The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 25

The Beacon Journal C7 Monday, March 20, 1989 TELEVISION hows like 4Live-In9 give sitcoms a bad name HOW did SitCOm the TV aana fnr sitcom slum in front of the hmirv npnt- Mark City Dawidziak TjlTS 1 I i "4 j. their farm. They believe it is the healthiest environment in which to raise their three children: 16-year-old Johnny (Jason Kristofer), who dreams of living in Malibu; 12-year-old Gus (junior John Candy look-alike Devin Ratray) and an adopted Asian daughter, Kim (Keith's daughter Daisy Keith). B.L. and Tom are sort of a Midwest reworking of bigoted Archie and son-in-law Mike, except it's the older member of the bickering team who is financially dependent.

Forced to live on someone else's farm, B.L. is full of stories and vinegar. Tonight's 8:30 opener gets some laughs from an impending tornado. Although Keith is enough of a pro to milk some laughs from the uneven material, Heartland will have to cultivate a better crop of writers and harvest stronger scripts. Following Live-In, though, it' at least seems to plow in better directions.

Mark Dawidziak is the Beacon Journal's television writer. situation comedy become a derogatory term? Well, series like Live-In had a great deal to do with it. Every icky element suggested by the sitcom designation can be found in Live-'In, a vacuous and artificial comedy that makes the assaulted viewer yearn for the return of I Married Dora and Raising Miranda. How bad is it? Let's just say you expect McLean Stevenson to show up any minute. The first of two series CBS will premiere tonight, Live-In takes characters from the sitcom cookie-cutter pattern, puts them in a trite plot and fills their mouths with unfunny one-liners.

If you simply must subject yourself to this putrid premiere, try WJW (Channel 8), WKBN (Channel 27) or Wheeling's WTRF (Channel 7) at 8. How's this for an original idea? Lisa Wells (model Lisa Patrick) is a shapely all pair who moves from her native Australia to help a New Jersey couple with two teen-age sons and an infant daughter. The older son, Danny (Chris Young), Lisa Patrick house properties clustered at CBS' Monday corner. Since both are employed, Ed and Sarah Mathews (Hugh Maguire and Kimber-ly Farr) hire young Lisa to care for baby Melissa. Expecting a "bowser," Danny is delightfully surprised by the new live-in's model appearance.

So, of course, he and his best friend, Gator (Lightfield Lewis), set out on a mission to see Lisa out of uniform. How awe-inspiring it is to think that we're still feeling the cultural impact of Porky's, Private Lessons and My Tutor. What we; have here is a failure to commingle. by executive producers Robert $ternin and Prudence Fraser, Live-In is a jioxious attempt to blend that juvenile gerire of film with formula sitcom writing. The mixture alms low and lands even lower.

CBS is doing to viewers what the mischievous spirit did to Bill Murray in Ghostbusters. Watch Live-In and you'll be excused for echoing the comedian's famous line, "He slimed me." Brian Keith assumes that the live-in housekeeper and nanny is there, in the words of a CBS press release, "to fulfill his adolescent fantasies." After being worn out as the plot device for countless bad teen-oriented theater films, this sorry premise becomes the basis for a bad television series. And to think that CBS has put this malodorous mess on the same lineup within whiffing distance of Murphy Brown, Designing Women and Newhart. It would have been nice if the last-place network had opted to keep such trash away from its most attractive stretch of prime-time comedy real estate. Putting Live-In at 8 is tossing a The series debuting after Live-In is better, yet just about anything would be.

Heartland stars Brian Keith (Family Affair, Hardcastle McCormick) as a Nebraska version of Archie Bunker. B.L. McCutcheon lost none of his bite when he lost his farm. He lives with his daughter Casey (Kathleen Layman) and her husband, Tom Stafford (Richard Gillian, who plays Mary Jo's boyfriend J.D. on Designing Women).

