"Old-fashioned" is usually a compliment at holiday time, so I suppose only a Scrooge would criticize this TV movie for employing a traditional Hollywood formula: Take a few kernels of historical fact, add plenty of cooked-up drama, pour on the sentiment, and be sure to give the hero a big speech at the finish.
Jason Alexander works hard as A.C. Gilbert, famous inventor of the Erector set, who is taken aback when the government asks him to quit manufacturing toys and use his factory to produce munitions for U.S. forces in World War I. Later on Gilbert is floored when the feds go further and suggest that he endorse a pitch to parents to buy war bonds at the Yuletide instead of kids' playthings. "Are you actually talking about canceling Christmas?" Gilbert says like a boy who just found coal in his stocking. After agonizing over his patriotic duty and the fate of his missing-in-action brother (Ari Cohen), Gilbert decides to stand up for seasonal toy sales and the American way.
Plot and characterization are rather thin. Gilbert conducts business with unbelievable benevolence, and his father (Edward Asner) goes from controlling tightwad to proud supporter in a twinkling. Still, Alexander's energetic performance may put you in the mood to pile presents under the tree.
BOTTOM LINE: The star just manages to sell it
History Channel (Tues., Dec. 17, 8 p.m. ET)
World War I took a holiday in 1914 when German and British soldiers emerged from their trenches and allowed themselves an unsanctioned Christmas ceasefire that featured carol singing, fraternization and even a soccer game. Blending archival film clips and sound recordings with dramatic re-creations, this hour-long documentary provides a concise, informative and moving account of the incident, described here by one historian as "a sparkle of hope and humanity" in "four years of hell."
BOTTOM LINE: Treasured memory
Show of the week
Showtime (Sun., Dec. 15, 8 p.m. ET )
The title isn't all that's funny about this family-oriented TV movie from writer-director Thorn Eberhardt. In fact Teenage Faust is such a pleasant surprise that I'm even able to forgive Eberhardt for his 1992 big-screen turkey Captain Ron.
Mr. Five (Robert Townsend), an inept minion of the devil (Stuart Margolin), confers instant coolness on Brendan (Josh Zuckerman), a nerdy Indiana teenager, in exchange for the kid's immortal soul. Brendan insists on a free trial period, however, during which he realizes that Twyla Day (Caroline Elliott), his ultrapopular dream girl, actually desires an uncool guy. Whenever the farce seems about to flag, you can count on hearing a strong laugh line. "I need to prove to Twyla Day that deep, deep down inside I really am a dork," Brendan tells best buddy Tom (scene stealer Noel Fisher). "Then be a dork," Tom replies. "It's pretty easy."
BOTTOM LINE: Devil of a good time
ESPN (Sat., Dec. 14, 9 p.m. ET)
Second String
TNT (Wed., Dec 18, 8 p.m. ET)
Almost all football movies come from the same slim playbook. So forget the element of surprise; success depends on execution.
The Junction Boys spotlights a familiar figure, the harsh but successful coach. (You saw the type in ESPN's previous dramatic effort, last March's A Season on the Brink, about basketball dictator Bobby Knight.) Tom Berenger stars as the legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant, who takes over the Texas A&M football program in 1954 and starts by putting his squad through 10 days of torturous drills in dangerously high heat. "The price of winning is high," Bryant explains. Far too high, you'll say to yourself when a player drops from heat stroke and the coach kicks him. But Berenger's performance is undeniably forceful, and the film—shot in Australia—has the right period look and parched atmosphere.
The fictional story of Second String—ragtag bunch overcomes long odds—is as old as sport itself. Ally McBeal alum Gil Bellows plays a castoff quarterback who leads the Buffalo Bills' second-stringers to the Super Bowl, after the starters are felled by food poisoning. Realism is sidelined as the QB, ignoring his stubborn coach (Jon Voight), calls his own trick plays and sounds like a stand-up comic in the huddle. Bellows is likable, though, and Voight bellows well.
BOTTOM LINE: Both gain a few yards
Sunday, Dec. 15 CHRISTMAS IN WASHINGTON TNT (8 p.m. ET) George and Laura Bush attend a concert featuring Alison Krauss.
Monday, Dec. 16 I LOVE THE '80S VH1 (9 p.m. ET) It's a five-night nostalgia trip to the days of Rubik's Cubes and Milli Vanilli.
Tuesday, Dec. 17 THE MAIN STREAM PBS (9 p.m. ET) Humorist Roy Blount Jr. journeys down the Mississippi River in this offbeat documentary.
Wednesday, Dec. 18 10 MOST FASCINATING PEOPLE OF 2002 ABC (9 p.m. ET) Halle Berry and Dr. Phil make Barbara Walters's A-list in this special.
Thursday, Dec. 19 SURVIVOR: THAILAND CBS (8 p.m. ET) Can you survive without the two-hour finale plus an hour-long reunion?
Friday, Dec. 20 PROVIDENCE NBC (8 p.m. ET) Syd's wedding nears, and there's a hostage crisis at the clinic as the season comes to a two-hour end.
Saturday, Dec. 21 A CHRISTMAS VISITOR Hallmark (9 p.m. ET) A stranger lifts a family's gloom in this TV movie with William Devane and Meredith Baxter.
ALLY SHEEDY
Ally Sheedy is ticking off the names of the fellow Brat Packers she hasn't kept up with recently, many of whom she starred with in 1985's The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire. Rob Lowe? Hasn't seen him lately, but he has said hello through friends. Molly Ringwald? Same story, although Sheedy adds, "I still want to see Molly on Broadway in Cabaret." Anthony Michael Hall? When told Hall now stars in USA's The Dead Zone, Sheedy asks, "What's The Dead Zone?"
The fact is, the actress has been preoccupied with her own career. In The Interrogation of Michael Crowe, a Court TV docudrama (debuting Dec. 4), Sheedy, 40, stars as a woman whose teenage son is coerced by cops into falsely confessing to the murder of his 12-year-old sister. The grim subject gave her pause. "I thought, 'Oh my God, I have to imagine my child is murdered every day I go to work,' " says Sheedy, who lives in Manhattan with actor-husband David Lansbury, 41, and their daughter, Rebecca, 8. Now gearing up for Off-Broadway's The Exonerated ("I play a woman on death row"), Sheedy lightens up at home in a different role: Rat Packer. "My daughter has a pet rat," she says. "I'm trying to attach the water bottle to the cage. It's cute, but I feel like a farmer."
- Contributors:
- Amy Bonawitz.
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!
