Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 26

C8 THE HARTFORD COURANT: Friday, July 1, 1994 TELEVISION FRIDAY Murder mysteries on CBS; 'Against the Grain' returns I I P.M. 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 GDWC8S(C8S) News CBS News Hard Copy Entertain. Diagnosis Murder Burke's Law Picket Fences News Late Show WG8H (PBS) MacNell Lehrer News TGIF Served? Wash'ton wall Street Surviving surviving Artist Ms. Toliver Served? C. Rose QUffSB (CSS) News CBS News Inside Edit.

Entertain. Diagnosis Murder Burke's Law Picket Fences News Late Show GSWNBC(NBC) News NBC News Cops Love Con. Against the Grain: Pilot Movie: "Babies" News Wimbledon QWBZ (NBC) News NBC News Entertain. Against the Grain: Pilot Movie: "Babies" News Wimbledon g) WWW (Fox) Roseanne Roseanne Rescue Current Encounters: Hidden The X-Files News Gold. Girls Ngt.

Court WCVBQBC) News ABC News Chronicle Family Boy World StepStep Mr. Cooper 2020 News NIghtllne WINE (CBS) News CBS News Baseball: Oakland A's at Boston Red Sox Picket Fences News Late Show (T) WABC(ABC) News ABC News Jeopardyl Wheel Family Boy World StepStep Mr. Cooper 2020 News NIghtllne WHOM (CBS) News CBS News Wheel Jeopardyl Diagnosis Murder Burke's Law Picket Fences News Late Show QWTNH (ABC) News ABC News Jeopardy! Wheel Family Boy World StepStep Mr. Cooper 2020 News Nkjhttine WWORflnd.) Cosby Emp. Nest Married Married Celebrate the Soul of American Music News Patrol Premier CD WJAR (NBC) News NBC News Hard Copy Entertain.

Against the Grain: Pilot 1 Movie: "Babies" News Wimbledon 01 WPIX (Ind.) Growing Growing Family Dlff. World Movie: "Bandit: Beauty and the Bandit" News Cheers Murphy 03 WPftl (ABC) News ABC News Wheel Jeopardyl Family Boy World StepStep Mr. Cooper 2020 News Nightllne WNET (PBS) News Business MacNell Lehrer News Wash'ton Wall Street Firing Line Debate Charlie Rose 09 WI38F(M.) Vier. Cul. Noticlero Tres Destinos Ocurrio Asl de Noche Teieglorn.

TuttlaCasa For the Love of 63 WTXX (Ind.) Sonic Jetsons Classic Club Classic Club In the Heat of the Night News Designing News Auto Guide 63 WWLP(NBC) News NBC News Wheel jeopardyl Against the Grain: Pilot Movie: "Babies" News Wlmbledon 63 WEDH (PBS) My Boy Business MacNell Lehrer News Wash'ton wall Street Firing Line Debate Charlie Rose 63 WTWS flnd.) CNN News Rescue StreetsSan Francisco Wrestling Spotlight Wrestling Challenge Newhart CNN News Paid Prog. Paid Prog. 63 WYTT (NBC) News NBC News Baseball: Oakland A's at Boston Red Sox Hard Copy Against the Grain: Pilot News Wimbledon S3 WSBE (PBS) Barney ITN News Business For '90s Wash'ton Wall Street Capital City VanderValk Off the Air 63 WS8K (Ind.) Blackout Coach Baseball: Oakland A's at Boston Red Sox News Blackout Patrol EE) WGG8 (ABC) News Baseball: Oakland A's at Boston Red Sox TBA 2020 News Nlghtllne CDWtDW(PBS) My Boy Business MacNell Lehrer News Wash'ton Wall Street Firing Line Debate Charlie Rose SBWEDN(PBS) My Boy Business MacNell Lehrer News Wash'ton Wall Street Firing Line Debate Charlie Rose 6BWIYI (hd.) Full House The Boss? Star Trek: Generation Movie: "Heartsounds" I News Star Trek: Catspaw CD WGBY (PBS) Sandiego? Business MacNell Lehrer News Wash'ton wall Street Firing Line Debate Charlie Rose Q) WTK (Fox) Full House Love Con. Roseanne Murphy Encounters: Hidden The X-Files News Murphy MASH Trek: Next P.M. I 6:00 6:30 I 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 I 10:00 10:30 I 11:00 I 11:30 Rockford Files In Search Of Biography Investigative Reports Ancient Mysteries Evening at the Improv AMC "Slender Thread" Movie: "My Cousin Rachel" Movie: "Detective Story" Movie BET Rap City News Sanford Out All Nt.

