The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 68

C-16 riday, September 22, 1989 SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER I llll III 'W, sjlOfo, 'Snoops' not up to snuff un" fed A fx? "Family Matters" has everything kids, a mother-in-law, group singing except laughs and originality. "SOW. 'f Nothing new in two sitcom debuts A J- 'v 1 ff I'A family, including Carl's sister Rachel (Telma Hopkins), Rachel's son and their own trio of children. Friday's premiere centers on tensions arising when the household is extended by one: Carl's mother (Rosetta LeNoire), who moves in and takes over. It's a classic set-up: wife and mother-in-law locked in combat over attention from the resident male and control of the home.

But these folks have nothing if not good will and, by the final scene, everyone joins in a chorus of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." Isn't that sweet? Corinne Bohrer is a Valley Girl witch in "Free Spirit." CBS concocts a watered-down Thin Man' By Michael Dougan EXAMINER TELEVISION CRITIC IF, AS Fred Allen said, imitation is the sincerest form of television, few are more sincerely honored than Nick and Nora Charles, those merry sleuths who liked their repartee as dry as their martinis in the "Thin Man" movies. Witness "McMillan and Wife," "Hart to Hart," Agatha Christie's "Partners in Crime" on PBS and "Moonlighting" each echoing, with varying degrees of success, the "Thin Man" formula. Now comes "Snoops" and the critic wants to root. "Snoops," debuting Friday at 8 p.m. on CBS, stars Tim and Daphne Reid, who fronted the cast in "Frank's Place," last season's abortive dramedy and one of the finest TV series ever mounted.

"Frank's Place" was grossly mishandled by CBS, hidden from the audience by erratic schedule shifts like some misshapen offspring confined to the attic when company came. With "Snoops," the tale of a State Department aide (Daphne) and a criminology professor (Tim) who live in the steamy milieu of Washington, D.C., CBS attempts to make amends. The critic wants to root, but the critic cannot. "Snoops" is not an homage to "The Thin Man," but a weak exercise in mimicry. Not only have they exorcised the compulsive dash to the gin decanter which, in today's sober society, seems well-advised but they've watered down the wordplay.

Dialogue in "The Thin Man" was wry and inventive. In "Snoops," it's just light and airy. Gone is the finely honed edge, the secret sense of shared superiority, that made Nick and Nora such a winsome pair. Perhaps, says the critic in his eagerness to like this show, we can ignore the attenuated tit-for-tat. This is a mystery drama.

Will the puzzle set before this investigative pair lure us in and leave us purring with contentment? In Friday's premiere, this evolves out of the crime investigation class taught by Chance Dennis Daphne Maxwell Reid and Tim Reid as Micki and Chance Dennis 'Family Matters' doesn't and Tree Spirit' isn't By Michael Dougan EXAMINER TV CRITIC ABC DEBUTS TWO new situation comedies Friday. Don't hold your breath. Neither "Family Matters," debuting at 8:30 p.m. on Channel 7, nor "Free Spirit," bowing in at 9:30 p.m. on the same channel, is much of a hoot.

Both contain this year's requisite number of children three and celebrate the clan ethic. Of the two, "Family Matters" is more endearing and less contrived. In Friday's opening scene, Bron-son Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker appear as Balki and Larry, their "Perfect Strangers" personae, to telegraph the message that "Family Matters" is a spin-off from that popular show and should be embraced appropriately. But "Family Matters" captures none of the raw goofiness that attracts many viewers to the parent series. Instead, "Family Matters" is like a long, warm hug from an oversized relative.

At first it feels good, then it starts to smother. "Family Matters" follows "Perfect Strangers' elevator operator Harriette Winslow (Jo Marie Pay-ton-France) into her home, which she shares with hubby Carl (Reginald VelJohnson) and an extended Luz), who's just moved to town with his three children. Winnie is a giggling, vaporous type who hates to get up in the morning and has the inflections and mentality of a Valley Girl except in odd moments when she waxes with the wisdom of the ages. The effect is cognitive dissonance. The kids are entranced by this live-in sibyl who can make rock concert tickets pop out of the toaster.

Dad's less enamored. "I already have three children," he complains. "I don't need a fourth." But, see, he doesn't know she's a witch. It's a little secret between Winnie and the youngsters, just like in that Ann Julian ghost thing. The offspring, as is typical with kids in third-rate sitcoms, are tiny Neil Simons who speak as if their lines had been scripted by a comedy writer.

Winnie is the most natural and believable character in this story, which doesn't bode well. While Winnie casts her spells, she also faces a curse: "Murder, She Wrote" on CBS and the new, more tolerable "Sister Kate" on NBC. This witch shouldn't pack away her broom. Department is important enough to merit her own limo but allows sufficient time to gallivant around the nation's capital in search of clues. Ultimately, when killers have been identified and the snoopy pair saved by a modern equivalent of the cavalry charge, the critic is morose.

Friday's story leads viewers on a circuitous route to revelation, but never comes to a dramatically satisfying payoff. What "Snoops" needs is a touch of Levinson and Link, the famous screenwriting pair who created classic detective series like "Colum-bo." Richard Levinson and William Link have demonstrated the delicate art of marrying characters to plot in a fashion that makes both elements equally appealing. "Snoops" tries this very trick. It does not succeed. (Tim), who gets to say things like "in the wild world of criminology, the truth has many layers." A course assignment leads a brilliant student to conclude that one murder, long ago written off by the police, can be solved.

Chance has enough faith in his pupil to pursue the question with local homicide chief Stan Akers (a regular character in the show played by John Karlen, last seen as Harvey Lacey in "Cagney Lt. Akers calmly if illegally hands the file over to Chance, and the chase is on. The suspect is an inside trader due for parole from a tennis club prison. The likely next victim is Chance's foolhardy student, who pursues his own leads on a zippy little motor scooter. Chance is joined throughout the investigation by his wife, Micki (Daphne), whose job at the State "Free Spirit," which moves to its regular 8 p.m.

Sunday time slot alter Friday's outing, draws on an inexplicably recurring sitcom theme a witch in the house. This isn't inherently funny, or even particularly interesting (I'd tend to favor a troll). It's only worked once with "Bewitched." But TV programmers can't let go of it. Perhaps they're under the spell of a Burbank coven. This latest effort to enchant viewers presents Corinne Bohrer as Winnie (the Witch, natch), a sexy sorceress sent to our mortal plane to perform the period of public service required of witches "every hundred years or so." She doesn't do windows, or dishes or floors for that matter, so she's not pleased to be mistaken for a new housekeeper in the home of attorney Thomas Harper (Franc Plan-A-Celebration WeddingsPartiesSpecial OccasionsGifts ADVENTUROUS PARTIES CATERERSPARTY SERVICES EVENT COORDINATORS PARTYWEDDING FACILITIES PHOTOGRAPHERS ADVENTURE ON WHEELS Private motorized cable cars for FIRST CALL Excellent food full service.

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