Corpus Christi Caller-Times TV/Radio by Elaine Liner, media critic

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

Elaine Liner is Caller-Times' media critic. Her columns are published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. She has been known to occasionally gossip with her readers in the Elaine Liner Forum. Elaine can be reached at linere@caller.com

Sunday, March 19, 2000

New series launched, cancelled this year

Viewers will be treated to more new offerings all the way through May

Who can tell when the television "season" begins and ends anymore? Since the beginning of the year, networks have launched a dozen new series and canceled many of last fall’s freshmen. Seven more new shows make their debuts this week and next on the broadcast networks. And there are more to come all the way into May.
  Keeping prime time stocked with original, first-run programming is good news for rerun-weary viewers. Trouble is, many of these new titles are airing as midseason throwaways and will disappear after just a few weeks.
  What’s coming up:

"Titus," 7:30 p.m. Monday, Fox. Comic Christopher Titus does a cruel number on his real-life family, using them as fodder for this sitcom. His father (played by Stacy Keach) is a drunken serial husband (five wives) who verbally bashes his grown kids. Mom is a manic-depressive schizophrenic who resides in a mental hospital. Sounds hilarious, right? Only if you’re heavily medicated before you tune in.

"The Beat," 8 p.m. Tuesday, UPN. Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson, ex-producers of "Homicide" and other police dramas, try out a new one about young street cops in the Big Apple. Camera work is the star here, with scenes shot in multiple video formats at sometimes nauseating angles and speeds. Coolest adjunct to the show is the www.thebeattv.com Web site, which introduces the characters and offers "webisodes" separate from the TV hour.

"Then Came You," 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, ABC. Weak premise guarantees a short run for this comedy about an unemployed writer who sparks a romance with a 7-years-younger waiter. Based on the real-life love story of the show’s creator.

"Daddio," 7:30 p.m. Thursday, NBC. Michael Chiklis as a goofy single dad. The network didn’t provide a review screener. ‘Nuff said.

"Battery Park," 8:30 p.m. Thursday, NBC. Elizabeth Perkins runs the precinct in yet another "Barney Miller"-style cop show set in Manhattan. Rings heavily of the kind of jokes that fill "Spin City."

"Making the Band," 9 p.m. Friday, ABC. OK, finally a good one. The producers of MTV’s "Real World" and "Road Rules" set out to chronicle the casting and rehearsals of a real-life boy band. Episode one shows the tryouts in cities across the U.S., with 25 eager semifinalists flown to Orlando. The final eight become roomies in a big, cool house, where cameras record almost every move as they get stressed out from rehearsals and cutthroat competition. The teen-age boy singers are achingly cute and wholesome. Count how many times they call their moms and burst into tears. The saga continues for six more weeks.

"Wonderland," 9 p.m. Mar. 30, ABC. Actor-director Peter Berg ("Very Bad Things") wanted to call this new drama "Bellevue" but the Manhattan hospital objected. So just picture the show’s facility as the old brick fortress downtown where the down-and-out and criminally insane come for psychiatric help and other emergencies. The opening episode has a mental patient shooting at cops and tourists in Times Square. The series boasts an impressive list of stars, including Ted Levine ("Silence of the Lambs") as the chief of psychiatry, Martin Donovan ("The Opposite of Sex"), Michelle Forbes ("Homicide") and Patricia Clarkson ("High Art").

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

[an error occurred while processing this directive]