The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 20

Television The Sacramento Bee Monday September 15 1986 B6 THE NEW SEASON i djjk fe BOB WISEHART TV Critic principles with the realities of his business Unlike Furillo when he has to drop one or the other his principles hit the floor He has a conscience but it does not have a loud voice Hamlin defends a psychotic slimeball accused of rape and whether his client actually did it is irrelevant The victim (Alfre Woodard gives a terrific performance) is dying from leukemia and an associate cynically observes that "with a little bit of luck and a half dozen continuances either die or quit before the case ever gets to Probably because supposed to like Hamlin over the long haul he explains to Woodard how the same legal system that just bulldozed her has its flaws but it's the only system got Hamlin reeks of sincerity but not a believable moment in the scene Once "LA finds its rhythm maybe it'll stop trying to have it both ways also an interesting split between the sexes Most of the male lawyers have their dark sides some are purely greedy and unprincipled The women especially Jill Eikenberry as an idealistic savvy attorney all say and do the right stuff as though Bochco were working under the imperatives of an affirmative-action program At this point impossible to tell if that's a trend for the long haul or a fluke in the first episode "LA is easily the best new show of the season and could become one of those rare shows that appeal even to people whss-uallv don watch senes TV The Emmy awards will be handed out on Sunday and this time next year I wouldn't be surprised if "LA toted home a bunch of them re I A is unusual in that even when it a I screws up you mind at least not as hob much as other TV series that really screw up because it's trying so hard At its best the new NBC series is adult thoughtful and funny though it strains too hard for eccentricity and has an irritating way of letting characters off the hooks on which it so merrily hoists them Based in an uptown law firm where egos clash with ideals resembles "The Defenders" more than say "Perry but what it resembles most is early Street hardly the shock of ages considering that Steven Boehco probably the best drama producer in TV created both of them Bochco has a distinctive style in a business that only reluctantly concedes that individual style exists His trademarks a large ensemble cast overlapping dialogue multiple plots and jarring mood shifts are everywhere tonight (at 9 on Channel 3) He is aided by writer-producer Terry Louise Fletcher a former Los Angeles deputy district attorney who was driven out of the law by her frustration with it and wants the show to focus on hat doing the law does to Tonight's movie will be repeated at 11:30 pm Sept 27 before the series settles into its regular 10 pm Friday spot Oct 3 The upscale veneer of McKenzie Brackman Chaney and Kuzak covers what is in some ways worse than anything on As Bochco says lawyers don't need guns and knives when they can you with a telephone" The show opens with a death When one of the elder members of the firm a tax-law specialist is found slumped over his desk Monday morning the handsomely oily Corbin Bernsen pipes up got dibs on his desk" Bernsen is an amoral ambitious and thoroughly disreputable jerk ho specializes in divorce law If the series sticks he could become a very popular man The deceased funeral is hilarious black comedy In tribute an associate says "If I had one word to describe (the dead lawyer) that word would be which as tributes go comes up a little short in the warmth department If Bernsen is to "LA Law" what Johnny LaRue is to Street Blues" then Harry Hamlin is this show's Frank Furillo As Michael Kuzak Hamlin juggles his Special to The Bee Corbin Bernsen front Jill Eikenberry and Harry Hamlin make the most of legal matters in new drama series EVENING For viewers who fond of football always Hope TUNE IN TONIGHT By Judy Flander CABLE AND PAY TV A NEW season without Bob Hope? NBC begins its evening with Hope Lampoons the New TV (8 pm Channel 3) with Morgan Fairchild Ann Jil-lian Tony Randall