Happening comicvlew Video Soul Out All Nt. News BRAV Movie: "Tom Jones" Max Headroom: Deities Movie: "The Learning Tree" Movie: "Wanda" CNBC Business Business Portfolio Money D. Cavett Equal Time Rivera Live Tom Snyder Personal Equal Time CNN The World Today Moneyllne Crossfire PrlmeNews Larry King Live World News Sports Moneyline DISC Pet Conn. MacMutley Beyond 2000 Wildlife Nature Survival Who Dare War Wildlife Nature MSN "Hobbit" Movie: "The Return of the King" "Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" Fllntstones Movie: "Stand and Deliver" ENCORE Movie: "Going Home" Movie: "The Happening" Movie: "The Marriage-Go-Round" Movie: "Skyjacked" ESPN Golf: U.S. Senior Open SportsCtr.

Superbouts Boxing: Marty Jakubowski vs. Anthony Boyle Baseball SportsCenter FAM Rin Tin Tin New Lass." The Waltons Movie: "The Ballad of Josle" The 700 Club Bonanza HBO Tennis wimbledon Movie: "Tiger Claws" Movie: "Martial Law 2: Undercover' TalesCrypl L. Sanders LC Homebody Furniture Your HomeHometime" Amazing Ama2ing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing UFE Sweep ShopDrop China Beach Unsolved Mysteries Movie: "Clara's Heart" Girls Night MAX Movie: "Rocky II" Movie: "Watch It" Movie: "Boiling Point" Movie MSG This Week in NASCAR Baseball: Seattle Mariners at New York Yankees Sports Innervlew NESN Innerview Red Sox NHL Hockey: Bruins Summer Cooler: Fla. Panthers Boston College Hockey: 1990 Beanpot BU vs. Harvard NICK Looney Looney Doug Muppets Jeannie Bewitched" Love Lucy Newhart M.T.

MooreM.T. Moorejvan Dyke Get Smart PLAY Off the Air Hot Rocks Fantasies Fantasies Movie: "Les Femmes Erotiques" SC Futbol Thor'bred NewSport Prime Cuts Boat Racing Drag Racing Baseball: New York Mets at San Diego Padres SHO Movie: "Opportunity Knocks" Slickers II Movie: "Body Bags" Movie: "Animal Instincts" "Prince of the Sun" SPICE Movie: "Malibu Blue" Movie: "Black Tie Affair" Movie: "Booty In the House" Movie: "Fingers" TBS Growing Griffith Hillbillies Baseball: Atlanta Braves at Florida Marlins WCW Clash of Champions TMC Movie: "Mississippi Masala" Movie: "Working Girl" Movle: "Sketch Artist" Movie TNN VideoPM ciub Dance ctry News' Hot Country Nights Music City Tonight ciub Dance C'try News TNT Bugs Bunny's All-Stars Kung Fu Movie: "Gettysburg" (Part 2) Movie UH Soltero Noticiero Dos Mujeres, Camino Clarlsa Movie: "Su Herencla Era Matar" Noticiero Movie mmmm Spja Prob. Child Wings Wings Murder, She Wrote Movie: "Pump Up the Volume" By JON BURLINGAME United Feature Syndicate When in doubt, give 'em a good, old-fashioned murder mystery. That seems to be CBS's credo this season, considering the success of "Diagnosis Murder" (at 8) and "Burke's Law" (at 9). Both will be back next season (although "Burke's Law" is a backup series awaiting the failure of some other show).

Dick Van Dyke will hold on to fhe early-Friday slot with his "Diagnosis rder," from "Matlock" and "Perry Mason" producers Dean Hargrove and Fred Silverman. Tonight's "Diagnosis TV tonight Murder" episode features former "Dallas" star Ken Kercheval in a mystery about Mark's inheritance of a $13 million lottery ticket from a man dying of gunshot wounds. It originally was broadcast in December. "Burke's Law," Gene Barry's updated version of his lighthearted crime drama from the '60s, boasts another all-star cast in a rerun story about the murder of a talk-show host (Jack Carter) during a roast in his honor. Barry and his son Michael Lewis Barry wrote the script.

