Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 63

FRIDAY, AUGUST 2 1 1 998 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS PAGE63 In That 70s Show Fox seeks a tokin' hit tViat- ATI" npamiaro turz-i new summer series just a pie of weeks ago, it seems silly LtU to be talking about the fall TV Grade: I rlTho net Pack season already. It's upon us, though. Sort of. Fox, which started running new episodes of "Melrose Place" earlier this month, Sunday launches "Holding the Baby" and "That 70s Show." Though both are technically fall series, that's beginning Parents' guide: Rated TV-MA. Nudity, sex.

'May be unsuitable for children under 17. HBO, 9 p.m. Saturday Grade: to mean less and less in an industry that's nw intrnHnHnff the Dsby i Parents' guide: Rated TV-PG. Channel 29, 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Viva Las Vegas: (from left) Joe Mantegna, Angus Macfadyen, Ray Liotta, Bobby Slayton and Don Cheadle star as well-heeled heels in HBO's "The Rat Pack" 2v I and discarding new I i I shows all year round. I Still, there's the Grade: That 70s Show sider. A pet theory of New York Daily News critic David Bianculli, the Kickoff Curse more of Parents' guide: Rated TV-PG. Channel 29, 8:30 p.m. "I think that we would be criticized if we ignored it, you know and criticized if we did it," she said.

Added husband Terry Turner "I think if we had done a show that was strictly about the clothes and the hair, it would be a very empty show." Sitcom reality may not sound like much of an answer to parents whose children's potential drug use isn't a laughing matter, but as the mother of a son just a year younger than the kids depicted in the show, I was comfortable with the treatment, showing as it did what some of us, at least, remember Pot can really make you stupid. More than that, I was charmed by the innocence of the romance between 16-year-old Eric Foreman (newcomer Topher Grace) and Donna, the girl next door (Laura Prepon). Yes, some teen-agers also had sex in the 70s, but the Turners aren't inclined to push that idea too far: "We've got enough on our plate right now," said Terry Turner. HBO's sinking ship Pity the man who has to appear on screen as Francis Albert Sinatra just three months after the singer's death. Coming so quickly on the heels of TV's total-immersion course in All Things Frank and Not So Frank, HBO's "The Rat Pack," which premieres tomorrow night, must have sounded like a sure thing.

That it's not isn't necessarily the fault of Ray Liotta who plays Rat No. 1 in this based-on-real-events movie that chronicles not just the coming together of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford, but the far dicier intersection of Sinatra, John F. Kennedy and the mob. Sinatra's image is just too fresh and idiosyncratic to allow for the suspension of disbelief that "The Rat Pack" requires, even if Liotta had had a better handle on Sinatra's charisma than he demonstrates here. Time has a way of making these things easier.

After a few minutes, Don Cheadle and Joe Mantegna blend seamlessly into Davis and Martin, who've been gone longer, while British actor Angus Macfadyen is positively eerie as the late Peter Lawford. The Kennedy storyline bogs down quickly, thanks in part to William Petersen's charmless take on JFK, portrayed here as a womanizer with few redeeming qualities, a man hardly worth the many efforts Sinatra makes on his behalf. If there's a movie worth saving amid the wreckage of "The Rat Pack," it's probably in the story of Davis and his Swedish wife, actress Mai Britt (Megan Dodds). Cheadle invests Davis, who often seemed to be the butt of the Rat Pack's cruder jokes, with a touching dignity that only occasionally rubs off on the men playing his pals. You can reach Elten Gray by e-matl at by lax at 215-854-5852 or by mail al the Philadelphia Daily News.

Box 7788, Philadelphia. Pa. 19101. ten than not correctly predicts that the major network show that premieres first in any season will not make it to a second year. (Admittedly, this is a less impressive theory in the current climate, in which relatively few new shows make it to a second season, anyway.) Even without Bianculli's rule, I'll go way out on a limb and predict that Fox's "Holding the Baby" will be thrown out with the bathwater before the end of the season, canceled to make room for any one of Fox's more promising midseason animated shows that aren't quite ready for prime time yet.

Good riddance. "Holding the Baby," based on a British series that ran just seven episodes, is about a workaholic father who's forced to deal with child-rearing issues when his wife runs off and leaves their baby behind. From that mighty unpleasant premise springs easily one of the worst sitcoms of a not overly promising season. In light of the Kickoff Curse, though, I'm glad to see "Holding the Baby" holding the place that might otherwise have fallen to "That 70s Show," a far more interesting sitcom that premieres Sunday after "The Simpsons." The latest brainchild of Bonnie and Terry Turner, the former "Saturday Night Live" writers who took a lame idea about aliens in Ohio and turned it into the tour de force "3rd Rock from the Sun," "That 70s Show" is to "The Wonder Years" what "NewsRadio" is to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Yes, it's set in the 70s, but there's a distinctly '90s edge. The Turners, who heard plenty of complaints from the endlessly uptight about body-part jokes when "3rd Rock" premiered, have already found themselves embroiled in a mini-controversy over a scene in Sunday's episode in which a group of teen-agers is depicted as stoned.

Last month, meeting with critics in Pasadena, Bonnie Turner defended the drug references, noting that the drug culture was part of the era she's writing about. by Ellen Gray Lethal Wit 3: Rock returns Why did Keenen Ivory Wayans, Sinbad and Magic Johnson all fail in late-night TV? Magic was supposed to fail. I dont mean that in a bad way: If I played point guard for the Lakers, I'd probably fail There's a reason they give shows to comedians I have no idea why Keenen and failed, to tell the truth Dont compare me to the other shows. I'm on for a half-hour once a week and I'm on HBO. How do you keep your comedy untainted by your success? I still live in Brooklyn.

My life hasnt changed that much. You know what a good thing is? Not to have members of your family working for you To have as many members of your family as possible still talking to you like a normal person. Daily News Television Writer In a conference call with reporters this week to promote the launch of the new season of "The Chris Rock Show," which begins at 11:30 tonight on HBO, the Emmy-winning comedian defended his decision to appear on the cover of Vanity Fair dressed as a clown and dished about his first guest, J. Simpson lawyer Johnnie Cochran, the guests he'd like to land and about talk-show hosts who've come and gone: People have expectations that you're somehow representative now of blacks in general. Do yon just sort of ignore that completely? I tell jokes.

What's the prob- lem? I tell jokes. Did you get a lot of flak about the Vanity Fair cover? I'm a comedian, clown. Kind of goes together I'm not really getting a lot of flak on it It's not like I'm Jesse Jackson What's wrong with a clown? You've progressed to the point where a funny man doesn't have to be funny? Are black audiences tougher to entertain? Black audiences are cool. Black audiences are the best audiences in the world (but) black intellectuals have a hard time with comedy and with celebrity in general. What's your interest in having Johnnie Cochran as a first guest? What else do you really want to talk about than Clinton? Who better than the guy who got a murderer off? Is the Clinton story getting boring? Sex is never boring.

Who's on your wish list for guests? I'm trying to get Vernon Jordan. I havent got a call back. I think he's busy. (Also on Rock's list: "Martin Lawrence, Bill Cosby Ray Rhodes, coach of the Eagles, a good coach, good Chris Rock has the whole world of comedy in his hands it Jfc mt.