The Ithaca Journal from Ithaca, New York • Page 12

-2B Arts Eotertainment The Ithaca Journal Monday, September 27, 1999 I Scooby-Doo still solving mysteries after 30 year Tm Not Making This Up Video, three marathons planned for Oct. release DAVE BARRY lL Where's Scooby-Doo? The Cartoon Network has scheduled three Scooby-Doo related marathons in October for Halloween. They are: "Scooby -Doo, Where Are You?" noon Oct. 23 to noon Oct. 24.

"The Scooby-Doo Project," featuring Scooby movies, noon to 10 p.m. Oct. 30. "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo," featuring a spin-off series, noon to 8 p.m. Oct.

31. For information about new videos, log on to Warner Brothers Web site: www.scoobydoobydoo.com. Dating scene gives great stress to men "Scooby-Doo Where Are You?" reruns air on the Cartoon Network at p.m. weekdays. Other Scooby-Doo features, which are also reruns, air at 1 p.m.

weekdays. The network is also planning three Scooby-Doo marathons in October, including one that parodies the sum- people say they don't like By MARY CHALLENDER Gannett News Service Bravery has its virtues. But cowardice can be equally endearing. Just ask Scooby-Doo fans. This fall marks the 30th birthday of one of the nation's favorite quaking canine cartoon characters, whose Saturday morning show "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" first aired on CBS in the fall of 1969 and remained in production for 22 years.

The original half-hour cartoon featured four mystery-loving teen-agers and their lazy-tongued Great Dane who traveled the country unmasking villains and making bad puns. It was deeply rooted in '70s culture, from Shaggy's chin whiskers to the daisies painted on the side of the Mystery Machine van. But even in the one new movie produced annually, Scooby still turns tail and runs when SSso A lot of space kooks and -smnnv- demonic miners. Yet Scooby and the gang appear to be more beloved than ever. Walk into almost any store today, and you can find Scooby- Doo calendars and cups, T-shirts and nightgowns, mouse pads and backpacks, boxer shorts and bandages.

This year's release, "Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost," will be out first on video (in stores Oct. 5) before airing on television, probably in November, says Paul Siefken, a spokesman for cable's Cartoon Network, which is the only TV outlet for Scooby-Doo. 7 know what's why I like school, I relax and jnn i necause vou aiwavs going to happen. That it. When I come home from don't have to think.

I can just have fun watching Gannett News Service Thirty years after he made his television debut, Scooby-Doo remains a household name to millions of children I AJ. Brinkerhof 15, of Sioux City, Iowa The late Don Messick, the original voice of Scooby, once credited Scooby's popularity to the very human weaknesses in his character. "He's not the perfect dog. In fdct, you might say he's a coward. Yet $th everything he does, he seems to land on his four feet." 'Double Jeopardy' captures No.

1 It's true the mysteries in most Scooby-Doo episodes bear a closer resemblance to "Blue's Clues" than Agatha Christie. The format of the average show goes something like this: Gang stumbles onto mystery, Shaggy says Zoinks, Scooby earns a Scooby Snack, Velma loses her glasses, Fred invents some excuse to go off alone with Daphne, villain is unmasked, and the meddling kids get their due. To A.J. Brinkerhoff, 15, of Sioux City, Iowa, that level of predictability is the beauty of the show. "You don't have to, like, think about what's going on," she says.

"A lot of people say they don't like it because you always know what's going to happen. That's why I like it. When I come home from school, I don't have to think. I can just relax and have fun watching it." Other fans say the show only appears simple and is really laden with subtext that touches on everything from homosexuality to Gen to the had appeal to both sexes," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations which tracks movie ticket sales. "Sixth Sense," the summer's box office surprise, has taken in $225.1 million and moved ahead of "Aladdin" as Disney's second-highest grossing film behind "The Lion King," which made $312 million.

Edging past "Mrs. Doubtfire," "Sixth Sense" also climbed into the top 20 all-time moneymakers. Estimated ticket sales are for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures are to be released today.

1. "Double Jeopardy," $23.7 million. 2. "Blue Streak," $13.2 million. 3.

"The Sixth Sense," $8.5 million. 4. "For Love of the Game," $6.6 million. 5. "American Beauty, $6 million.

