Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 37

.4. TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1998 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS PAG ft 7 Til T. in it i i a i jrt i 'j'AC7 i)i i A In i ix i i Moving, maybe: (clock- r-- wise from top left) Wendie 4 Malick, George Segal, jf" Laura San Giacomo, p' 't David Spade, Enrico I 1 Colantoni I Vkrr--' I Sitcom may ascend to NBC's lofty Thursday lineup III I eixrts that NBC milit tx tliinkinH of nwvina "Just ShMt Me" from Tuosdavs to Thursdays have reached the show's creator, too. "There seems to be that rumor going around," Steve Levi! an said last week. "And 'From your as they say.

I'll take it." What Levitan does know is that the network plans to stick "Just Shoot Me" into the Thursday night lineup for one week the week after the Super Bowl. "Maybe that's an audition. I don't know," he said, adding, "They're going to promote us during the Super Bowl, and that's a very big vote of confidence for smrf "ilium jimp iw wuini i us." NBC's confidence in the show hasn't always been so obvious. Levit an's still irked by comparisons to "Suddenly Susan" and "The Naked Truth," two shows that on 3pP that surface, at least, have much in common with Must Shoot Me," which is set in a magazine and stars Laura San Giacomo as an idealistic young writer working for her father, who's played by George Segal. "When I wTote and shot our original pilot, 'Suddenly Susan') hadn't been even been conceived yet" and "The Naked Truth" was still an ABC show, Levitan said.

The first version of the Brooke Shields sitcom had her workj, in a publishing house, but "they redid their pilot" after theirs was shot, and "'Suddenly Susan' is suddenly very much like ours," he said. Then NBC picked up "The Naked Truth," taming the tabloid setting to rA SHOOT" Page 44 I i sl 7 1 MEN IN MAKEUP A WORKING MAN'S POET Merle Haggard, one of country music's HERO IN HOT WATER Admiral Chegwid-den (John M. Jackson) becomes a murder suspect when two other admirals die, on "JAG." 8 p.m., Channel 3. John Leguizamo, Wesley Snipes and Patrick Swayze are unlikely drag queens, but that's exactly what they play in the improbably titled "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar." When the three New York divas get stranded in a Midwestern town, high jinks and some poignancy ensues. 8 p.m., Channel 29, premier songwriters, gets the tribute treatment in "Workln' Man: A Tribute to Merle Haggard." Among the stars performing are George Jones, Tim McGraw, Ricky Van Shelton and newcomer Sara Evans.

To hear Haggard and his band, the Strangers, perform "Okie from Muskogee" is reason enough the tune in. 9 p.m., Nashville Network. 2 i fj CP.