George Burns and Danny Thomas among his fellow merrymakers Hope Burns and Thomas do a turn as the randy Boys" Series opener (9 pm Channel 3) makes the most spectacular television drama series debut since the premiere of "Hill Street And not coincidentally it was co-created by "Hill creator Steven Bochco His co-creator and co-writer for this opener is former deputy district attorney Terry Louise Fisher and believe me a dynamite combination While "LA Law" doesn't have the advantage of the life-and-death drama of a cop or doctor show it is totally involving at times astonishing liberally laced with black humor The two-hour premiere has a scintillating script crisp direction and an ensemble cast soon get to know well Easy decisions You won't have much trouble opting for watching the premiere of "LA since CBS has series reruns and ABC brings you Night action (6 pm Channel 13) game pits the Denver Broncos against the Pittsburgh Steelers Series picks On and Mrs (8 pm Channel 10) Lee and Amanda get on the job when a retired agent blows the whistle on a home for old agents On (8 pm Channel 13) our hero gets help from a teen computer whiz to prevent a national disaster On (9 pnt Channel 10) the women attend their high-school reunion with mixed motives On (9 30 pm Channel 10) Mr Vander-kellen wants Michael to sign a pre-nuptial agree ment On (10 Channel 10) Chris and Mary Beth are after a cop killer in an episode directed by Tyne Daly's husband Georg Stanford Brown TV talk Today on Morning (at 7 Channel 13) Donna Mills This morning on (at 7 Channel 3) Gloria Steinem guest-hosts all week and a three-parter with Barbra Streisand begins Nightly News With Tom (7 pm Channel 3) originates from five major West Coast cities this week beginning tonight in Seattle On Wednesday Biokaw broadcasts from the state Capitol On Best of (1130 pm Channel 3): Tom Jones the Girls Rot Club Kaleena Kiff Guests on Night With David (12:30 am Channel 3) include rocker 0 Osbourne Cable channels Old network shows don't always die Some of the best are winding up on cable these days Lifetime debuts a personal favorite to (at 8 pm) to air each Monday Craig Nelson and Cindy Pickett co-star in this fine series about an Air Force family during the 19(iiis BET 1 CBN CNN CSPAt DISN I ESPN I HBO NICK PI AY SFLEC SHOW TMC USA DAYTIME 10:00 10:30 7 :00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 11:00 2:00 2:30 12:30 1:00 1:30 11:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 5:30 4:30 5:00 Scrabble News Another World Santa Barbara Donahue News Hour Magazine (R) Days of Our Lives Wheel of Fortune Super Sale of Password Century Sesame Street Alive' Center Secret City Sesame Street Song of Survival Secret City 0 today O1 flocked Aerobics jq I Morning News I Secret City Firing Line Veteran Hooked Journalist Aerobics Sneak Previews Reading I Rainbow World ol Animals Yan Can Cook Hooked Aerobics Mister Rogers 3 2 1 ContaUlMister Rogprs Card Sharks As the World Turns The Price Is Right The Young and the Restless News Capitol Guiding Light Oprah Winfrey News Magnum i S25 000 Pyramid Fame Fortune Double Talk Chance News One Life to Live Raphael All My Children General Hospital News Ditf rent Strokes Three Company Good Momma America I tr David Paul IJimmy People Court El Angel Caido Superior Court El Mundo Espect clo Jewish Voice jjun Tammy Richard Roberts Frederick Price Cautiva Marionetas Jim Tammy Vivir un Poco O' iSwaggart Eleventh Hou 11th Hr (11 30) Contacto Legal Falcon Crest i Trans- Dallas Bob Newhart Alvin Little Pony One Day Perry Mason Scooby- Doo Wonderful World of Disney Happy Days Mork Mindi ED Death Takes a Hobday (71) Meivyn Douglas i Inspector 'Gadget Centuri- ons Inspector Gadget GoBots 1 "He-Man I Joe She Rd Addams The Love Boat Jetsons Rockford Files Silver- hawks Love Lucy Quincy Andy Griffith Jetsons IR) Thund r- cats Rambo Brady Bunch Hogan Heroes Laverne1 Shirley Dick Van Dyke Gimme a Break Zoobilee Zoo McHale Mr Ed Bracken World Dobie Gillts Hangm In Better Way Emergency1 Children Fund Ghost Mrs Muir Agri business Ozzie 8 Harriet Car 54 Where? Mohawk 56) Scot Brady Rita GamNevSIe Brand Addams