The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 243

Television A comedy outclassed by its star Bod WlSEHART TV critic be as good as it is To tell you the truth sometimes it If I seem ambivalent well not At least I think so What this romantic comedy-detective story has going for it is an actor named Bruce Willis who gives a high-energy screwball performance captivating what might happen if Dan Aykroyd met Robin Williams in st arch of Maltese Falcon" Willis get a lot of help but he need it When on camera is energetic and funny reminiscent of the Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur movies of the 1940s with rat-tat-tat dialogue that zips along in a hurry to the next jest It hold up under perusal but when Willis is really cooking I think anyone will be of a mind to do that anyway which also stars Cybill Shepherd is on tonight at 9 on KOVR Channel 13 as a two-hour movie At 10 pm Tuesday it starts a run as a regular one-hour series If it performs well in spring training a good chance return for a longer run next fall Shepherd plays a model taken her millions to semi-retirement but awakens one morning to find been flim-flammed out of her money The poor thing is left with nothing but her tax write-offs $400000 worth of income i A prime source of that negative income is the City of Angels Detective Agency which solve crimes because after all supposed to lose money Lollygag-ging around as head of the firm is David Addison (Willis) who knows a good detective at least he thinks he could be but plays the patsy because the living is easy and the perks are great including a Porsche as the company car LlKE A BATTERING ram Shepherd storms the agen-' cy bent on liquidation Predictably she does not hit it off 1 with her chief gumshoe For one thing he mistakes her for Miss March 1976 I can see the whole layout in my he says brightly as steam wafts from ears Even faster than you can remember where you might have seen this story before the possibilities are legion this is not the most original idea in the history of moving pictures the dynamic duo is dragged into a case only they recognize it as a case until well into it something to do ith obscure numbers inside a watch and a cache of diamonds The plot is sheer lunacy and the bad guys are cartoon cutouts from the Eric Von Stroheim school pf exaggerated villainy What can you say about a heavy who purrs the effect of heat on animal to his captives? But when Willis essays into action all of that does not matter As for instance when he tries to convince Shepherd of his credentials talk about he says were in she asks incredulously could have he replies with confidence came very In another scene the redoubtable detective and his employer are waiting to enter an elevator The door opens and a body with a knife in its back falls face-first to the floor Willis who notice the knife winces got to hurt falling on your nose like The lines probably read as good as they are Willis has a naturally irreverent way of tossing off dialogue so breezy you could set sail with it and still lets us know not the mangy goof he seems to be As for Shepherd just say she do too much damage Old stone face exactly the most expressive actress alive Or dead At times it looks like every nerve in her face has been shut down Actually gets about all there is to get way Willis does in Whether or not the series takes flight watch this man I think going to see a lot more of him out of her As the snotty ice princess Shepherd is cold enough to put permafrost on the equator rare in TV that an actor takes charge of a show the I I 1 I 'I i i i i' i rrTTTTn T7T5 The Sacramento Bee Sunday March 31985 Encore 3 V141TV MW.