Show of the week
Another Holocaust drama? Yes, but this estimable miniseries features an element seldom seen onscreen: armed Jewish resistance.
After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, some 350,000 Jews were confined to the Warsaw Ghetto. The two-part Uprising tells the true story of the hundreds who chose to strike back when the Nazis began shipping out residents for slave labor or extermination. Though it starts slowly and loses intensity toward the end, the body of director Jon Avnet's film is gripping and sometimes startling. When the ad hoc Jewish Fighting Organization—almost absurdly outnumbered and outgunned—begins shooting and firebombing the arrogant occupiers, you may hear yourself shouting encouragement.
Hank Azaria gives a strong performance as the group's audacious leader, Mordechai Anielewicz, overshadowing Friends' David Schwimmer in the less dynamic role of comrade Yitzhak Zuckerman. Leelee Sobieski is effective as Tosia Altman, who must keep her emotions under wraps while operating covertly in the Aryan sector. Still, top acting honors go to a pair of veterans. Donald Sutherland excels in the difficult part of Adam Czerniakow, a proud but frightened man who temporizes with the Nazis as head of the ghetto's Jewish Council. And Jon Voight expertly conveys the building frustration of Jurgen Stroop, the haughty German general who can't bring these Jews to heel.
Bottom Line: Compelling piece of history
Showtime (Sun., Nov. 4, 8 p.m. ET)
Showtime bills this as one of its "Original Pictures for All Ages," but you'd have to be born yesterday to believe what goes on here.
Georgia veterinarian Jasmine Wilde (Olivia Newton-John) is the single mother of Izzy (Chloe Rose, Newton-John's real-life daughter), a 14-year-old bundle of singing talent. What Izzy doesn't know is that Jasmine used to be a pop star. She discovers the truth when a bunch of old fan magazines spill out of the closet and—lo and behold—her mom's the cover girl. Jasmine has hidden her former fame because she found the music business to be a cesspool of drugs and corruption. Now a record producer beckons Izzy to evil Los Angeles, where she's fated to meet her long-lost father, Toby (Jerome Ehlers), who for 14 years has sought reconciliation with Jasmine through personal ads in Rolling Stone. Jasmine has been ignoring his appeals--and concealing them from Izzy—while collecting the back issues for her closet periodical library.
There's a nice mother-daughter duet at the finish, but the woeful script defeats everyone involved, including Swoosie Kurtz as Jasmine's man-hungry housemate and best friend.
Bottom Line: Wildly implausible
USA (Tues., Nov. 6, 9 p.m. ET)
From the opening credits—with orange lettering that looks as if it came off the cover of a pulp-fiction magazine—this TV movie presents itself as an old-fashioned adventure yarn. Taken on those terms, it's watchable. The Diamond of Jeru, based on a Louis L'Amour story and scripted by his son Beau, stars Billy Zane as a quick-fisted Yank expatriate in mid-'50s Borneo. A priggish American nuclear scientist (Keith Carradine) arrives on the island with his comely wife (British actress Paris Jefferson) to hunt for a big diamond to dazzle her. Zane secretly tails their party, thinking they may need protection. Sure enough, headhunters appear, and the normally composed Jefferson starts screaming bloody murder.
Zane is too smooth for his rough-and-ready role, despite his all-hours 5 o'clock shadow. Jefferson, though, has ladylike allure, and Carradine—once Mr. Laid-Back—makes a good stuffed shirt.
Bottom Line: No gem but not worthless
Comedy Central (Sun., Nov. 4, 10 p.m. ET)
It would be easy to dismiss this one-hour special as a raunchfest for perennially adolescent males. But I submit that it's worthy of study as a bizarre cultural artifact.
Taped in late September, it's an edited version of the New York Friars Club's annual celebrity roast. The smiling victim is 75-year-old Hugh Hefner, and a motley crew of jesters—from Ice-T to Alan King—take turns insulting the Playboy founder and praising his magazine for its stimulating pictorial content. Boys being boys, many words are bleeped out.
The fun part is observing the VIPs and semi-IPs in attendance. Did Abe Vigoda (Barney Miller) show up just to be mocked? (I liked comic Jeffrey Ross's line about patriotic Abe trying to enlist at Old Navy.) Did Carson Daly, Dr. Joyce Brothers and Patty Hearst meet afterward for a few beers? Make up your own jokes. They don't have to be dirty.
Bottom Line: A few laughs if you look for them
PBS (Sun., Nov. 4, 9 p.m. ET)
Such shows: Babes in Arms; Pal Joey; Oklahoma!; South Pacific. Such songs: "My Funny Valentine"; "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'"; "Some Enchanted Evening." Richard Rodgers could sure write 'em—with a lot of lyrical help from Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II.
This high-class profile, Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds, surveys a brilliant career that opened in 1919 and ran for almost six decades. The program is at its best in examining Rodgers's working partnerships and analyzing his melodic genius. Artists like vocalist Maureen McGovern, jazz eminence Billy Taylor and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber shed light on the fine craftsmanship that went into songs whose beauty we take for granted. The subject's personality—obsessive, phobic, prone to depression—remains somewhat of a puzzle, even after we've heard the candid recollections of his daughters Linda and Mary. The latter says Father saw five psychiatrists over time; too bad they don't testify.
Bottom Line: Well-orchestrated bio
Sunday, Nov. 4 EMMY AWARDS CBS (8 p.m. ET) It's another go for the twice-postponed event, with Ellen DeGeneres ever ready to emcee.
Monday, Nov. 5 30 BY 30: KID FLICKS HBO (7 p.m. ET) Out of the mouths of babes: Chaille Stovall, 10, quizzes George W. Bush, Al Gore and other pols.
Tuesday, Nov. 6 NYPD BLUE ABC (9 p.m. ET) In a two-episode season premiere, Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) gets a new associate (Mark-Paul Gosselaar).
Wednesday, Nov. 7 COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS CBS (8 p.m. ET) Vince Gill hosts the 35th annual event featuring performances by the Dixie Chicks and Willie Nelson.
Thursday, Nov. 8 FRONTLINE PBS (9 p.m. ET) Gunning for Saddam weighs the option of trying to topple the Iraqi leader.
Friday, Nov. 9 BANGIN' THE CHARTS MTV (5 p.m. ET) It's the debut of a weekly entertainment-news wrap-up based on the Soundscan report.
Saturday, Nov. 10 UNDERSTANDING: TRAFFIC TLC (1O p.m. ET) Green-light this study of the world's overcrowded roadways.
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!