Among the suspects: the victim's wife (Rue McClanahan), his son (Corey Feldman), his sidekick (Gavin MacLeod), a comedian (Milton Berle), a Russian friend (Eva Gabor), a producer (Elliott Gould), a rival talk-show host (Ed McMahon), the rival's head writer (Tracy Scoggins), the victim's apparent mistress (Tori Spelling) and an acquaintance (Peter Scolari). "Against the Grain" returns (NBC at 8, Channel 30 at 10) with a repeat of the series pilot. Many critics liked this one-hour drama about a former football hero (John Terry) who, years later, takes a job as coach of his small-town Texas high-school team. His wife (Donna Bullock) enters the work force for the first time, and their 16-year-old son, a promising quarterback, faces pressure from both his teammates and his dad (who is now also his coach). The series, slotted opposite ABC's powerhouse Friday-night comedy lineup, failed to achieve the necessary ratings to stay on the air and was canceled at midseason despite pjeas of quality-TV proponents.

Other highlights As Wimbledon tennis heads into its final weekend, the men's semifinals are telecast (at 1 p.m., NBC; HBO at 5 p.m. Highlights of the day's play will be broadcast later (HBO at 7:30 p.m.; NBC at A new "Firing Line" (CPTV, Channel 24 in the Hartford area at 9) debates the proposition, "The Death Penalty Is a Good Thing." William F. Buckley Jr. hosts; panelists include former New York City Mayor Ed Koch (for the death penalty) and American Civil Liberties NBC Ben Affleck and John Terry In "Against the Grain" tonight at 8 on NBC. Union executive director Ira Glasser (against).

Lindsay Walker, Dinah Manoff and Marcy Walker star in "Babies" (NBC at 9 except Channel 30), a 1990 TV movie about three close friends who wrestle with pregnancy issues while their biological clocks tick away. HBO's controversial stand-up comedy series "Def Comedy Jam" returns (at midnight). The hourlong "Bad Girls of Def special spotlights comedians Edwonda White, Melanie Comacho, Chocolate, Laura Hayes and Angela Means; Adele Givens hosts. Cult choice Penny Marshall and Mary Kay Place guest on a 1975 episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (Nick at Nite at 10), in which Murray confesses to Mary that he has fallen in love with her. Series notes "Encounters: The Hidden Truth" (Fox at 8) probes cattle-mutilation incidents.

The rest are reruns Urkel cheers up the Wins-low family at Christmas on "Family Matters" (ABC at 8) Cory changes his hair style on "Boy Meets World" (ABC at Mulder and Scully investigate a faith healer on "The X-Files" (Fox at 9). Frank and Carol clash over attending church on "Step by "Step" (ABC at 9) Nicole demands a "divorce" from her mother on "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper" (ABC at 9:30) Carter asks Max for dating advice on "Picket Fences" (CBS at 10). Late night Scheduled guests: Singer Phil Collins is on "Late Show With David Letterman" (CBS at 11:35) Actress Kim Basinger, singer Kenny Rogers and Phoenix Suns player Charles Barkley appear on a "Tonight Show" rerun (NBC at 12:05 a.m.). Singer Bryan Adams and singer-guitarist Kenny Loggins perform on "In Concert" (ABC at 12:05 a.m.) Actor Andrew Shue and psychologist Dr.

Joyce Brothers are on a "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" repeat (NBC at 1:05 a.m., Channel 30 at 2:05 a.m.). For VCR Plus codes, detailed listings and complete cable programs, see TV Week in the Sunday Courant. For special sports programming and highlights, see today's Sports section. Outburst of praise for intestinal onomatopoeia I I I 5 I I I I Simplistic 'Go Fish' bores By MALCOLM JOHNSON Courant Film Critic 1 Jv-A A women buy more products in general. The last forbidden subject A warthog can do it, but can anyone say it? Beckwith recently tried to bring up the subject of flatulence on two radio talk shows and was told to hold it in.

