Word: showing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...tough are times for the networks? Just look at the plight of two of TV's most cherished stars, both returning in CBS sitcoms this fall: Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke. The pilot episode of The Van Dyke Show (in which Dick plays a Broadway star who helps his son run a regional theater) had to be scrapped and redone when the network decided it wasn't funny enough. Mary's comeback vehicle (she plays a divorced mother who marries a structural engineer with children of his own) also had to be reworked when the producers switched...
...season's most highly touted new drama may be its biggest disappointment. Tattingers, co-created by St. Elsewhere executive producer Bruce Paltrow, is set in a posh Manhattan restaurant. But while striving for Park Avenue glamour, this NBC show has picked up its plots from Gimbels basement. Super- rich restaurateur Nick Tattinger (Stephen Collins) returns from a stay in Europe and sets about reviving the fortunes of his eatery, fending off a developer trying to strong-arm him into selling out and attempting to smooth relations with his high-society ex-wife (Blythe Danner, one of several good actors wasted...
Sitcoms, too, are playing it safe this fall; the ambitious "dramedies" of the past few seasons have mostly been supplanted by old-fashioned gag comedies. That isn't necessarily bad. The season's funniest new show, NBC's Dear John, hardly advances the art of the sitcom, but it surely restocks it with human-scale humor. Judd Hirsch stars as a divorced schoolteacher gingerly exploring the single life. On his first visit to a singles group, he meets a sly assemblage of oddballs, including a group leader fixated on sex and a hilariously sleazy skirt chaser (Jere Burns doing...
...working-class ambience doesn't have the authenticity of The Honeymooners or the bite of All in the Family. And Barr, a veteran of comedy clubs, grins at too many of her own jokes. With its surefire time period (following ABC's hit Who's the Boss?), the show stands a good chance of success, but the days of whine and Roseanne could soon grow tiresome...
...presidential race looks -- on television -- from an important battleground. -- Nervous and overprogrammed, Dan Quayle was overmastered by Lloyd Bentsen. -- The electoral- vote map favors Bush. -- Two striking stories from suburban Chicago show racism' s lingering brutality in America. -- Why the U. S. is losing the trade war and what can be done about it -- a campaign essay...