The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 130

M2 1 HE MORNING CALL, SUNDAY. APRIL 5. 9uf MMTAMHMM. maw uinwMwiiiiiiijjMjjt.i TOW 4 Fox batting 500 with new series 5 A show that compares itself to one of TV's classic comedies is setting itself up for a fall. "Married With children" is to "The Honeymooners" what a Pinto is to a Porsche.

i 1v i I Catherine Oxenberg and James Faulkner co-star in the television movie 'Still Crazy Like a Fox' tonight at 9 on CBS. usually work, though it is a terrific timesaver. It's usually better to see the show and then review it. What I have seen and all there is to see, so far is a collection of skits and a few odd bits here and there, a work in progress that was enough to win me over. It starts tonight at 7:30 p.m., repeated at 8:30 and 9:30.

The half-hour show resembles an updated version of "The Carol Burnett Show," a blend of comedy skits, music, and animation, with a supporting cast that includes Julie Kavner, Valerie Harper's sister on "Rho-da." The English-born Ullman is one of those multi-talented people American TV usually doesn't know how to handle. She can sing, with four top-10 singles on the British pop charts. She can act, as she proved in the film "Plenty." And she's a very funny lady, as she's demonstrated ever since she got her first professional job at age 12. One of the skits features Ullman as a chubby thing with a remarkably out-of-shape nose who visits a cosmetic surgeon. If cosmetic surgery can be an emergency, this is it.

She's in love with a convict who's never seen her, he's about to get out of Fox is backing 'The Tracey Ullman Show' with nearly $1 million per broadcast, which may make it the most expensive half-hour series on TV. There was always hope in "The Honeymooners." For all his bluster, Ralph Kramden was a harmless oaf and while his big dreams never panned out, he never stopped dreaming. The Bundys stopped dreaming a long time ago and believe that life is a cesspool and the best they can do is stay afloat. I say let them swim. I might toss them a life buoys, but I'm not about to drop over for dinner.

I like "The Tracey Ullman Show" and I haven't even seen it yet. This is not the way critics the slammer, and she wants to be made over. "I told him I was fetching," she admits, "but I didn't say it was usually fetching for sticks." The surgeon promises her a variety of delightful body parts and she buys the whole job, but not before mulling it over in her cramped apartment while singing an hilarious version of "I Feel Pretty" to a mirror. I think what really hooked me though I was prepared to be reeled in anyway was the magician whose act is built around blowing bubbles from that goo in a bottle with one of those sticks with a circle on the end everybody used to play with as a kid. The guy was astounding.

I saw him do it and I still don't know how he did it. Any show that can pull that one off is my kind of show. I'm betting that "The Tracey Ullman Show" will catch on. Fox must think so because it's backing it with nearly $1 million per broadcast, which may make it the most expensive half-hour series on TV. It won't hit a home run every time.

Skit comedy is too fragile and moves too quickly for that. But it will, I think, grow on you. It's already grown on me. April 3-May 3 800 233 4050 or at the Cash Call Atlantic City's Newest Hotel Casino CD CD MOVIE. "Daddy." The message comes through loud and clear in this overworked story about high school teens who become parents.

Newcomer Dermot Mulroney realistically portrays a teen-ager who has to abandon his lifetime goal of becoming a musician and take on the mantle of "daddy." The target audience is, of course, high schoolers who think this can never happen to them. (1987 CC) (TJ MASTERPIECE THEATER. "Star Quality: Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill." Good performances make this adaptation of an unusual Noel Coward story worth a look.

On a tiny British principality in the Pacific, a down-and-out couple (Ian Holm and Judi Dench) become the official British residents, sworn to uphold the dignity of the Empire even in the most primitive surroundings. When World War II begins, their strength is tested. This is Coward at his most patriotic, but the story is filled with irony and intelligence, and Holm and Dench excel in their roles. (Part 2 of 5 CC) CALL OF THE OUTDOORS. Bob Deardorff and Dr.

Wilson Everhart of Harrisburg discuss the history of the Whistle Pig Fishing Club, located in Sullivan County, which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary as the oldest angling club in the country. Tom Fegely is the host. (Service Electric TV Dial-17, antenna users WGAL-TV Dial-8, at noon) GENERATION AT RISK. This "Chemical People," sequel includes teen pregnancy, dropping out of school and suicide, and addresses these tragedies with hope, in a documentary that profiles communities which suffered some of the country's worst teen problems. (R) (WLVT-39 at 1) LEHIGH VALLEY SCHOOL OF THE WEEK.