This in an age when radio talk shows recount the severing and reattachment of John Bobbin's penis as though it were "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." "But you can't talk about gas," she says. "I told them the children listening at home were more sophisticated about this subject than they are." The other f-word appears in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Jonathan Swift, Benjamin Franklin and Ben Jonson, but it is currently not in decent use. Vexingly, there is no decent single-word verb to substitute for the unspeakable one. In 1 97, the New England Journal of Medicine carried a flurry of letters from doctors playfully arguing that the other f-word be admitted into the world of acceptable speech. One of the letter-writers was Worcester, Mass.

cardiologist Dr. David Spodick, who was moved more by a desire to execute a fairly leaden pun than by any real interest in the subject. But Spodick now concedes that the other f-word may have a useful role to play in more or less civilized discourse. "It's very expressive," he says. "And the fewer words you use the better.

And the shorter the words the better. Winston Churchill said that." Women talking about men's outbursts, however, can be a million laughs. Beckwith, who recently authored a cover story on men and flatulence for the newsletter, was dining with some women friends while doing her research. One woman mentioned an incident in which her husband broke wind in the middle of a cookie-buy from some Girl Scouts and then tried to blame his own son. The storyteller was mortified.

The other women were howling. Nebraska folklorist' Roger Welsch once speculated that the male fondness for flatulence harks back to "trumpeting" while jousting for pack dominance, but Barreca has a more commonplace explanation. "What it does is break down decorum," says Barreca. "It's the bad-boy impulse. Little girls are taught to be nice." So are girls missing out on a batch o' fun? "You know," Barreca says dryly, "there are those wonderful differences to be celebrated.

That difference could be celebrated at the same time the Three Stooges are celebrated. I don't think women would be breaking down the door to get into this fan club the way they do with Ivy League schools." In this debate, it may be significant that the makers of Beano, a potentially revolutionary product that takes gas out of legumes the way Mobil takes lead out of gas, say women account for roughly 70 percent of all sales, although some of that bulge represents the fact that i "i I i Fm )A---'vHm': Samuel Goldwyn Company Rose Troche, left, is director of "Go Fish," which stars V.S. Brodie as Ely, center, and Guinevere Turner as Max. Film review Continued from Page CI I sion or in a movie, you don't have to smell it. It's a little removed, so you can enjoy it more." No such protection was afforded to music hall fans of Le Petomane, the stage name of Joseph Pujol, a European sleight-of-sphincter artist at the turn of the century.

Le Petomane, best known for his performances at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, could use his unique propulsions to play the ocarina which seems right, somehow and to blow out a candle from 20 centimeters Some people, flabbergastingly, don't find flatus funny. Highbrow people. Certainly, a person such as the Hartford Stage Company's artistic director Mark Lamos, an ac-' Claimed interpreter of Ibsen and Shakespeare, would not find flatulence funny. "I hate to admit it, but I do," says Lamos, moments before erupting in a fit of laughter that will never completely subside during the entire in-. terview.

"I even added it to a comedy I directed years ago, a Feydeau farce called 'A Flea In Her Ear', he says. For the production, at the Arizona Theater Company, Lamos discovered a woman in his troupe who could make a fabulous Mat from offstage. So fabulous, in fact, that the bit had to be dropped because the audience never laughed, having apparently concluded that one of the actors was in actual gastric distress, says Lamos. "I just think it's a funny sound," says Lamos, trying heroically to fight off more hysterics. "The aftereffect is definitely not funny.

But the sound think of whoopie cushions. Think of yourself in eighth grade." But it's a guy thing, right? Most women don't think it's funny, right? "I think that's true," says Lamos. "Unless they talk about it when they're apart from us. Do you think they do?" What women want not They do. And they don't.

Don't, says Regina Barreca, University of Connecticut English professor and author of "They Used To Call Me Snow White But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor." "I use as an example the scene in 'Blazing Saddles'," says Barreca. "They could just show that to groups of Olympic athletes. If they laugh at it, they're men. That's what category they have to compete in." Do, sort of, says Sandra Beck-with, editor and publisher of The Do(o)little report, a newsletter on male-female relations. The idea of women passing gas is not funny to women, she says.

From its herky-jerky animated credits almost until its erotic ending, the lesbian romance "Go Fish" proves difficult to watch. Light-struck scenes alternate with murky ones, with intercut close-ups of spinning tops and joining hands. The acting ranges from adequate to amateurish, with more performances falling into the latter category. The storyline is infinitely prolonged. The collaboration between director-writer-editor-producer Rose Troche and writer-actress-producer Guinevere Turner has been acclaimed for its humor and honesty, and for what the partners accomplished on an obviously low budget.