6. "Stigmata," $4.8 million. 7. "Stir of Echoes," $2.3 million. 8.

"Jakob the Liar," $2.2 million. 9. 10. "Runaway Bride," $1.6 million. Russell told Newsweek magazine for this week's edition.

The movie is about four soldiers who set off at the end of the Gulf War to find a cache of gold Iraq looted from Kuwait. Co-star Mark Wahlberg said that when he saw the scene with the cadaver he was disgusted. "I don't even want to pick up a gun again," he said. "I see violence on TV and I don't look at it the way I did before." Compiled from wire service reports. S.i 1.1 l.li.l.

II-WI'L BARGAIN MATINEES BEFORE 6 P.M. DOUBLE JEOPARDY (I? Fn-Sat JAKOB THE UAR UUHFORD (Rl ffrS FOR LOVE Of THE GAME IPG13) Fft-Sat: 2:1 0 Sun-Thurs: 1 2: 0:00 BLUE STREAK (PG13I WSat 121 Son-Thurs: STIGMATA IR) Fri-Sat 1 2: SIXTH SENSE IPG13I I Sun-Thurs: IDEAL HUSBAND (PG13) RUNAWAY BRIDE (PG) Fri, Mon-Thurs: Sati Sun: DOG PARK (R) Fri, Mon-Thure: Sati Sun: STIROFECHOS(R) Fri, Mon-Thurs: Sati Sun OUTSIDE PROVIDENCE (R) Fri, Mon-Thurs: 950 Sun: 1220-920 So I was at this party, and I wound up at a table where three attractive single women were complaining about Surprise! men. Specifically, they were complaining about the pickup lines that had been used on them in a bar a few nights earlier. One woman said: "This guy comes up to me and says, Are you a I mean, is that supposed to be ROMANTIC?" All three women rolled all six of their eyes. Another one of them said: "This guy says to me, 'I've been looking at you all So I go, 'Hel-LO, we just GOT At this point, all three women and I want to stress that these are intelligent, nice women were laughing.

Not me. I was feeling bad for the guys. I realize that there are certain hardships that only females must endure, such as childbirth, waiting in lines for public-restroom stalls, and a crippling, psychotic obsession with shoe color. So I grant that it is not easy being a female. But I contend that nature has given males the heaviest burden of all: the burden of always having to Make the First Move, and thereby risk getting Shot Down.

I don't know WHY males get stuck with this burden but it's true throughout the animal kingdom. If you watch the nature shows on the Discovery Channel, you'll note that whatever species they are talking about birds, crabs, spiders, clams it is ALWAYS the male who has to take the initiative. It's always the male bird who does the courting dance, making a total moron of himself, while the female bird just stands there, looking aloof, thinking about what she's going to tell her girlfriends. Male insects have it the worst. The Discovery Channel announcer is always saying things like: "After the mating, the female mantis bites off the I male mantis' head, and then she and her girlfriend mantises use it to play a game that looks a lot like Skee Ball." Because I live in Florida, my patio is basically a giant singles bar for lizards.

On any day during mating season, I'll see dozens of male lizards out there making their most suave move, which consists of inflating and deflating a red pouch under their chins. They seem to think that female lizards really go for a guy with a big chin, pouch, but I have never once, in 14 years of close observation, seen a female respond. They just squat there looking bored, while all around them males are blinking on and off like defective warning lights. Every now and then you'll see an offbeat news TV story about some animal that has for some reason fallen in love with, and decided to relentlessly court, something totally inappropriate, such as a lawn tractor. This animal is ALWAYS a male.

On the TV, they show it hanging around the lawn tractor with a big sad moony look, totally smitten, while the lawn tractor cruelly ignores it. My point here is, that in matters of the heart, males have the brains of a walnut. No, wait! That is not my point. My point is that perhaps you women could cut us males a little bit of slack in the move-making process, because we are under a lot of stress. I vividly remember when I was in 10th grade, and I wanted to call a girl named Patty and ask her to a dance, and before I picked up the phone, I spent maybe 28 hours rehearsing exactly what I was going to say.

So when I actually made i the call, I was pretty smooth. "Hello, Dance?" I said. "This is i Patty. Do you want to go to the Dave with me?" Fortunately, Patty grasped the basic 1 thrust of my gist and agreed to go to the dance. This was a good thing, because if she had shot me down, I would have I been so humiliated that I would have i never have been able to go back to school.