The Staffords are struggling to keep SERIES PREMIERES MOVIES 8:00 p.m. ESQ Live-In An Australian nanny (Lisa Patrick) works tor an can family. qj 8:30 p.m. EH Heartland A crotchety small-town bigot (Brian Keith) lives with his daughter and son-in-law, See Mark Dawidziak's column atop this page for previews of Live-In and DAYTIME tJ News NBC News Win, Lose Fam. Feud ALF jHogans "Desperado: Avalanche at Devil's News The Tonight Show Late Night B.

Costas I News ABC News Fortune Jeopardy! MacGyver The Women of Brewster Place (Part 2 of 2) News Entertain. Nightline "The Rose" (1979) QlNews CBS News USA Tod. Live-In Heartland M. Brown Designing Newhart KateAllie News Taxi Jeffersons Benson Arsenio Hall 1 0 Praise the Lord TBN Today L. Tripp Week in Review Praise the Lord TBN Today Pino I CD jHappy Day" FactsLife A.

Griffith Spoons Simon i Simon "The Return oi ttw Secaucus 7" (1980) G'd Times Soap Newhart OddC'ple Hogan Speaking 6DNews NBC News USA Tod. Win, Lose ALF Hogans "Desperado: Avalanche at Devil's Ridge" News The Tonight Show Late Night B. Costas News ABC News Rockford Files MacGyver The Women of Brewster Place (Part 2 of 2) News Nightline The 700 Club "Love of Martha tvera" ISquare 1 MacNeilLehrer News Business War Peace The Congress Mediscene MotoW'k MacNeilLehrer News Off the Air 6QNews CBS News Cosby Cheers Time to Care M.Brown Designing Newhart KateAllie News The Pat Sajak Show M'A'S'H 3's Comp. SDlNews ABC News Fortune Jeopardy! MacGyver The Women o( Brewster Place (Part 2 of 2) News Nightline Entertain. CNN News (1:05) Off the Air C9 Family Ties Night C'rt Cosby Cheers "Someone's Watching Mel" (t978) News Sanford AllFamily Morton Downey Jr.

News CD Cooking Madeleine MacNeilLehrer News War Peace The Congress CAG.E. European EastEnder Off the Air StreetsSan Francisco The Untouchables "Busier and We" (1974) Paid Prog" 90 9 Club Paid Prog. "Summer Holiday" (1948) Shopping GBMagnum, p.i. KateAllie jWKRP "Eddie Macon's Run" (1983) CNN News Wrestling Mayberry The Pat Sajak Show Night Heat WfiW FactsLife jWKRP Cheers Night C'rt "Ttw Witd life" (1964) (Chnsloptwr Penn) News USA Ton. Honeym'n Hill Street Blues "Gymkaia" (1985) DffllOII Matt Houston Cosby KateAllie "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (Part 2) News Benny Hill Morton Downey Jr.

Arsenio Hall J. Franklin WTBS Alice One Day A. Griffith Sanford (8:05) "Spartacus" (1960 (Kirk Douglas, Laurence Pinter) (11:50) National Geographic Explorer "R'becca" UI Profiles 20th Cent. Chronicle Survival Boat From Surabaya Our Century Shortstories Evening at the Improv Boat From Surabaya Our Century IMC (5:00) "Jane Eyre" "Rernartabte Mr. fnypacker" "Jane Eyre" (1944) (Joan Fontaine) "Remar1(abte Mr.

Pennypackef" "Jane Eyre" (1944) (Joan Fontaine) BET Soft Notes Video LP Tell Me Black Showcase Video Soul: Roberta Flack Soft Notes Black Showcase Video Soul till Bonanza Our House "Peace for a Gunflghtar" (1965) The 700 Club Remington Steele "Peace for a Gunflghtef" (1965 "tltte mf (PG 1988) (Sidney Portier) "King Kong" (PQ, 1976) (Jell fridges) (10:15) "Stripper" (fl, 1985) "Sahwtiar" (R, 1986) "Loves" CIN Newsw'tch Showbiz Moneyline Crossfire Primenews Larry King Live! Evening News Moneyline pports NewsNight Crossfire News DISC The 1930s Camera Monitor Power NewAnim. Nai'iralist Orphans Chronicles East Africa Wilderness Body Earthfile A Planet lor the Taking Monitor Into India DSWY "Hambone awl Hie" (PG) Boomer Cropp Fanlly's Alburn "Casanova's Big Night' Animals Ozzie Return to Treasure Is. Return to Treasure Is. Herbie ESPN Tractor jsprtsL'k SSprtsCtr CoHege Basketball: NAIA Tournament Live) iSprtsCtr. Figure Skating: Starson lce(R) jGolf fMll IRS Tax Wall Street America's Business Money Talks Business Tonight focus Money Talks TELSHOP HBO "The 1987) "Night In Life of Jimmy Reardon" "Dead Man Out" (1989) Oneight "Broadcast News" (R, 1S87) "King" 81 Great Chef Taste Converse, congress Practical Universe Encounter French USA Ton.