"Swain School." WLVT production of Swain students in a musical program. (WLVT-39 at 5) HEALTH MATTERS. "Cancers Which Affect Women." Meet a woman who underwent surgery for cervical cancer, yet was able to get pregnant and have a normal, healthy child afterwards. Also, learn how to detect breast cancer early enough to avoid a mastectomy. Guests are Drs.

Joseph Merola and Dr. George Maish. Diane May is the host. (R) (WLVT-39 at 5:30) LEHIGH VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL SCHOLASTIC SCRIMMAGE. Teams of students from Boyertown and Allentown Central Catholic compete in a battle of wits.

(R) (WLVT-39 at 6:30) TCnat Jyst lifbif JOIN US FOR OUR MONTH-LONG CELEBRATION Stowaway Sweepstakes Everyone's a The Super Fight Hagler and Leonard winner. Top prizes include Home Lines Dream rock the 'Boat April 6. Tickets available at Cruise, Stowaway Weekends and more! Teletron 1 By BOB WISEHART Newhouse News Service In "Married With Children," Al and Peggy Bundy wonder why they have no friends. I can tell them. They are grumpy, dislikable people who snipe and gripe and moan and never stop.

That's the problem with the show, the first prime-time series to spill out over the airwaves via the Fox Broadcasting Co. tonight at 7, repeated at 8 and 9. The comedy is not without laughs, but it's well-made unpleasantness. The Bundys are so unrelievedly sour that I doubt many people will be inclined to visit them again. Al (Ed O'Neill) and Peggy (Katey Segal) have been married 15 years.

They have two children, a teen-age girl and a pre-teen son. He sells shoes. She's a homemaker. They know each other so well that they waste no time on the social graces and get right to the zin-gers. Al, says his loving wife, is the kind of guy who thinks a good time is to sit in front of the TV set and burp while he sticks a hand down his pants.

Peggy, says her loving husband, is the kind of woman who can no longer tell where her chest stops and her stomach starts. "Married With Children" is supposed to be the flip side of the idealized families that have populated TV for decades. Fox claims that it's a "more realistic" look at marriage, sort of a 1980s version of "The Honey- mooners. Take the bus to Trump's Castle Hotel Casino overlooking the Marina. Look at the bonus you get at the end of the ride.

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Scheuer and TV KEY'S staff in New York and Hollywood. (25 NBA BASKETBALL DOL'BLEHEADER. In game one, the Boston Celtics take on the Philadelphia 76ers at the Spec-irum in Philadelphia, and in game two, the Los Angeles Lakers play (he Denver Nuggets at Sports Arena in Denver. MARRIED WITH CHILDREN. It begins tonight Fox broadcasting makes a bid to become a fourth network with a one-night sampling of their first two shows.

Projected plans call for a complete weekend's worth of new prime-time series to be in full swing by the end of May. "Married With Children" is a promising beginning, a caustic, bitingly funny sitcom about a middle-class couple involved in an affectionate but never-ending battle of wills. This family is closer to the Bunkers than the Huxtables. Husband Al (Ed O'Neill) has a drudge's job and just wants a beer and a ballgame when he gets home; wife Peggy (Katey Sagal) lies around watching TV all day, and their kids hate each other. Even the cliched visit by the new neighbors has some surprises.

Ch. 5 will repeat the premiere at 8:00 and 9:00 tonight. (PREMIERE) 7:30 CD THE TRACEY ULLMAN SHOW. British singer-comedienne Tracey Ullman makes a bid for the mantle of Carol Burnett with this comedy-variety series from the creator of "Taxi," designed to showcase her diverse talents. Though unavailable for preview at press time, the show will reportedly combine a sitcom format with sketches, musical numbers and guest appearances.

Ch. 5 will repeat the premiere at 8:30 and 9:30 tonight. (PREMIERE) 9:00 (TJ) MOVIE. "Still Crazy Like a Fox." (Made-for-TV) Back again, San Francisco's private eye Jack Warden and his straight-arrow lawyer son John Rubinstein solve a London murder while on vacation. The English scenery is grand, but can't cover John Rubinstein's overacting as the put-upon son when Dad is accused of murdering a duke.

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