Troche and Turner proclaim that the value of their film lies in its very nature as a lesbian film. "Go Fish" can claim the virtue of being more sexually frank than many of its predecessors. But earlier films with gay heroines most notably "I Hear the Mermaids Singing" and "Three of Hearts" worked much more universally than Troche's arty, one-note labor of love. Here and there, "Go Fish" serves up bizarrely humorous touches as it satirizes lesbian mores. In one nightmare sequence, the dedicated, extremely active Sapphoist Daria, who has deigned to bed a man an act spotlighted in a pale, sexless shot finds herself facing a hostile lynch mob, which refuses to accept her lesbian status as it mills about in semi-darkness.

It comes across as the Lesbos equivalent of the Salem witch trials. In a later, lighter sequence, leads and supporting players turn up in lacy bridal gowns in a hallucination of the dreaded heterosexual marriage ritual. But mostly, "Go Fish" consists of sisters, black, white and Latino, sitting or lying around talking. Troche and her cinematographer, Ann T. Rossetti, are particularly enamored of overhead shots of four actresses lying on the floor, their heads making up four points of the compass or alternating positions, with the coiffeur of one talker on the same latitude as the chin of the next.

Ultimately, the subject of these tete-a-tetes turns to the question of what oest to call the female sex organ, with both quaint euphemisms and crude slang usages offered. The main subject, however, is the fc im Ml n. is a "hippie" (a term of disapprobation) named Ely. As played by V.S. Brodie in the film's most convincing and intriguing performance, both understated and tinged with rueful humor, Ely is drawn to Max on their first couch encounter.

Then, shedding her long "hippie" locks for a haircut that makes the slender and bespectacled woman look something like Elvis Costello, Ely sees Max again. But their affair is impeded by Ely's "marriage" to a former partner who has fled to Seattle. So "Go Fish" slogs along, insinuating all sorts of oddly angled or irrelevant shots, as Max and Ely try to get together. Troche obviously loves to experiment with textures, such as extremely grainy shots, and with camera placements few other directors would go for. Images of legs, cut off below the knee, are a recurring favorite.

At times, Troche's film resembles Spike Lee's, black-and-white, often experimental debut opus, "She Gotta Have It." But although that title might easily fit Troche's lesbian manifesto-love story, Lee's tale of a woman who teases various men unwinds much more cogently and engagingly than Troche's non-story of a woman's simplisitic search for Ms. Right. Not rated, this film abounds in It-rated talk, and culminates in a graphic if arty sequence bringing the nude lovers together. GO FISH, directed by Rose Troche: screenplay by Troche and Guinevere Turner; director of photography, Ann T. Rossetti; music composed by Brendan Dolan and Jennifer Sharpe; edited by Troche; produced by Troche and Turner; executive producers, Tom Kalin and Christine Vachon.

A Samuel Goldwyn Company release, In association with Islet, of a Can I Watch Pictures KVPI Production, opening today at Cinema City, Hartford. Running time: 90 minutes. Max Guinevere Turner Ely V.S. Brodie Kia T. Wendy McMillan Evy Migdalia Melendez Daria Anastasia Sharp Excellent; Very Good; Good; Fair; -tt Poor loveless life of cute, feminine Max, played by Turner in a likable but less-than-professional performance.

At the outset, after a slapdash if playful lesson in lesbian history, it is made clear that Max has been deprived of sex for many months. Her black roommate, Kia, heavily played by T. Wendy McMillan, has found new love and passion with the Latino Evy, awkwardly acted by Migdalia Melendez. But though Max is much more attractive than most of the others on view, she finds herself utterly alone. Her friends, including the adventurous Daria, acted with at least a trace of sauciness by Anastasia Sharp, conspire to find the right woman for little Max.

Their choice Pat's Pointers Welcome to Pat Trexler's needlework column. This week's design is Four Seasons Carousel Picture (Z-062694) pictured here. To call for color information, price, or how to order, please dial 246-1 000 or (800) 246-8070. The four-digit Source number is 6001 A touch-tone phone is required. We'll give you the price and color information and tell you how to order the instructions or the kit for making this design.

Please include the newspaper code number, which is 091 000..