GED Ask Washington Education Today Practical Financial Uf E.R. Easy St. Spenser: For Hire M. Dodd M. Dodd "First Steps" (1985) (Judd Hirsch) Spenser: For Hire LadyDlue Self-Improvement "Black Widow" (R, 1987) (Detya Winger) Satisfaction" (PS-tj 1988) (9:35) "Compromising Positions" (R) "Night In lie of Jimmy Reardon" Film Shorts HSU Magazine New C'try Fandango Nashville Now i Holiday Gourmet NewC'try Be a Star Magazine Nashville Now VideoC'try HICK Finders D'ble Dare Gadget Looney Mr.

Ed Patty Duke My 3 Sons D. Reed Sat. Night SCTV Laugh-In Car 54 Daddy Mr. Ed Patty Duke Sat. Night PBOT Off the Air Interviews Comedy "Lassiler" (R, 1984) (Tom Seteck "Preppies" (R, 1984) (Dennis Drake) Interviews comedy PTl Search Sumrall M.

Hickey j. Robison Camp Meeting, U.S.A. Heritage Today Richard Roberts Larry Allen This Is Life Fletchers j. Robison Heritage Today SHOI "pes Set" f1957) (Spertcer Tracy) Aspen Comedy "Good Morning, Vieinam" (R, 1987) "Moscow on the Hudson" (R 1984) MarvinGaye IK! Muppets jBugs Bunny Fraggle Rk "King's Row (Cdor)" (11? Shertdarrt "Beyoml the Forest" "Satan Met a Lady" Vacation Pert. Trip Undersea Bargains Travelview Outdoor Travel Pert.

Trip Bargains Almanac of Travel Travel Undersea Travelview Per). Trip Bargains USA She-Ra Cartoon Miami Vice Murder, She Wrote WWF PrimeTime Wrestling Miami Vice "Murder" (Part 1) SrchTom. Paid Prog" 8:00 a.m. UJ "My Fair Lady" (1964) Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison. Professor Higgins bets he can refine cockney Eliza Doolittle.

Oscars for best picture, director George Cukor and actor Harrison. 9:00 a.m. IDSKTI it "Bugs Bunny Superstar" (1975) Orson Welles narrates nine cartoons including My Favorite Duck and Taw a Putty Tat. Animated. 10:00 a.m.

CM "The Scoundrel" (1935) Noel Coward, Julie Haydon. A publisher killed in a plane crash returns to find anyone who mourns his passing. 10:05 a.m. En "The Dollmaker" (1984) Jane Fonda, Levon Helm. A Kentucky mountain woman follows her mechanic husband to World War II Detroit, where she raises a family in factory housing and carves dolls out of wood.

10:30 a.m. prj "Roman Holiday" (1953) Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn. A princess runs off with a newsman in Rome. Best actress Oscar for Hepburn. 1 1 :00 a.m.

OCT "Jungle Book" (1942) Sa-bu, Joseph Calleia. Kipling's boy hero Mowgli, lost in the jungle, is raised by wolves and can talk to animals. Noon GB "Barbarosa" (1982) Willie Nelson, Gary Busey. A runaway farm boy roams Texas with a legendary outlaw being hunted by a Mexican over a family feud. 1:00 p.m.

prj "The Tin Star" (1957) Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins. An ex-lawman bounty hunter shows a tenderfoot sheriff how to tame a town. 2:00 p.m. "Twelve O'Clock High" (1949) Gregory Peck, Dean Jagger. An Allied flight commander and his successor run daylight bombing raids.

