The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 121

Versatile, hilarious Ullman scores with wacky 'skitcoiri' la CI By JOHN J. O'CONNOR Nw rr TlnMt NEW YORK, N.Y. A work in desperation. That's what the writer-director James L. Brooks once called "The Tracey Ullman Show." He was in a position to know, being co-creator of the series and one of the executive producers.

Foitunately, with Fox Broadcasting itching to set up a fourth network, the show was allowed to luah on. Now heading for the finish line of its fourth season and brandishing last year's Emmy Award for best comedy series, "The Tracey Ullman Show" has become considerably more focused, less uneven. With its weekly barrage of sketches and vignettes each Sunday at 9 p.m., the "skitcom" still has about it a whiff of desperation; but that no longer detracts from the fact S. "if COMMENTARY Wiyf if- 4 that Tracey Ullman is the most imaginatively versatile performer to come down the electronic pike of American television since Sid Caesar. It is hardly by chance that a recent guest on the show was Mel Brooks, said to be marking his first television performance in nearly 30 years.

As a comedy writer, Brooks helped create "Your Show of Shows" around Caesar in the 1950s. Appearing with Ullman, he played a has-been Hollywood producer named Harry "Buzz" Schlanger, complaining that he had fallen out of "the box-office loop." She was Miranda Kenton, the big-name star he wanted for his next film, sdmething about a migrant farmer married to a drug dealer. "I never begged in my life," swore Buzz, failing shamelessly to his knees. In the end, Buzz prevailed, happily explaining, "Whether they're big or small, they allivpnt the same thing a ridiculous little man they can control." Brooks later said that the experience reminded him of "Your Show of Snows," generating what he felt was "the same kind of vibrant energy." Ullman, 30, cannot be neatly categorized. That's what makes her special in a medium notoriously wary of the unpredictable.

Clearly she owes a bit here and there to the influences of other television comedians, most notably Carol Burnett, Lily Tomlin and Gilda Radner. Yet, she continues to evolve in her own distinctive directions, which have more to do with social satire than with either stand-up or traditional sketch comedy. Interestingly, she says she especially admires the work of Gracie Allen and Jean Stapleton, best known as comic actresses. Despite her almost unnerving facility for a wide range Tracey Ullman of American accents, Ullman has a distinctively British sense of humor, which is reasonable enough considering her early years in everything from London's West End musicals to BBC sitcoms. Two of her performing colleagues over there were Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders who, in their own later BBC show, "French Saunders," apply a similar brand of wackiness to a large repertory of offbeat but perfectly recognizable characters.

Determined to make a name and a lot more money on this side of the Atlantic, Ullman has had the good fortune to enter into a collaboration with Brooks and his Gracie Films, which has produced such hits as "Broadcast News," "Big," "War of the Roses" and now TV "Simpsons," the animation spinoff from the Ullman show. And, not least, Ullman has been given a remarkably gifted supporting cast, the regulars including Julie Kav-ner, Dan Castellaneta and Sam McMurray. With resources like that, Ullman is clearly making tne most of the freedom to be herself and dozens of other wonderful characters on what has become one of the most original and wickedly hilarious half-hours on Jane Pauley Pauley special on NBC explores life's 'Changes' By JAY BOBBIN Tribune Mrflo ServlcM Given her recent history, no one is likely to dispute Jane Pauley's role as host of an NBC special titled "Changes." After 13 years as co-host of "Today," Pauley resurfaces Tuesday at 9 p.m. with her first prime-time project since her departure from the sunrise beat. The special is on a topic she knows well these days how people are affected by the changes in their lives.

The guest list is an interesting blend of widely known and not-so-widely known people: Comedian Louie Anderson, who is vowing not to exploit his dark personal past for laughs anymore. Jazz saxophonist Frank Morgan, who is experiencing renewed musical popularity after a three-decade prison term that resulted from his heroin addiction. Rebecca Argabright, an Idaho woman who has overcome a deeply troubled adolescence to find relative peace in her adult life. Nancy and Bert Schroeder, who abandoned their comfortable suburban existence near Chicago to live and work in a shelter for the homeless. Three of the four "Changes" segments actually are updates of reports in which Pauley had some degree of involvement.

The best-known of these is Anderson. Pauley interviewed him last fall on "Today" about his book "Dear Dad," which is largely about the effects of his father's bout with alcoholism on Louie's life. "Everything is different for him now," says Pauley. "He tells us in the interview that the family humor, which has been is signature, is done. He's writing another book, about being fat in America, and he's going to try to lose weight.

He recognizes that his father's drinking problem and his own eating problem are comparable, and he's starting over, in the hope of becoming healthy." The Argabright profile follows a 1982 "Today" examination of Tough-love, in which Rebecca and her parents illustrated the movement that advises the use of harsh measures in dealing with relentlessly disobedient children. "They were an ordinary family with a particularly attractive teen-age daughter who had been doing well in school," Pauley recalls, "then overnight, shejustwentoutofcontrolinpotentiallylife-threateningways. "She was an accident waiting to happen, but her parents discovered Toughlove, which became a theme of the '80s. That's one of the reasons I was interested in this story. It was so different from the others, which are about individuals at transition points right now.

This family gave us an opportunity to go back and ask, 'How was the process of Pauley says her first exposure to Frank Morgan was his appearance on "Today" about six or seven months ago. "It wasn't a long interview, but just long enough for me to remember that this brilliant saxophonist had been in prison for 30 years, and he played beautifully. "Last December, I was flying to Los Angeles on business and I got to New 'Avonlea' recalls 'Green Gables COMMENTARY By STEVE McKERROW altlmor Evanlre Sun The new weekly series, "Avonlea," on cable's Disney Channel (Mondays at 7 p.m.) offers the same escape to a place and time far removed from the here and now as the charming "Anne of Green Gables," "Anne of Avonlea" and "Lantern Hill," previously seen on Disney or public TV. Author Lucy Maude Montgomery J. could not have imagined that her simple yet human tales about turn-of-the-century life on Canada's Prince Edward Island might be captivating fu talking to a man who said he was a talent manager.

He said that one of his clients had been on and he asked, 'Do you remember Frank Mor Stanley (Sarah Polley), who comes to the island village to live with her dead mother's relatives while her Montreal father struggles with a financial crisis at home. Some of the settings and characters overlap with the "Anne of Avonlea" miniseries. Even Colleen Dewhurst, of the "Green Gables" series, is due to appear in a future episode as Marilla Cuthbert. Some viewers will recognize young Polley as the actress who played the title role in the Canadian series, "Ramona" (now seen on many PBS stations), as well as Jody the plucky scullery girl in the recent Disney Channel film, "Lantern Hill." As with other Sullivan-Montgomery works, the mounting and photography are lush; the stories are captivating yet ring true especially the subtle tensions between adults within a family. ture generations on television, but she probably would approve of their I said, Of course, I do, and he said, well, Frank doing a concert next week at Bells started going off in my head, and right then, I knew we had to have him (for 'Changes')." Pauley says she came upon the Schroeders story "by making phone gentle handling.

sarah Kevin Sullivan, who adapted the polliy "Anne of Green Gables" stories to TV, is the producer of the new series which premiered March 5. Disney executives are calling one of the key anchors of their prime time schedule. The central character of this story is a young girl, Sara calls to obvious places, like charitable organizations, and asking if they were aware of any interesting situations. There was no shortage of them, but the Schroeders were particularly dramatic." 4-TV Des Moines Sunday Ragisiw MwsMl, IWft.