B-
Joyce Carol Oates coined the word "pathography" to describe how modern biographers reduce their subjects' lives to (as she put it) "dysfunction and disaster, illnesses and pratfalls, failed marriages and failed careers, alcoholism and breakdowns and outrageous behavior." But there is the pathautobiography too, of which Greg Louganis's Breaking the Surface is a prime example. In the 1995 bestseller, the Olympic medalist, now 37, revealed not only that he was gay but that he was HIV positive, dyslexic, and that he had been abused by his manager-lover. One could no longer think of this tremendously vulnerable man simply as a world-class diver—the personal turmoils now signified as much as the athletic triumphs.
This adequate, two-hour TV adaptation of the autobiography certainly won't change that. Mario Lopez, best known as A.C. Slater from Saved by the Bell, is physically right for the starring role, but Louganis, at least as he is depicted here, is extremely passive. It's hard to make dramatic hay with such a personality. Patrick David, as the 15-year-old Louganis, does a bit more with the part. He adds some shy charm and brooding sadness.
ABC (Wednesdays, 9:30 p.m. ET)
B-
Former talk show host Arsenio Hall, in his return to television, gets a sitcom. He plays a newly married Atlanta sportscaster. In the March 5 premiere episode, Arsenio's wife (Independence Day's Vivica A. Fox) fails to make partner at her law firm. Arsenio, thinking she means it when she says she just wants to be alone for a while, goes off to a bar and has some beers. You're in trouble now, Arsenio!
Hall is likably playful and brings a boyish bounce to all his scenes, but his is not a strong comic personality. Arsenio will have to rely on his interaction with the rest of the ensemble, which, so far, includes a lazy, Harvard-educated brother-in-law (Alimi Ballard), a stocky colleague (Kevin Dunn) and a spunky-punky blonde from next door (Shawnee Smith). Keep hiring.
The pilot had troubles—producer David Rosenthal fought with his star and quit—which may in part account for its lack of pep.
NBC (Wednesdays, 10 p.m. ET)
B
Crime has been on the decline in New York City for the past few years, so perhaps that will leave the city's finest a few spare moments to pick up grooming and wardrobe tips from this slick new series about undercover cops. Prince Street has been uniformly cast with youngish, beautifully turned-out performers—including Vincent Spano, Lawrence Monoson, Mariska Hargitay and Steven Martini—who nonetheless take to the gritty Manhattan streets and (in the March 6 pilot) tangle with the Russian mob and Peruvian terrorists. As the show develops, the characters presumably will gain in depth. We already know that Hargitay, a striking brunette who could be playing Mata Hari, is a single working mom who drops her boy off at school before heading into the line of fire. The stress makes her pensive. And Monoson, according to press notes, is a recovering alcoholic. For now, Street is enjoyable as an exercise in precinct glamor.
A & E (Sun., March 23, 8 p.m. ET)
B+
If we may return to the subject of pathography.... Virtually everyone knows the tragic arc of Judy Garland's life, from the sweet, round-limbed teenager of 1939's The Wizard of Oz to the skeletal wreck who died of an accidental drug overdose in 1969. She was only 47. This two-hour A&E Biography special, which claims to be the first comprehensive documentary about the singer-actress, moves at a smooth clip through her many highs and lows. June Allyson, Ann Miller, Jackie Cooper and Mickey Rooney provide commentary. The footage of Garland performing is, as always, electric. With its tremolo and brass, those twin signs of heartbreak and resilience, her voice had unprecedented power. I can't help wishing, though, that this show, so scrupulously levelheaded, made some kind of effort to match her fevered intensity. When the subject is Garland, you have every excuse to go over the top.
>Mandy Patinkin
PLAYING HIS HUNCH
MANDY PATINKIN HAS NO DOUBT AS TO THE TRUE AUTHORSHIP of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the classic French novel last brought to the screen by Disney in 1996 but published in 1831 as Notre Dame de Paris. "Charles Laughton, as far as I'm concerned, is the person who wrote this, not Victor Hugo," says Patinkin, 44, sounding as impassioned as Dr. Jeffrey Geiger on CBS's Chicago Hope, his former series.
It was Laughton's acclaimed portrayal of the deformed bell ringer Quasimodo in the 1939 version that inspired Patinkin's performance as the 10th screen Quasimodo in The Hunchback, TNT's TV-movie adaptation debuting March 16. What impresses Patinkin about Laughton is "the vulnerability and innocence of his heart that he put on the table." And so, before shooting began last summer in Budapest, Prague and Rouen, he says, he told makeup artists David White and Sacha Carter: "I want to look like Laughton. I want that innocence and that baby quality and that sort of chemotherapy, leftover hair thing."
Carter and White (who have worked on such films as Hamlet and Alien 3) were happy to comply. Applying a foam latex rubber prosthetic, "we twisted up one side of his face," says White, "but we gave his hair this very sensitive, choirboy look. And we tried desperately to keep [the other] side of his face as Mandy so people would recognize him." Despite having to spend up to three hours a day in their chair, Patinkin, adds White, "was terribly, terribly patient. He'd sometimes sing and prepare for his next stage show"—a concert tour that opened on Broadway March 1.
Patinkin had other diversions: He was accompanied on location by his actress wife, Kathryn Grody (the couple were recently in Mexico, where they appeared in a yet-untitled John Sayles film), and sons Isaac, 14, and Gideon, 10. Spending more time with his New York-based family was the reason behind Patinkin's departure from Hope in 1995. "My only regret about leaving," he says, "is that when I go back and see everybody"—as he will for a May sweeps guest stint as Geiger—"I miss them."
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