I would have dropped out of 10th grade and lied about my age and i joined the U.S. armed forces, and as a direct result the Russians would have won the Cold War. That is the awesome i power that you women have over us men. I hope you understand this, and the next time a guy walks up and uses i some incredibly lame, boneheaded line on you, I hope that, instead of laughing at him, you will remember that he is under the intense pressure of wanting to I impress you enough so that you might want to get to know him better and maybe eventually, perhaps within the next 15 minutes, mate with him, thereby enabling the survival of the human race, which believe me is the only thing that we males are truly concerned about In conclusion, let me just say to all females everywhere, on behalf of all males, that you are very beautiful and your eyes are like two shining stars, unless you're a female fly, in which case your eyes are more like 2,038 shining stars. So please give as a chance.

And if I you're not interested, could you intro-j duce us to your lawn tractor? Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, syndicated humor columnist for the Miami Herald. mer movie thriller, "The Blair Witch Project," called "The Scooby-Doo Project." Scooby's continued popularity mystifies critics of the cartoon, who say the show really only had one plot and it has been recycled quite enough times already. Box Office The film takes its title from the legal precept that a defendant cannot be tried twice, for the same crime. From the filmmaker's loose interpretation, it means Judd already has been punished for her husband's murder and now can hunt him down and kill him without consequences. The idea resonated with audiences in the same way the premise of Robert Redford's "Indecent Proposal" did, said Wayne Lewellen, distribution president for Paramount, which released "Double Jeopardy." "Would you sleep with Robert Redford for a million dollars? That's a simple, quick concept that's easy to grasp," Lewellen said.

"I think people were drawn to the concept that she could shoot her husband on Main Street and they couldn't do anything to her." With a female lead and Jones essentially reprising his tracker role from "The Fugitive," "Double Jeopardy" was a "date-action movie that bining dragon and lion, are acrobats from the People's Republic of China. Amy Grant takes television role NASHVILLE, Term. Pop and gospel singer Amy Grant says movie offers began rolling in after her 1991 music video "Baby, but acting never appealed to her until this year. "The majority either were asking me to play a singer or a prairie woman," she said. Then CBS Entertainment President Les Moonves asked her to portray a blind cellist in the Sunday night TV movie "A Song from the Heart." The timing was good, she said, conceding that she felt "creatively flat-lined" after her recent divorce from singer Gary Chapman.

"I didn't have the energy to write. And at that time in life, it was good to get in a work setting and not play me," she said. Movie's cadaver use stirs controversy NEW YORK In the new George Gooney movie "Three Kings," filmmaker David O. Russell used a cadaver to show in graphic detail how a bullet penetrates a body. Warner Bros, was so concerned about the effects of the scene that the studio considered removing it, but preview audiences were fascinated, drug culture.

On Scooby-themed home pages on the Internet, they question whether Velma is a lesbian, Shaggy was the first slacker and if marijuana is a secret ingredient in Scooby Snacks. Not even Scooby has escaped this analysis. tvpicks The complete television grid and local TV highlights are on Page 4C of The Journal's Daybreak section. By MIKE HUGHES Gannett News Service Today's must-see "Everybody Loves Raymond," 9 p.mnCBS. It all started with a can opener, you see.

Debra bought a new one; Ray wasn't used to it and then well, from there, the story varies hilariously with the telling. Ray has his version, which gets immense sympathy from his parents. Debra has hers, which Ray's brother finds terribly believable; Soon, all of those outside parties manage to turn a small opener into a large crisis. This is "Raymond" at its best. It's a quiet show, but filled with rich observations about human behavior; along the way, it manages to draw large laughs.

Other choices "King of Queens," 8 p.m., CBS. Doug is jealous when Carrie spends time with the neighbors. "7th Heaven" (8 p.m., WB) and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (9 p.m., Sci-Fi Channel). We can spend all of prime time with Catherine Hicks, an immensely likable actress. In "7th Heaven" (a well-made and underrated show), she plays a clergyman's wife and mother of seven.

