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Daily Nebraskan
Tuesday, October 12, 1982
Arte EmfeiiammeinLt
aliens macho men litter new TV season
Nerds,
Only real men
watch NBC
By Chuck Jagoda
I was assigned to monitor the
new fall shows on NBC, the network
that has been in the news for losing
Fred Silverman and acquiring "Taxi"
after ABC dropped it.
What could NBC do with its fall
lineup that they thought Fred Silver
man, the whiz kid of television program
ming, couldn't? It was worth a look,
even for a TV fan who has gotten out
of the habit in the last few years.
I was a bit rusty. I must admit
I only watched the premiers of two
brand new shows, part of one season
premier of an old show and a post
premier evening that included one
new show and three returning shows.
By the end of all that I concluded that
anyone who watches seven nights of
TV a week is more of a real man than
I am.
I saw "The Powers of Matthew
Star." Star, the eponymous hero, is
a high school hero type. He has a
black live-in guardian - will some
stereotypes never change? - played
by Lou Gossett Jr. of "Roots" fame.
They are royal warriors hiding out at
a California high school while enemies
from home uncork unwieldy plots
against them. Good guys and bad
guys both have powers of telepathy
and telekinesis. If you think this sounds
like a mundane version of "Star Wars",
I agree.
The first episode held my attention
with some bizarre plot twists that
showed promise, but it looked hastily
done, as if on an inadequate budget.
"Silver Spoons," is rather reminis
cent of ABC's "Benson." There is
the same black know-it-all butler,
capable woman secretary and conniving
assistant. However, in this show the
kid isn't a girl. He is a boy, played
by Ricky Schroeder. He is central
to the plot, in which he unmasks the
assistant who is embezzling from
Ricky's father.
Father and son have an estranged
relationship - the son away at mili
tary school, the father resisting the
responsibilities of parenthood. At the
end of show, the father appears in
Ricky's room at school and invites him
home. I never felt involved. I never
laughed.
The "Saturday Night Live" season
premier featured Chevy Chase, live from
California, as guest host. He appeared
on a TV monitor, which of course
fell over. The most innovative addition
to the show's format was a review by
Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel from
"Sneak Previews" of the night's show
up to that point. NBC sings praises
of its Thursday night's offerings and
justifiably so. The season's second
showing of "Fame" was the story of
a learning-disabled singer (Jimmy Os
mond) who is trying to make it as a
mainstream student at a high school
for the performing arts.
"Cheers" is what "Taxi" might be
if its characters hung out in a bar in
stead of a cab company. Like "Taxi,"
it is witty, sensitive, cleverly written
and humanly acted. "Taxi," which
adds generous helpings of word play
to the list, this week featured the Rev.
Jim as a burnout with a heart. He had
a chance at his father's inheritance
and he and all his friends gave admirable
defenses of the everyday nonconfor
mists among us.
My interest flagged over "Hill Street
Blues," which is next in the Thutsday
lineup. The show seemed interesting
and well written, but after two hours
of steady viewing I began to feel the
effects of TV fatigue. Being a TV
critic is rough work, but someone's
got to do it.
Little imagination shown in CBS shows
By Ward Triplett
Chuck Jagoda was assigned to
monitor NBC's new fall season. Some
people have all the luck. I got CBS.
CBS's new season is the least imagin
ative and predictable of the three, for
the obvious reason that they needed the
least help. While NBC has been languish
ing in last place for what seems like
years, CBS has quietly, but steadily,
built on its domination of the airwaves
with shows like "Dallas," "Dallas"
spin-offs, spin-offs of "Dallas" spin
offs and an occasional "All in the Fam
ily" revival.
This season, CBS offers two new
comedy series (three if you count
"Filthy Rich" which premiered this
summer), and several adventure series,
including "Bring 'Em Back Alive."
Retired TV critic Pat Clark says
that "Gloria," one of the new comedies,
is off to a stumbling start.
The series, which follows "Archie
Bunker's Place" on Sunday, features
the once Gloria Stivic, living in Cali
fornia with son Joey. Michael (the
meathead) has left to join an agricul
tural commune, leaving Gloria to raise
Joey by herself.
Gloria's first two shows concerned
Gloria's desperate search for another
man, which you might have expected.
Joey is a sweet, wide-eyed, innocent
kid who never gives Mom any trouble,
which you also might have expected.
The trend toward smart-aleck kids lives
only with Gary Coleman now.
"Gloria" is not a great series, but
the network did sandwich it between
two already successful shows to ensure
its survival.
It's a curious move on CBS's part,
since the five-show Sunday lineup was
one of the strongest on television for
two seasons. "Alice" had to be traded
to Tueaday night to make way for
"Gloria." The move might be fatal to
"Alice," whose cast is growing a bit old
as it is.
However, "Gloria" should have time
to work out its lackluster beginning.
One good step might be to tie the spin
off a little tighter to the original "All
in the Family." So far, the only thing
that indicates that "Gloria" is not
just another single-parent sitcom from
left field is the dog named Archie.
Being one of the few human beings
who did not fall in love with "Raiders
of the Lost Ark," I can see very little
of interest in the CBS rip-off of that
film, "Bring 'Em Back Alive."
You can't blame the networks for
coming up with the idea to imitate the
blockbuster film but "Raiders" biggest
hook was relentless adventure, never
ending excitement, the thrill-a-minute,
the unexpected, and you can't repeat
that on television.
