CBS (Sun., Feb. 22, 9 p.m. ET)
A kid is not just like some heirloom piano that you can leave to two people who don't even get along," says Julia (Without a Trace's Poppy Montgomery). See, even the characters in this TV movie can't believe the premise.
Here's the deal: A nice couple named Beth and Tim die in an accident, and their 9-year-old son Waylon (Jeremy Bergman) is sent to live temporarily with his great-aunt Marie (Doris Roberts, who also plays a Marie on Everybody Loves Raymond) in her retirement village. But Beth and Tim's will stipulates that custody of the boy go to his godparents Reg (Dharma & Greg's Thomas Gibson) and Julia, even though these two are emphatically not a couple, see each other rarely and speak of their one date as a historic disaster.
Why in the world would Beth and Tim make such a plan, knowing they could be consigning their only child to a future filled with conflict? Of course: They wanted to play matchmaker from the grave. The more Julia and Reg's child-raising responsibilities bring them together, the more they feel the mutual attraction they've long denied. And if anyone can't deduce where this thing is going, Waylon is happy to spell it out, "My mom and dad always said that you were right for each other, but...you were just too pigheaded to see it," he tells Reg, as Gibson tries hard to look like a man who has just had a flash of understanding.
The road to the inevitable happy ending is not entirely smooth. A meddlesome couple attempt to wrest custody of Waylon away from Julia and Reg, but they're anal-retentive and comparatively unattractive, so how would you rate their chances? Then there's the tediously feisty Marie, who pops in once in a while to spout off. "I have two cents and I'd like to put them in," she announces to the judge at the climactic custody hearing. I love Roberts on Raymond, but this is an aunt too sure of her greatness.
ROMANTIC COMEDY
HBO (Wed., Feb. 25, 7:30 p.m. ET)
Lisa Gay Hamilton (formerly of The Practice) didn't really get to know Beah Richards in 1997 when the two actresses worked on the movie Beloved. At the time, Hamilton found her intimidating. But a couple of years later Hamilton heard that Richards was seriously ill with emphysema, so she began regularly visiting the octogenarian, who died in 2000. Out of their friendship came this extraordinary documentary, in which director-interviewer Hamilton helps a failing but still formidable Richards pass on her philosophy of acting as "being" and her memories of a life committed to artistic integrity and racial equality.
Richards can indeed be a bit intimidating when she takes her ancient-sage tone, but her laughter encourages us to come closer and partake of her wisdom. Clips of her work—including an Oscar-nominated performance in 1967's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and an Emmy-winning turn on The Practice several months before her death—show Richards's combination of emotional honesty and almost queenly dignity. Hamilton's film captures the subject's inextinguishable spirit.
DOCUMENTARY
BBC America (Saturdays, 10 p.m. ET)
It's about corporate lawyers in London, but this slick, well-acted show has that L.A. Law feeling.
An intense Robson Green (Touching Evil) stars as Stephen, a workaholic senior partner whose neglect of family life causes his wife to give him the boot. Stephen heads a team that includes Annie (Sarah Parish), a driven lawyer who tends to treat her husband like an incompetent personal assistant; dependable Martin (Neil Stuke), who seems to think being gay explains his lack of burning ambition; Ashley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a charmer with a risky taste for the high life; and Maria (Eva Birthistle), a young trainee who could be working a bit too closely with Stephen. They all answer to the big boss (Ian McShane), who helpfully explains in the Feb. 28 opener that his nickname, "the P.G.," stands for "the Power and the Glory."
The office politics will hook you, but the first two episodes are less convincing when the lawyers actually work on cases. Trust appears to fear bogging down in business details, so Stephen magically unsnarls negotiations by gaining handy insights into what makes his clients tick.
DRAMA
FOX (Sundays, 9 p.m. ET)
No one's saying this boisterous sitcom has to slow down with age. But Malcolm's 100th episode hurts itself by hopping from story line to story line instead of sticking with the strong central situation.
Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) is primed for battle when her sister Susan (guest star Laurie Metcalf) comes to visit. Barbed remarks soon lead to outright screaming over grievance No. 1: Hal (Bryan Cranston) dumped Susan for future wife Lois—on Susan's prom night, no less. When Lois discovers that Susan needs a kidney transplant, the question becomes whether they can call a truce while there's still time. The show deserves credit for resolving the situation without losing its characteristic irreverence.
Too bad the episode keeps cutting away to the boys' piddling problems. Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) and Reese (Justin Berfield) can't use the cool car they got from Susan because Hal removed the engine. Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan) makes way too much cotton candy. And, in a laughless side trip, oldest brother Francis (Christopher Masterson) guides a group of rebellious little girls on a scout trip in the desert. Some children should be neither seen nor heard.
COMEDY
UPPING THE ANTE
Super Millionaire (ABC, Feb. 22, 9 p.m. ET)
It was a prime-time smash that died of overexposure. Now the former Who Wants to Be a Millionaire returns to life as a five-night special, with the final question worth $10 million—or as host Regis Philbin will say, "Ten...million...dollaz!"
DO YOU TAKE THIS MAN?
My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé (FOX, Feb. 23, 9 p.m. ET)
The wedding day (wink, wink) is here—will Randi pull off the ruse, in spite of her fake fiancé Steve, so she can win $1 million in the big fat finale?
OLD GHOSTS NEVER DIE
Whoopi (NBC, Feb. 24, 8:30 p.m. ET) Mavis (Whoopi Goldberg) tries to get some kicks with her ex-choreographer, played by Goldberg's Ghost costar Patrick Swayze.
ROSE CITY SHOWDOWN
The Bachelorette (ABC, Feb. 25, 9 p.m. ET) In the two-hour windup, Meredith brings the remaining two suitors to Portland, Ore., to meet her folks.
Tears, tantrums and really scary haircuts make this runway reality show, produced by Tyra Banks, UPN's guiltiest pleasure. A guide to the final six:
APRIL WILKNER, 23 An account executive, the half-Japanese NYU grad (with a 3.9 GPA) earned raves for her underwater shoot.
MERCEDES SCELBA-SHORTE, 22 A judges' favorite, she recently opened up about battling the chronic immune disease lupus.
YOANNA HOUSE, 23 Before landing on Model, the fashion fiend hired a personal trainer to slash her weight from 176 lbs. to 134.
SARA RACEY-TABRIZI, 23 She kept Model a secret from her Iranian-born dad but showed her sexy side impersonating Angelina Jolie.
SHANDI SULLIVAN, 21 The gangly Kansas City, Mo., Walgreen's clerk blossoms in front of the camera but butchers her runway walk.
CAMILLE MCDONALD, 26 The Howard University student's attitude has her roomies baring their claws; one calls her "Cruella de Vil."
- 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!