Tonight, her older son settles into his apartment and her younger one tries to take more control at home. In "Star Trek IV," a film released in 1986, she's a marine biologist, falling for a time-traveling Capt. Kirk. It works wonderfully, becoming the BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND INCLUDES BOTTOMLESS SALAD AND ENDLESS GARLIC CHEESE BREAD CHICKEN SCAMPI VEAL CUTLET FRIED HADDOCK PRIME RIB HADDOCK SCAMPI LINGUINI WITH RED CLAM SAUCE DELMONICO STEAK CHICKEN PARMIGIANA CHICKEN MARINARA 1 LB. CRAB LEGS MARINATED CHICKEN BREAST STUFFED RIGATONI LONDON BROIL 11A.M.

UNTIL CLOSING Sun. thru Than. $9.95 (XW RESTAURANT CATERING Sr 277-6666 On RL 96B between Downtown I.C 11 A.M.-CLOS1NG 7 DAYS A WEEK Main best of the "Trek" tales. "Red Files," 9 p.m., PBS. (Please check local listings.) At 'its peak, the Russian KGB was thoroughly efficient.

It found spies, bribed officials, landed the secrets of tfie atom bomb. This hour's look at them launches a solid, four-week series. It mixes bid footage (some of it previously locked away by the Soviets) and new interviews. "Safe Harbor," 9 p.m., WB. This new drama, which premiered week, means well, but some of the kids are hard to like.

Now comes an important addition: Chyler Leigh is excellent as a troubled runaway who becomes a special project of the sheriff (Gregory Harrison) and his family. We might even guess that Led would have a romance with the sheriffs; older son, Hayden. Don't bet on, though. In real life, the actor who plays Hayden (Christopher Khayman Lee) is Leigh's brother (despite the different spellings of their last name). That could deflate any screen chemistry.

rfiv Moon mm SYR Sell- erv By DAVID GERMAIN The Associated Press LOS ANGELES "Double Jeopardy," a tale of a woman wrongly imprisoned for her husband's murder, killed the competition with $23.7 million in ticket sales to debut atop the weekend box office, according to estimates Sunday. Last weekend's top movie, the Martin Lawrence comedy "Blue Streak," dropped to No. 2 with $13.2 million. The Bruce Willis ghost story "The Sixth Sense" remained at No. 3 in its eighth weekend with $8.5 million.

The weekend's other major debuts opened weakly. The somber "Jakob the Liar," starring Robin Williams as a widower who cheers up fellow Jewish ghetto residents with fake reports of Allied victories over the Nazis, was eighth with $2.2 million. "Double Jeopardy" stars Ashley Judd as a woman out for revenge against her husband, who faked his own death and framed her for murder. Tommy Lee Jones co-stars as Judd's parole officer. Newsmakers Springer still interested in politics CINCINNATI Television talk show host Jerry Springer, called the "ringmaster" for his raucous show known for its on-stage brawls, says he won't rule out a return to the political ring.

The former Cincinnati mayor says politics is his passion and it's likely he'll return to the city one day to run for office. He had considered a challenge to Republican U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine in 2000, but declined, saying he had committed his time to the show. "Trust me, I really thought about doing it," Springer said Friday during a voter registration rally.

But he added: "I can't imagine doing the show while in the Senate." Stars turn out for circus opener SANTA MONICA, Calif. The stars came out for the opening of Cirque du Soleil's 13th circus-theater production "Dralion." Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone and Donald Sutherland were among the hundreds who attended the French-Canadian troupe's Friday night gala under a striped tent by the Pacific Ocean. The show runs through Nov. 7. Cirque du Soleil, which began in 1984, means Circus of the Sun.

Most of the performers in the Asian-themed "Dralion," a word com- CmLZMnPOltS I THE I AUTI TWIN FALLS IDAHO MONMYSUO EYES WIDE SHUT RUN ILLUMINATA 7:159:35 7ns 7:001 ml -wro- If. Creaiw 5 I I Chinese Buffet Restaurant 401 Elmira Buttermilk Falls Plaza, Ithaca 277-3399 $4.99 $5.69 I I ALL YOU CAN EAT 1Q0? i 1 Table I Expires 1 0199 Spca; Lunch, Brunch, Dinner, Mon-Fri Sat Sun Sun, Thurs Fri Sat 4 to Men lor Chlldmn under 12.