Family McHale Navy Family Navy MOVIES 8 am Pee-wee Big Adverdure (1985) Paul Reubpns Elizabeth Daily Childlike Pee-wee loses his prized bicycle a vintage red rocket and enters the real world as he sees it to try to get it back PG i-mn'i 'Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984) Paul McCartney Bryan Brown A rock star daydreams he will lose his record company unless he finds the missing master tape of his new album by midnight PG 8:30 am "Pee-wee Big Adventure" (1985) 9 am Mohawk' (1956) Scott Brady Rita Gam An Indian attack is thwarted by a young maiden and the Easterner she loves 10 am ive My Regards to Broad Street (1984) part-time aerobics instructor becomes possessed by the spirit of a Japanese assassin FL 1 pm SD "Death Takes a (1971) Meivyn Douglas Yvette Mimieux Death assumes the human form of a man who arrives on earth to find out what makes people struggle so long to prolong life 1:35 pm Question of (1982) Ben Gazzara Paul Sorvino An honest New York police officer becomes the victim of entrapment by a ruthless federal agent 2 pm Flyers" (1985) Kevin Costner David Grant Two brothers one an underachiever the other a fierce competitor find fraternity in a grueling Rocky Mountain bicycle race 13' ti'-n'i My Regards to Broad Street" (1984) im Spirit (1945) Rex Harrison Constance Cummings The ghost of his first wife returns to cause trouble for a remarried widower Directed by David Lean Based on the play by Noel Coward n-'ipii'i The Emerald Forest" (1985) Powers Boothe Charley Boorman An American engineer loses his son in the Amazon and 10 years later finds him a full-fledged member of a green-dyed Stone Age tribe Noon E3 "The Last Dragon" (1985) Taimak Vanity Martial artist Leroy woos vid-eo-DJ Laura and deals with a self-styled Harlem shogun in this kung fu musical 13 m71 "Electric Dreams" (1984) Lenny Von Dohlen Virginia Madsen An architect personal home computer Edgar programs itself for romance with a lovely cellist who lives upstairs PG' L-funFi III: The Domination" (1984) Lucinda Dickey Jordan Bennett A telephone repair woman and Joan Prather Finding himself pregnant after his first sexual encounter a distraught man tries to cope with people wanting to share his fame and fortune PG' ra "Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island' (1983) FT71 "Pee-wee Big Adventure" (1985) 9:15 pm ituhj III: The Domination" (1984) 9:30 pm Violation" (1976) Stephen McHattie Kay Lenz When a hitchhiker meets up with a small town waitress they witness a murder and the chase is on to silence them PG' E3I Big Adventure" (1985) rritl "Electric Dreams" (1984) 10:45 pm i- mxi'l "Letters ot (1984) Bridg-ette Monet Cindee Summers An ad-vice-to-the-lovelorn column changes 5 pm LG'L'iii'l "Flesh Blood' (1985) Rutger Hauer Jennifer Jason Leigh A cheated medieval mercenary lays siege on a European castle forces himself on a bride-to-be and captures her noble betrothed followed by a plague 5:30 pm Eil Downs" (1983) Colin Skinner Andrew Sabiston Well-bred students of a Canadian prep school endure such anxieties as losing weight dying parents lack of romance and feeling left out ETOI Duck Movie: Fantastic Island" (1983) Daffy and sidekick Speedy Gonzales find a wishing well and invite Bugs Bunny Foghorn Leghorn Porky the Pig and other cartoon friends to their version of Island G' 7:15 pm fcilrti'l Emerald Forest" (1985) 8 pm 03 Test" (1978) Billy Crystal hands and gets results AO Midnight S) Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955) Rory Calhoun Shelley Winters An American mercenary and a follower of Pancho Villa make a turn-of-the-cen-tury last stand against troops sent for the gold they robbed (1985) 1 am CD (1983) George Eastman Pamela Field An exiled tribes man accused of murder arms himself with a shaft of iron plucked from a forge of swirling lava QD Living It Up" (1954) Dean Martin Jerry Lewis A railroad attendant is granted an all-expense-paid vacation in New York 1:10 am QD Rain People" (1969) James Caan Shirley Knight A neurotic Long Island housewife leaves home pregnant and picks up a brain-damaged ex-football hero Directed by Francis Ford Coppola Ft'.