Word: spielbergisms
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...presidential primary campaigns, high expectations can often be dangerous. The expectations have seldom been higher than last September, when the networks prepared to unveil four new weekly anthology series. The shows boasted big-name directors and writers (headed by Hollywood's ubiquitous mogul Steven Spielberg), harked back to fondly remembered series from TV's past, and promised liberation from the straitjacket of recurring characters and continuing story lines. If the anthology shows worked, it seemed, a programming revolution might be in the offing...
...that disappointment almost inevitably swept the land. When Spielberg's Amazing Stories debuted on NBC, the reaction from critics and viewers was a widespread yawn. The show's ratings, along with those of NBC's Alfred Hitchcock Presents and CBS's The Twilight Zone, settled into the lackluster middle of the Nielsen pack. A fourth anthology entry, George Burns Comedy Week, was canceled. Some revolution...
...world view is considerably sunnier on Amazing Stories. Creator Spielberg sees the supernatural as an object of wonderment and a source of fun: in one clever installment, an actor portraying a mummy wanders off a movie set and encounters a real mummy. Too many episodes have strained for comic-book laughs revolving around TV in-jokes (some teenagers contact an outer-space civilization that is reproducing old TV sitcoms). Yet even the worst shows have had moments of wit and a let's-try-anything charm...
MARRIED. Steven Spielberg, 37, Hollywood supermogul (Young Sherlock Holmes, TV's Amazing Stories); and Amy Irving, 32, actress (Micki & Maude) and the mother of their six-month-old son Max; both for the first time; in Santa...
...past? You're the one who gets Steven Spielberg to summon up every special effect in the book to turn your youth into another Pop Pipe Dream. Swinging from chandeliers? You look more like the debating team type to me, but I guess that's not enough for our friend Spielberg. But there's no mystery in YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES (Sack Charles) because we've seen it all before. Here we have Goonies with a British accent: into every life, a lot of magic must shine. But there's none of the poignancy of Spielberg's earlier E.T. or Close...