The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 40

TELEVISION C12 The Vancouver Sun, Thursday, April 20, 1989 TV priests need more than faith HESTER admitting that he's "seeing things." The trouble with the show is that, because the actors don't "see" one another, the characters seem disconnected with one another. Also, it's not a very funny idea. Send this one to sitcom afterlife. III 1 jlf'i l' 'a I 1 1 I if pr Mmm. fi' aiv' v4y 1 1 mildly dirty jokes that got the biggest laughs in the middle of the program, but it was hard to tell a meteorite shower or heavy weather disrupted the satellite signal at the most heightened moments of hilarity.

Static and fuzz replaced the punchlines for a couple of minutes. Was this judgment from on high, or just an eerie ft RICHES Television ONE WOULD Ihink that holy people have greater things to worry about than cake sales, bingo receipts, the hiring of clerical employees and the teaching of insolent children. On television, those living a religious life are generally portrayed as fools with such things cluttering their minds. Old, doddering fools. Young, dithering fools.

Middle-aged, harmless fools. Foolish Hying nuns and foolin'-aroun' crime-buslin' priests. Of course, just about everyone else in sitcom world is a fool, from Bill Cosby's obstetrician character to Ted Danson's lady-killer. Yet it would be reassuring to see those members of the more spiritual world exempt from grand foolishness in a perhaps kinder, gentler television medium of the future. Not that Have Faith (Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m.

on Ch. 4) is particularly unkind or ungentle to its characters. But it does not portray its leading characters in unflattering light. One of the Boys (Saturdays at 9:30 p.m. on Ch.

5) is a genuinely funny sitcom, due to the star presence of Maria Conchita Alonso. A personality-plus Venezuelan-born actress, she makes this standard comedy entry seem funnier than the words in the script. She plays the newly-hired office manager of a construction company. She becomes involved with the boss, a widower who presides over another all-male domain at home. The program's nothing special certainly not worth staying home Saturday night to catch but it's a pleasant outing with fairly nice people.

You want the show to succeed, if only because Alonso is obviously trying so hard to please her audience. Less about spiritual life and more about spirits is Nearly Departed (Mondays at 8:30 p.m. on Ch. 5), an especially foolish comedy about ghosts. Once-great Monty Python member Eric Idle co-stars with Caroline McWilliams (Benson), as a couple of dead people whose ghosts continue to inhabit their former house along with the new owners.

The ghosts can see and hear the live people in the house, but the live people cannot see or hear the ghosts. Except for a crazy old grandpa (Henderson Forsythe), who doesn't mind Joel Higgins plays the monsi-gnor in a Chicago Catholic parish. He spent most of the half-hour pilot in a state of Barney Miller-styled befuddlemenl. His management crisis of the day was compounded by a sassy secretary he just hired, and a bunch of less-competent priests who required his help with silly duties. The biggest jokes were about a middle-aged woman who suspected she was possessed by Satan and was in need of an exorcism.

They seemed to be NEARLY DEPARTED stars Stuart Pankin, Eric Idle and Henderson Forsythe Ch. Cable 5:00 p.m. 5:30 p.m. 6:00 p.m. 6:30 p.m.

7:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 8:00 p.m. 8:30 p.m. 9:00 p.m.

9:30 p.m. 10:00 p.m. 10:30 p.m. 11:00 p.m. 11:30 p.m.

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There are many of the same characters and actors, including Stephen Collins and Blythe Danner as the divorced couple who run a restaurant together. David Letterman writer and occasional performer Chris Elliott joins the show, and Jerry Stiller and Mary Beth Hurt return to the cast. HESTER RICHES RESENTS ARRIVES NEXT WEEK DON'T MISS HER! The International Opera Festival production of: by Giuseppe Verdi (In Italian with English Surtitles) Jf STEPHEN COLLINS: runs eatery with ex- wife April 23 2:30 PM Prelude Concert) :30 PM April 24 8:00 PM Prelude Concert 7:00 PM Tickets: $9 The April 24 performance is sponsored by Seaboard Computing Services Peter McCoppin Conductor Anne-Sophie Mutter Violin Program Beethoven: Violin Concerto Weisgarber: Musica Serena lanacek: Sinfonietta the Egyptian the mighty Sphinx 3 and the Nile. All in a setting never seen and never to be seen again! With The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra The Vancouver Bach Choir. B.C.

PLACE STADIUM APRIL Mayl 8:00 PM May 2 8:00 PM Tickets: $9 Sponsored by Air Canada Catherine Comet Conductor Robert Silverman Piano 8:00 PM rHART.F Program Rossini: The Barber of Seville, overture Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op.43 Debussy: Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun Stravinsky: Firebird Suite (1919 version) BY PHONE: I 'm ft 280-4444 Tickets at ail Ticketmaster Outlets $25, $50, $75, $100, $125 mihl (plus surcharges) May 15, lb Peter McCoppin Conductor Sophie RoIIand Cello Program Tickets: $9 Sponsored by Air Canada Chabrier: Espana Faure: Pelleas el Melisande: Suite, Op.80 Saint Saens: Cello Concerto No. I in A minor, Op.33 Falla: El amor brujo: Ritual fire dance Faure: Elegie for cello and orchestra, Op.24 Falla: Three-cornered Hat: Three dances (Suite No.2) BY GIUSEPPE VERDI APRIL 22252729 ELIZABETH THEATRE 8:00 PM QUEEN VANCOUVER Tickets: TicketmasterVTC 280-3311 or 280-4444 Generously Sponsored By Martha Lou Henley RBC Dominion Securities Ltd. lUs "-Lf- Tickets are available at all VTCTicketmaster outlets, including Eaton's, Woodwards and Info Centres in the major malls. CHARGE BY PHONE 280-3311280-4444 Half Price Student Tickets on sale at all VTCTicketmaster outlets on the day of the performance, (discount applicable in sections, two per student, valid ID required) "Plus applicable sure The Opera Club's Mini Previews Performance nights, 7.10 pm in QET lobby. Free to licketholders.

Rush Seats General public $9 50 (cosh only) in person from 10am to 5pm day of performance ol VTC box office, 630 Homilton Si Limited number. Stand-By Tickets for seniors and students $5 (cosh only) of the doc 30min before curtain, as available (valid ID) QOfW ft TicketmasterVTC surcharge extra. Jg s-a.