Best supporting Oscar for Jagger. 2:30 p.m. tl "The Ox-Bow Incident" (1943) Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews. Two cowboys watch a posse get out of hand and hang three innocent men. 4:00 p.m.

Ml "The Captive Heart" (1947) Michael Redgrave. A fleeing Czech captain assumes a dead British officer's identity. 5:00 p.m. HO "Jane Eyre" (1944) Joan Fontaine, Orson Welles. Charlotte Bronte's Gothic heroine loves her moody employer, whose mad wife lives in the attic.

6:00 p.m. DAWIDZIAK'S BEST BETS return April 2 move by ABC 7:00 a.m. FD EH Today Offbeat foods; musician Willie Dixon. (TV Stereo) SO Good Morning America June Allyson; food safety; celebrities' rights to privacy; David Horowitz and Peter Collier, co-authors of live Generations; Peter Horton; seismologists are sure an earthquake will strike a certain California park. 9 OfQWBThls Morning The threatened drought's effects; attorney William Kuntsler, Gregory Johnson and Dread Scott Tyler, principals In the Texas vs.

Johnson censorship case; Max von Sydow; a Hollywood school for acting In commercials. 8:00 a.m. Morning Exchange Dinnerware ex- pert; spring fashions. PH Regie Phllbln Nightclub performer Michael Feinstein; comedian Ritchie Gold; actors John and Sandy Gabriel; Rachel McLish; author Dominick Dunne. 9:00 a.m.

AM Cleveland Soap-opera update; vacations. Sally Jeaay Raphael Hope for the hopeless. 3) Regie a Kathle Lee Jason Gedrick (Rooftops). Home Teen-agers produce a video telling children about AIDS; remembering speeches; Jeff McGregor The Dating Came); junkyard car parts. EE Donahue The "Mommy Track" women and careers.

10:00 a.m. Regie a Kathle UeSee 9:00 a.m. 10:30 a.m. IMTTI Newt Portage Lakes area. 11:00 a.m.

Home Sandy Duncan; women with careers having children; weddings for under eating right while traveling; pizza chicken. 11:30 a.m. Crook a Chase Barbara Eden; Tab Hunter. (TV Stereo) Noon 0 Q) E53 Super Password Betty White; Christopher Hewett. ItHUl Sonya Live In L.A.

Esther Williams; Academy Award-nominee Max Von Sydow; Tracy Wells (Mr. Belvedere) discusses dealing with a parent's 1 death; preparing children for hospital I stays. News Northern Summit and Portage Counties. 1 1:00 p.m. rjHI College Baseball Georgia Tech at Wichita State.

3:30 p.m. WOT Crook a Chase See 1 1:30 a.m. 4:00 p.m. 3) ESQ Oprah Winfrey Tightwads and'pack rats." 9 Geraldo Drugging of the elderly. 5:00 p.m.

1 Live on Five Sammy Davis Jr. Donahue See 9:00 a.m. Donahue Wedding disasters. 5:30 p.m. A Current Affair Convicted murderer, businessman Joseph Pikul.

IBTT1 News Portage Lakes area. DJ) News Northern Summit and Portage Counties, i p.m. ESQ Murphy Brown Determined to prove that looks aren't everything, Murphy (Candice Bergen) dates a brilliant physicist (writeractor Buck Henry), even though the F.Y.I. gang is certain that the combination of their dynam (J ic anchor and this neroy scientist will not be a formula for romance. CBS.

