NBC press releases label this an "action-adventure." Come on, people, let's call a comedy a comedy.
The watchable new series, on a four-episode network run prior to fall syndication, concerns three beautiful babes—Cassie (Natasha Henstridge), D.D. (Kristen Miller) and Shane (Natashia Williams)—who have been sprung from prison so they can spy for the government. Trite concept? Sure, and don't the writers know it. In the July 20 pilot the three heroines went undercover at a Hollywood studio and stumbled onto the set of a television show that was a mirror image of She Spies. In the third episode (Aug. 3) the chief villain is portrayed by Costas Mandylor, whose failed NBC series Players also had a cons-turned-spies premise. If you like TV in-jokes punctuated with karate kicks, this show's for you.
She Spies takes the tongue-in-cheek derring-do of Charlie's Angels and V.I.P. and tries to add anything-goes insanity à la The Naked Gun. The pilot even offered crude political satire involving a Clintonesque former presidential candidate. The repeat gags wear thin, and long-range prospects are dubious, but this will do as a summer diversion.
Bottom Line: Can't hurt on a hot night
TBS (Wednesdays, 9 p.m. ET)
If August sees a surge in antiperspirant sales, ascribe it to this new reality series (based on The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook). The July 31 hour points out that armpit odor can incite a bee attack.
Smug host Mike Rowe presents a potpourri of perilous situations in this fourth episode: A stuntwoman demonstrates how to slip out of an auto that plunges into a pond (presumably facetious onscreen tip: "Always try to escape before the car sinks"); a cameraman contributes his footage of a chain-reaction smashup on a Los Angeles-area freeway, followed by safe-driving tips to make the segment seem less exploitative; a woman recalls her pain and horror when an anesthesiologist's error had her paralyzed but awake during surgery. Periodically we check on two guys swimming, kayaking and jet-skiing through an 8½-mile race—like a Survivor challenge without a prize. The busy show tries to alarm one moment and amuse the next. I split the difference and shrugged it off.
Bottom Line: Far from the best case
Showtime (Sun., Aug. 4, 8 p.m. ET)
Joe Mantegna, Paul Reiser, Christine Lahti, Glenne Headly—the cast is overqualified for this fundamentally routine sex comedy. But they seem to be having a fairly good time, and chances are so will you.
Lahti plays a woman who tails her husband (Mantegna) and his buddy (Reiser) to a lap-dancing establishment. She immediately reports her findings to Reiser's wife (Headly), and the rest of a long night is filled with accusations, evasions and complications. Reiser has some funny riffs in the Mad About You manner ("It wasn't cheating—it was fake, it was faux, faux cheating"), and Robert Pastorelli runs enjoyably amok as a screwy friend of both couples' who decides it's his "calling" to parade in a loincloth and paw as many women as possible. Unfortunately, all the antics lead to an ostensibly serious speech by Mantegna that makes less than an ounce of sense.
Bottom Line: Enough laughs to get by
BBC America (Fridays, 8 p.m. ET)
show of the week
Bully for middle-aged males. Now they have their own Sex and the City in this British series (starting a four-week run Aug. 2). Anthony Stewart Head (Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Nigel Havers are divorcés on the prowl, Don Warrington is a never-wed sophisticate, and Ray Burdis is the ambivalent family man, envying his chums' freedom while shakily upholding the virtue of responsibility. The comedy gets raunchy on the subject of genital-enhancement surgery, but the irony is well observed and the cast is first-rate, including Lindsay Coulson as Burdis's straightforward wife.
Bottom Line: Give this guy thing a try
Sunday, Aug. 4 THE ANNA NICOLE SHOW E! (10 p.m. ET) It's the debut of an Osbournes-type reality show on Anna Nicole Smith's fabulous existence.
Monday, Aug, 5 DOG EAT DOG NBC (9 p.m. ET) Six Playboy centerfolds display their mental and physical gifts on the strenuous game show.
Tuesday, Aug. 6 THE RERUN SHOW NBC (8:30 p.m. ET) It's good to recycle, right? An ensemble cast reenacts scenes from old sitcoms in the second outing for this new series.
Wednesday, Aug. 7 RED SKIES USA Network (8 p.m. ET) Vivian Wu plays a Chinese cop working for the FBI in this martial-arty TV movie.
Thursday, Aug. 8 MTV ULTRA SOUND MTV (10 p.m. ET) No Hit Wonders studies jocks who flopped as rappers and other failed recording artists.
Friday, Aug. 9 FAMILY TELEVISION AWARDS ABC (9 p.m. ET) SHeDAISY performs and John Ritter is a presenter as wholesome shows get their due.
Saturday, Aug. 10 SID CAESAR COLLECTION PBS (check local listings) Clips and interviews recall classic TV comedy of the 1950s.
Rob Morrow
Sure, he spent part of his youth in New York City. But does Rob Morrow have the street cred to play Kevin Hunter, an ex-con out on parole on Showtime's gritty new series Street Time? "At 19 or 20, I was on the street a lot. And I played a lot of street guys in TV guest shots [like Spenser: for Hire] and theater," says the actor, who went on to play fish-out-of-water Dr. Joel Fleischman on the '90s cult hit Northern Exposure. His exposure to the criminal life comes from hanging with Street Time executive producer Richard Stratton, a former drug smuggler who was paroled in 1990 after serving eight years. "Stratton was right there with me," says Morrow, 39, "when we were shooting" last winter in real Toronto jails. "Jails smell bad and dead," he says.
Life's a lot sweeter in New York and L.A., where Morrow shares homes with his actress wife, Debbon Ayer (Tadpole), 42, and their 1-year-old daughter Tu Morrow (puns are a family tradition). "Being the narcissist that I am," jokes Morrow, "the best cure for narcissism is to have kids. I have achieved a fair amount of things now, career and material things, and it would be easy to give them up for her."
- Contributors:
- Frank Swertlow.
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!