For one, there are commmercials
interrupting the action. The series,
of course, leaves you hanging through
each one of these with a fade-out
on a threatening snake or dagger and a
crescendo of music. But when things
come back, we know that Frank Buck
Li v w .,iitimHt-Wic
is not going to get bit, we know that
he's not going to get staDoea. At me
movies, your guess is as good as mine.
There's also the problem of creating
enough adventures for Frank to dance
his way through. After all, how many
lost arcs can there be with enough im
portance to attract Nazies and Third
World do-no-gooders to provide Frank
with target practice?
There is something to be said for the
one-man adventure series, but this for
mate is doomed from the start.
The one series that people around
me seem to have fallen for this season
is "Square Pegs", a "Ridgemont High"
inspired sitcom. I didn't think the pre
miere of "Square Pegs" was that im
pressive. The two main characters,
both very nice girls with pure thoughts
and good meaning, enter high school
with one purpose, to become popular.
Of course, nice people with good
intentions are never popular in high
school anywhere. Both the characters
who serve as their antagonists are stereo
types. Predictably, there is the class
president who is in and on everything,
the senior class stud with nothing but
himself on his mind (who is also in
everything), the dizzy, stereotyped
token black who at least is female
for a change. (In every high school
comedy, except the "White Shadow,"
there has always been that one black
person who is always the best singer,
best dancer, "talks, black," etc. Being
black, I know this person does not
exist, the networks are still convinced
that he does.
The main antagonist is, as always,
a snotty, rich type who, to be contem
porary, speaks "Valspeak." The series
is saved by the personality and depth
of the two main characters, and the
two class rejects who are attracted to
them. That is another network ploy,
group the main characters with the
weirdos. But it works on "Square
Pegs."
Once the series begins to grow away
from the popular schtick and starts to
explore real problems and conflicts, as
its first two shows have indicated it
might, this will be an excellent program.
Too bad it can only last three years
maximum, unless we can follow the
girls through college, too. (I still want to
know what the "White Shadow" cast is
doing nowadays. . .)
New ABC shows rip-offs of good movies
By Jeff Goodwin
OK. I'll be honest. I volunteered
for this assignment. I figured what
could be easier than watching a few
new shows on ABC and telling the
public what I thought of them
But, alas, things didn't turn out
that way. I watched some college
football games on ESPN, went to the
movies a couple of times, read and
one time I think I even studied. Well,
maybe not.
I did see two shows, not counting
the new Pac-Man cartoon I saw one
Saturday morning at 7:30. It was
actually a pretty good show, as car
toons go these days, but I think the
early hour will keep me from being
a regular viewer.
"Tales of the Gold Monkey" is
shown Wednesday nights. It is a not-so-subtle
rip-off of "Raiders of the
Lost Ark." Instead of Indiana Jones,
we have Jake Cutter. Jake is a pilot
in the South Pacific in the late 1930s.
He spends most of his time running
around fighting Nazi spies. When he's
not fighting Nazi spies, he's fighting
Japanese spies. Obviously, he and
Winston Churchill were the only ones
to appreciate the menace of the Axis
powers.
Jake gets a lot of help from a beau
tiful American spy who poses as a
singer. He also has a mechanic who's
a rummy and in constant need of a
drink. But after all, fighting the Axis
powers is bound to make one thirsty.
The real star of this show, though,
is Jack, lack is Jake's dog. He only
has one eye, that is one real eye. He
also has a glass eye, which -Jake loses
in a poker game in the opening shows.
(The eye has a sapphire in it, hence
its value.) Naturally, Jack is mad about
this, and he stays mad the whole show.
At the end, we find that Jack's eye
is headed for the Phillipines.
As for the show itself, well, John
Hiiterman was good as a Gestapo
agent, but he got knocked off. The
second show had to do with some
Mud People. Yeah, real Mud People.
They went around with mud on their
heads. We're talking primitive here,
folks. The rest of the plot was, par
don the expression, muddied.
This series does have one thing in
its favor. At least ABC is stealing
their ideas from good movies. If they
start stealing from movies like "Quin
tet," they're scraping the bottom of
the barrel.
1 also saw "Matt Houston," which
runs Sunday nights. Matt is, as you
might have guessed from his name,
a Texan through-and-through. But
he's moved his business empire west
to Hollywood, and that's a lot more
convenient for his hobby, which is
playing detective.
Matt has a beautiful house, several
beautiful cars, a beautiful lawyer and
a beautiful mechanic to take care of
his beautiful cars. Let's face it, Matt
Houston is a beautiful person. For
tunately, not everyone is. This gives
Matt a chance to solve some nasty
crimes, mainly murder.
In the opener, his client was the
daughter of a murdered Greek busi
nessman. This guy was really nasty.
Nobody was even upset that he was
bumped off.
Naturally, Matt's client was the
obvious suspect. And naturally she
didn't do it. (One thing I've learned
from years of watching detective
shows: The obviously guilty party is
always innocent. Of course, it takes
Matt two hours to prove that his client
is innocent. From now on he only
gets an hour.
This show is saved by its sense of
humor. Matt doesn't take himself too
seriously. He knows he could be back
riding the range anytime. And, given
the quick axe TV executives often
display, there's a good chanc that
win nappen. Saddle up, Matt.