9:30 p.m. OSJED Designing Women A psychic helps Mary Jo (Annie Potts) sort out her feelings when J.D. (Richard Gilliland) loses his job and moves in with her. CBS. 9 10 p.m.

fflfalTO) "Desk Set" (1957) Spenr cer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn. A TV- i i Newhart Henry While down-and-out Michael (Peter Scolarl) is working on the streets as a mime, Stephanie (Julia Duffy) is dating a handsome millionaire (guest star Alex Hyde-White), who makes Dick (Bob Newhart) and Joanna (Mary Frann) a lucrative offer for the Stratford Inn. CBS. Mark Dawidziak Is the Beacon Journal's television writer. Taylor Guillaume 'Moonlighting' may be deadly From staff and wire reports ABC will return Moonlighting to its schedule April 2, in the killer 8-9 p.m.

Sunday time slot opposite CBS' ninth-ranked Murder, She Wrote and NBC's 36th-ranked Family Ties. The Bruce WillisCy-bill Shepherd series, plagued for years with late episodes that forced repeats upon ABC, was pulled from the Tuesday lineup in February. Moonlighting went from 11th last season to 27th this season in the Nielsen rankings. Without Moonlighting, ABC's Tuesday schedule soared in the ratings. ABC will premiere The Robert Guil-laume Show, which casts the former Benson star as a black divorced marriage counselor who becomes romantically involved with his white secretary, on April 5 in the 9:30 p.m.

Wednesday slot occupied by John RItter's Hooperman, which will return to the schedule later in the season. It wasn't her four-month pregnancy that made Loving's Lauren Marie Taylor nauseous when she spent 12 hours shooting a Pizza Hut commercial. After being a vegetarian for 10 years, looking at the peppero-ni and sausage on the pizza all day made her queasy. Taylor's pregnancy will be written into the Loving script. Jake and the Fatman, switched to a Hawaii setting, had its best-ever Nielsen rating for its return to CBS' schedule last Wednesday.

CBS had its best Wednesday ratings average for regular series programming (Lonesome Dove, No. 14 on the all-time miniseries rankings, gave CBS better numbers, of course). NBC still won the night, but CBS beat ABC, which got anemic ratings from China Beach's critically acclaimed mixture of series and documen- SYMBOLS GUIDE network researcher humors an efficiency expert who thinks her department needs an electronic brain. 8:00 p.m. 0 "Someone's Watching Me!" (1978) Lauren Hutton, David Birney, A TV news director cannot get police protection from an unknown man harassing her from a nearby high-rise.

8:05 p.m. HfR "Spartacus" (1960) Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier. A gladiator slave leads a revolt In decadent Rome. Oscar for best supporting actor Peter Ustinov. 8:30 p.m.

HfflCl "Jane Evre" See 5:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m. "Desperado: Avalanche at Devil's Ridge" (1988) Alex McArthur, Rod Steiger. Framed drifter can escape hanging by saving a saltmine owner's abducted daughter. "The Return of the Secaucus 7" (1980) JohnSayles.

Seven former student activists reunite for a weekend of soul-searching, nostalgia and skinny-dipping in the country. HtH "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987) Robin Williams, Forest Whi-taker. Kooky Airman Adrian Cronauer wakes up 1965 Saigon as disc jockey on Armed Forces Radio. 11:00 p.m. IHHTOl "The Assault" (1986) Derek de Lint.

A Dutch boy sees his parents shot by Nazis, becomes a doctor and seeks the truth. Oscar for best foreign-language film. tary that used real-life nurses, Red Cross volunteers and USO entertainers who were in Vietnam. Mark Arnold, who plays Gavin on One Life to Live, will leave the daytime serial permanently later this month to do a movie in Hong Kong. Saturday Night Live's Dennis Miller wrote, produced and appeared in more than 100 humorous essays for the syndicated PM Magazine show in his native Pittsburgh and hosted a Saturday morning show aimed at teen-agers.

Mike Farreli (MASH) will star in The Smell of Money, a movie that will be made for Turner Network Television, the new cable service usually called TNT. Farreli will play a man whose daughter dies from a toxic waste dump. National Basketball Association ratings this season are up 11 percent over last season on CBS but down 25 percent on Atlanta superstation WTBS. Iffl Learning Channel Effl Lifetime Hfl Movie Channel E3 Music Television HI Nashville Network HB Nickelodeon ED Nostalgia Channel BBE3 Playboy Channel ED People That Love PH Showtime ESSSportsChannel America Travel Channel IS USA Network HI Video Hits-One Efl Warner Akron cable position 7 113 Warner Canton position 14 ED Adelphia position 9 Ell Clear Picture pos. 9 ED Marks position 1 1 Closed captioned for pi Chicago pSQ New York Ell Atlanta BHflSteubenville BEE Wheeling QEl Arts 8.

