Danza
Pauley
Two big names have entered the daytime talk field this season, and neither ther appears particularly interested in breaking new ground. Former sitcom star Tony Danza (Who's the Boss?) offers showbiz fluff à la Ellen DeGeneres or former chat host Wayne Brady. Jane Pauley, with Today and Dateline on her résumé, has embarked on the Oprah phase of her career.
Danza sticks to a softball interviewing style and makes only mild, half-apologetic jokes about celebrities. He's prone to malapropisms ("The Tony Danza Show leaves no stone uncovered") and empty gush ("Having this talk show is a riot 'cause I get to talk to people and stuff"). But Danza scores high in likability, especially when rambling through an anecdote. His description of an emotional Maury episode bordered on hilarious. He should consider elevating his announcer, bubbly Apprentice loser Ereka Vetrini, to full sidekick status and letting her move from a perch in the audience to a seat on the stage.
Pauley's premiere was an hour of coming attractions that featured inspirational stories and copious crying. Fearing my tear ducts couldn't take it, I waited a while before tuning back in. What I've found is a mixed bag: a touching, informative show on kids with a form of autism; a mutual-admiration session with Naomi Judd; routine episodes on food and fashion. "This almost made me weep," Pauley said of a bridal gown. But she looked quite composed.
DOCUMENTARY
PBS (Tues.-Thurs., Oct. 19-21, 9 p.m. ET)
Six hours seems like an extremely generous amount of air time until you consider all the territory filmmaker Michael Kantor has to cover in this three-part survey—from the Ziegfeld Follies of 1907 to Oklahoma! to The Producers. How can he do it?
Quite well, it turns out. Hosted by Julie Andrews, who starred on Broadway in My Fair Lady and Camelot, the documentary induces nostalgia for golden-age classics like Kiss Me Kate and Guys and Dolls but acknowledges the allure of Disney's The Lion King and other contemporary spectacles. Kantor and his team make clever use of archival material—note how they string together Ethel Merman clips so she seems to hold one note forever—and offer valuable interviews with a range of Broadway talents. Stephen Sondheim offers warm memories of his student-mentor relationship with Oscar Hammerstein II and Law & Order's Jerry Orbach vividly recalls his days in 42nd Street and the chutzpah of producer David Merrick). The last hour includes a disjointed look at Wicked and some blatant puffery of Disney honcho Michael Eisner, but Broadway is mostly boffo.
CBS (Wednesdays, 9:30 p.m. ET)
The phrase "all-star cast" is used much too loosely, but this new series actually has one. John Goodman, Jean Smart, Ed Asner and Olympia Dukakis are accomplished veterans who can find the laughs in any script—assuming there are any.
Alas, the Oct. 20 premiere of Center of the Universe is a black hole of comedy. Goodman plays a family man with a reasonable wife (Jean Smart); crazy, intrusive parents (Asner and Dukakis); a dumb, lazy brother (Diedrich Bader from The Drew Carey Show) and a neurotic sister (Melinda McGraw) who happens to be—major irony here—a therapist. The writers rely heavily on dirty-old-man jokes (Asner's septuagenarian character takes pills that make him uncontrollably randy) and hind-end humor (Bader and Dukakis are so proud of their posteriors that they invite family members to "cup a cheek"). It seems they were going for something along the lines of Everybody Loves Raymond but got the tone badly wrong. During the awkward lulls you expect the actors to throw up their hands and plead for better dialogue.
"Loving your family can be hard work," Goodman says. No harder than sitting through this show's debut.
Nuts for Mutts (Animal Planet, Oct. 18, 8 p.m. ET)
ER's Maura Tierney and Goran Visnjic judge as non-pedigreed pooches compete in such categories as Longest Tail and Best Kisser.
The Biggest Loser (NBC, Oct. 19, 8 p.m. ET)
Caroline Rhea hosts the premiere of a reality series in which 12 contestants try to win $250,000 by shedding the most pounds.
The Office Special (BBC America, Oct. 21, 9 p.m. ET)
The priceless workplace comedy makes a one-time return and we find out what happened to poor laid-off David (Ricky Gervais).
Genius: A Night for Ray Charles (CBS, Oct. 22, 9 p.m. ET)
Jamie Foxx (star of the new biopic Ray) hosts the tribute, and Mary J. Blige and Norah Jones perform.
World Series (FOX, Oct. 23, 7:30 p.m. ET)
Bring on the TiVo and Cracker Jack: It's Game 1 of the fall classic.
- Contributors:
- Terry Kelleher.
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!
