of three of its members, constantly bullies and berates the boys, leaving Brian with particularly deep emotional scars and a self-destructive appetite for drugs and food. (Amid the dreariness of Part 2, Weller's fat-man makeup is a source of welcome, if unintended, comic relief.)
Dunn is convincingly belligerent throughout, and Weller's Brian is sympathetic until he turns into a cartoon of the stoned genius. The music will please fans, but it's the disharmony that dominates. "Is this the way that a family is supposed to behave?" cries Murry's wife (Alley Mills) after learning that he sold out the boys in a bad business deal. "Haven't they suffered enough?" Us too.
Bottom Line: Not enough good vibrations
TNT (Sun., Feb. 27, 7 p.m. ET)
Show of the week
In Mississippi around 1950, a racist punk forces a proud black man (Danny Glover) to spank his small son for entering a whites-only eating establishment. The boy grows into a teenager (The Hurricane's Vicellous Reon Shannon) still shamed and angered by that memory. But how can he fight the power without violence? In 1961, a soft-spoken civil-rights worker (Vondie Curtis Hall) helps show him the way.
Freedom Song, directed and cowritten by Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams), gets us emotionally involved with these characters while delivering a valuable history lesson on the work of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). It grows a bit preachy near the end, but it speaks the truth.
Bottom Line: Does right by the subject
NBC (Sun., Feb. 27, and Sun., March 5, 9 p.m. ET; Mon., Feb. 28, Wed., March 1, and Mon., March 6, 8 p.m. ET)
"I can make you break rocks with your teeth for 100 years," says the boss of Snow White Memorial Prison in Part 1 of The 10th Kingdom. By comparison, watching this miniseries for 10 hours isn't so tough an assignment. But a fantasy that would have been diverting over two nights is dismaying over five.
In Part 2, three Stooge-like trolls discuss rolling a giant joint made of "dwarf moss." Which brings up the question: What was writer Simon Moore (who adapted Gulliver's Travels for the hit 1996 miniseries) smoking when he dreamed up this plot? Contemporary father-and-daughter New Yorkers (John Larroquette and Kimberly Williams) step through a magic mirror into a fairytale realm where Snow White is a godmotherly Camryn Manheim, Ann-Margret plays a 200-year-old (but well-preserved) Cinderella, and a wicked queen (Dianne Wiest) turns a prince (Daniel Lapaine) into a dog as part of a scheme to kill or enslave everyone in sight. Williams falls in love with a half-man, half-wolf (a hardworking Scott Cohen) and discovers after eight hours that there's some unexpectedly serious meaning to this madness. Larroquette gets laughs with his querulous sarcasm but looks silly trying to squeeze out a few tears in Part 5. And when all is said and done...it isn't! The epic ends with the broad hint of a sequel.
Bottom Line: Too big for its beanstalk
CBS (Sun., Feb. 27, and Wed., March 1, 9 p.m. ET)
I was all set to issue an exploitation alert on this four-hour version of Lawrence Schiller's book about the notorious murder of 6-year-old Jon-Benét Ramsey. But after some early gruesomeness, the miniseries focuses on the maneuverings of police, prosecutors and media, and the strong cast (directed by Schiller) gives it a degree of redeeming value. Especially noteworthy are Marg Helgenberger and Ronny Cox as Patsy and John Ramsey, the parents under suspicion; The 10th Kingdom's Scott Cohen as a single-minded cop; and Ken Howard as a self-satisfied D.A.
Bottom Line: Hardly perfect but watchable
>Sunday, Feb. 27 ALL-STAR BLOOPERS ABC (7 p.m. ET) In an hour special, Dick Clark invites us to giggle at gaffes on sitcom sets.
Monday. Feb. 28 FAMILY LAW CBS (10 p.m. ET) Give that guest star a 10. Bo Derek blows in as Rex's ex-wife.
Tuesday, Feb. 29 SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: GAME SHOW PARODIES NBC (8 p.m. ET) Who wants to be a Millionaire watcher when the alternative is an hour of SNL's past spoofs?
Wednesday, March 1 STAR TREK: VOYAGER UPN (9 p.m. ET) The supposedly dead Ensign Ballard (Kim Rhodes) returns to the Starship.
Thursday, March 2 200 CIGARETTES Showtime (10 p.m. ET) Prepare to party. Ben Affleck and Courtney Love star in a 1999 comedy set on New Year's Eve, 1981.
Friday, March 3 SECRET KGB JFK ASSASSINATION FILES TLC (9 p.m. ET) Host Roger Moore looks at President Kennedy's murder through the eyes of Soviet intelligence.
Saturday, March 4 TRUE CRIME HBO (8 p.m. ET) Reporter Clint Eastwood races to save a condemned man who may be innocent in this 1999 drama.
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!
