B-
Téa Leoni has been called a combination of Katharine Hepburn, Carole Lombard and Lucille Ball. In the first two episodes of this remodeled sitcom (it aired last year on ABC and was picked up by NBC as a mid-season replacement), Lucy is the dominant influence.
Last season, Nora (Leoni) was taking photos for a trashy tabloid. The new editor, Les (George Wendt), has now turned the sheet respectable and reassigned her to write the advice column. Her main job, though, seems to be telling white lies, then frantically covering up. This behavior suits Leoni's Lucy-like energy level, but we get the feeling her character is too smart for such foolish deception. That's a compliment we can't pay her coworkers Nick and Dave (holdovers Jonathan Penner and Mark Roberts, respectively), who in the second show feign a gay relationship to get Super Bowl tickets from the boss. Don't ask.
Though the material isn't yet worthy of the star, it's clear that NBC sees in Leoni a Lombardian gift for being simultaneously sexy and ridiculous. As for sharp-tongued former editor Camilla (Holland Taylor), the good news is she's only been demoted, not dismissed.
Comedy Central (Sun., Jan. 19, 8 p.m. ET)
B
If Ab Fab is an acquired taste, then this two-hour episode is an opportunity for those who know the show to drink deep.
Bingeing on intoxicants at a French ski resort, those untamed British creatures of fashion Edina (creator-writer Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley) hit the slopes face first. Then Edina hurtles into wedding-planner mode after her excessively sober daughter Saffron (Julia Sawalha) unwisely jumps at the proposal of a controlling prig (Tom Hollander) with superrich parents. This yields more laughs, although several oh-so-wacky hangers-on (including comedian Mo Gaffney as a cowl-clad Scientologist) overcrowd the scene.
Some jokes are brilliantly on target, such as when Patsy quaffs and critiques Elizabeth Taylor's new perfume. An equal number are belabored. Shouldn't it have been obvious that "When is the millennium?" is spoiled by repetition? But Ab Fab goes out—if indeed this is farewell—with gusto and no apologies. As Edina says, "It might be wrong, but it's right. That's my motto."
History Channel (Sun., Jan. 19, 8 p.m. ET)
A-
Anyone who has seen him act or heard him sing knows Mandy Patinkin has a natural tendency to emote. But there's another reason he sounds more involved here than your average narrator-for-hire: In 1905, his paternal grandfather entered the United States from Poland via Ellis Island in New York Harbor. In fact, according to this lovingly assembled documentary, four out of 10 Americans can trace their ancestry to people who came through the facility during the half century it served as our principal immigration station. (Closed in 1954, it was turned into a museum in 1990.)
The program excels in detailing how 13 million immigrants were processed—as many as 20,000 a day at the peak of the influx—and in sketching the human stories of some who will never forget the waiting, the worrying and the rejoicing.
CBS (Tues., Jan. 21, 9 p.m. ET)
C-
In this tear-drenched TV movie, inspired by true stories, John Ritter overplays Ed Chandler, a car salesman callously fired for taking time off to be with his adolescent daughter Missy (Anna Chlumsky), who suffers from a rare form of cancer. With his joblessness dragging on and his wife (Tess Harper) coming unglued, Ed, for reasons never adequately explained in the movie, gets to recount his tale of woe before a congressional panel considering the Family and Medical Leave Act. After Bill Clinton signs the act into law, the Make-a-Wish Foundation arranges for the dying Missy to visit the White House. The drama tries to build suspense over whether she'll meet the President—but, hey, we saw his name in the opening credits.
Clinton makes the most of his cameo, smiling warmly and resisting the impulse to say he feels Missy's pain. But we miss Bob Dole in the background, grousing that family leave is a burden on business.
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!
