Be all that you can be—a schmuck. That is the apparent theme of this latest reality show, now halfway into its two-month run. Boot Camp takes the basic Survivor concept—rugged adventure as a human petri dish for conflict—and moves it to a real, unattended military base in an undisclosed location. (In fact CBS has sued FOX, claiming Boot Camp is technically a Survivor ripoff; FOX considers the suit frivolous.) Starting as a small troop vying for a $500,000 prize, 16 contestants submit to grueling discipline doled out by four (real-life, of course) drill instructors. Each week the "recruits" vote among themselves to discharge another weakling—with the twist that the dismissee turns around and picks a second player to go with him.
The first episode had some entertainingly ludicrous moments. Being processed into camp, Shawn Yaney, 27, a balloon sculptor, was ordered to demonstrate his craft. He tremblingly pulled out a balloon and twisted it into what he said was a dog.
Yaney: A POODLE! SIR!
The other source of fun was the blatantly duplicitous Mark Meyer, 27, an urban-planning grad student. He wept in mess hall to win sympathy from the female recruits and faked a shoulder injury to get out of drill. Well, he got booted in Episode 3. So far, the remaining personalities aren't distinct enough to stand out from their fatigues and (for the men) buzz cuts. The instructors are mostly interchangeable. It's starting to feel like a dysfunctional beehive.
Bottom Line: Not enough kicks
HBO (Sat, Apr. 28,9 p.m. ET)
Show of the week
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Baseball has seldom seen a wilder year than 1961. New York Yankees Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, both swinging like champs, were neck-and-neck to break Babe Ruth's 1927 record of 60 homers in a season. But if M&M, as the two friends came to be called, swung toward the same goal, as personalities they played on different teams entirely.
While Mantle, a charismatic carouser, won the loyalty of the fans, it was Maris who ultimately broke the Babe's record, hitting homer 61 on Oct. 1, 1961. But the taciturn Maris was uncomfortable doling out even a few words to the press, and the public didn't warm to him. (If Mantle was Bill Clinton, Maris was AI Gore.) And his record was tagged by a denigrating asterisk to denote that, though he outscored Ruth, he did so in a longer playing season.
This two-hour movie, directed by Billy Crystal, does an excellent job mapping out Mantle and Maris's unusual dynamic. Thomas Jane plays Mantle with smooth, modest charm. Barry Pepper, in the harder role, slowly brings Maris's emotions to the surface. They erupt with such sharp force, he practically flinches.
Bottom Line: Winning double play
MTV, weekdays, 4 p.m. ET
You probably do not have much cause to watch TRL (Total Request Live) if you are not the sort of teenage girl who considers relations between the U.S. and China less significant than those between Britney and Justin. The MTV hit, now in its third season, is a fun, mindless, hourlong mix of video countdown and celebrity visits backed by an audience of screaming kids (with more outside in the street below the show's Times Square studio). As the cameras swing to take it all in, TRL feels like a high school cruise rolling and rocking in a choppy sea, with merrily squealing passengers careening from one side to the other.
What anchors the show is host Carson Daly, 27, and any grownup who dismisses him as a mere teen idol ignores Daly's uncanny skill in controlling his world. Daly has the sane, pleasant demeanor of a doctor who makes friends with his patients without ever going so far as to remove his surgical gloves during the handshake. Upbeat but not gung ho, he is welcoming to guests without being fawning, considerate to fans without being condescending. I have no doubt he would make a really cool ambassador to some foreign country that has never even heard of O-Town.
Bottom Line: Daly wisdom
Terry Kelleher will return next week.
>Sunday, April 29 ON GOLDEN POND CBS (9 p.m. ET) Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in a live production of the 1979 play better known as a movie starring Kate Hepburn and Henry Fonda.
Monday, April 30 ALLY MCBEAL FOX (8 p.m. ET) Sting, playing himself, hires Robert Downey Jr., playing an attorney, to represent him in a typically McBeal-ian lawsuit.
Tuesday, May 1 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FRONTIERS PBS (8 p.m. ET) The threat of obesity and the dangers of diet fads.
Wednesday, May 2 LETHAL PREDATORS TLC(10 p.m. ET) This episode of Adrenaline Science profiles men who study crocodiles, sharks and snakes. Oh my.
Thursday, May 3 JUST SHOOT ME NBC (9:30 p.m. ET) Maya has a one-night stand with a guy who's not altogether super (guest star Dean Cain).
Friday, May 4 ON THE INSIDE Discovery (8 p.m. ET) The games that go on behind the scenes in a casino.
Saturday, May 5 MTV NEWS: AFTER PARTY MTV (2 p.m. ET) Cameras hit the road with the band OutKast.
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!