Entertainment Network QMS American Movie Classics ETJ Black Entertain- ment Television DH Bravo B3S CBN Network ETJQ Cinemax ED Cable News Network ESQ C-SPAN (Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network) IPfE Discovery Channel 133 Disney Channel EES (Sports) OH Financial News Network EMI Home Box Office EVENING 6:00 p.m., mm Tonight's Play List Poison: Your Mama Don't Dance; New Kids on the Block: You Got It (The Right Stuff); Was (Not Was) Walk the Dinosaur. 6:30 p.m. ITO New Country Robin Lee (This Old Flame). (TV Stereo) 7:30 p.m. CT College Basketball NIT.

Second-- Round: Penn State at Villanova. BSD Crook a Chase Barbara Eden; Tab Hunter. (TV Stereo) ECTCTl NBA Basketball Washington Bui- lets at Cleveland Cavaliers. 8:00 P.M. (8) LIVE-IN Premiere! Sexy new comedy from the land down under! 8:30 p.m.

S) BUI The Hogan Family David moves into Burt and Rich's bachelor pad. (TV Stereo) grSTJ Heartland See Premieres. 9:00 P.M. (25) AMERITECH Presents 'The Congress' on PBS CTl College Basketball NAIA Tournament, Championship Game. From Kansas City, Mo.

10:00 p.m. QJ ESQ Newhart See Dawidziak's Best Bets. 10:30 p.m. 52 ESD Kate Allle Allie discovers a condom in Chip's pocket after he returns from a ski trip. tp Medl-scene Dr.

Dardick with medical advice for the traveler; the metro trauma care network. 11:30 p.m. 3) EE The Tonight Show Guest host: Jay Leno. GueJ: pool trick- shooter Gene Catron. (TV Stereo) GD ESQ The Pat Sajak Show Marsha Warfield (Night Court); Dixie Carter (Designing Women); humprist Roy Blount Donald O'Connor; Midnight 0 Morton Downey Jr.

Racism on college campuses. Guest: the Rev; Al Sharpton. 12:30 a.m. 31 ESS Night Film-maker John Waters; Mary Gross; marksman Lt. Joe Walsh.

Repeat. (TV Stereo) Arsenio Hall Entertainment Tonight reporter Clint Holmes; Buffalo Bob Smith; TraceyGold; Savion Glover. slanders Lorraine and Theresa. (Part 2 of 2) (TV Stereo) 9 ffl ESQ Murphy Brown See Dawidziak's Best Bets. CD The Congress Film-maker Ken Burns uses Interviews, diary entries and cinematography to explore the 200-year evolution of Congress and the growing significance of the Capitol.

9 sm Soldier's Home A World War I soldier returns to civilian lite. With Richard Backus, Nancy Marchand. Based on Ernest Hemingway's story. 9:30 p.m. E3D Designing Women See Dawidziak's Best Bets.

MacGyver An incident with crack dealers in his hometown causes MacGyver to relive a shooting episode from his youth. Repeat. (TV Stereo) 9 fl IWTffl 17ir-fttSee Premieres Q) Time to Can Dionne Warwick profiles Americans who take the time to make a difference In other's lives. USB Nashville Now Keith Whitley; Florence Henderson; the Thrasher Brothers. (TV Stereo) 8:30 P.M.

(8) GREAT NEW COMEDY! HEARTLAND Premieres Enjoy the Funny Farm. A 9:00 p.m. BffitQThe Women of Brewster Place Gene and Ciel's reconciliation piques Mattie's suspicion; Kiswana helps the tenants, leading to a confrontation with her motherj Sophia 8:00 p.m. 81 EH ALF Willie buvs ALF an ant farm, then the ants die. (TV Stereo).