Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 57

Spotlight Santa Cruz Sentinel Friday, Oct. 26, 198413 Ciuz Srnlinrl The week's listings daytime sports nighttime cable LJTV7 This Week Friday, Oct. 26 through Thursday, Nov. 1 TV hits follow tried-and-true formula By TOM LONG Sentinel Correspondent I -V IVY, feJSa-f THE COSBY CLAN Shades of "Father Knows Best' life sure can be funny. Nobody's particularly kinky or has any strong characteristics, and everybody just happens to be black because Cosby is.

Shades of "Father Knows Best." The point of all this, of course, is that it doesn't take outlandish people and incidents to make funny things happen; average folk can have senses of humor as well as neurotic taxi drivers, male maids, precinct detectives, and talking orangutans. And from this very basic if tricky premise "The Cosby Show" is building itself one heck of a big audience as well as garnering a lot of critical praise. And there's no denying that the show deserves both. It is funny a lot of the time, mainly because Cosby himself has a fine eye for the common comedies of life and a sense of delivery that has made him a millionaire. The rest of the cast all seem adequate (although they are definitely relegated to "rest of the cast" status) and the show tries to steer away from ever being too precious.

Still, there are many things in "The Cosby Show" that are disturbing. There is an absolutely condescending attitude towards the average working person in the show; in the first episode Cosby berated his oldest son when he said he wanted to be a normal person in a normal job. Bringing up all the financial nightmares normal people have to face, Cosby broke the world into haves and have nots and scorned the have nots. Doesn't this man realize that most of the people watching the show fall into the have nots category? A conservative estimate of this TV family's income would be upwards of $100,000 a year, more than three times the amount of the average viewer's. If he wasn't saying such a thing in a funny way he might be lynched.

Beyond that, the show keeps pushing home some other disquieting ideas Cosby is constantly complaining about his kids and what a pain they are, and he's downright dogmatic about their need for a formal education (even though Cosby himself made his money telling Fat Albert stories). And even though TV has ster-otyped blacks to a painful degree, it does seem a little odd that the show completely ignores the race factor; it must be some sort of aspect of this family's life. If there is one word that characterizes both of these successful series as well as this entire TV season it would have to be "safe." They had lots of money behind them, excellent production and casting, and all the promotion a TV show could want. They were built to succeed, and they have, and they will probably both be around for quite a while. But, as far as adding anything to the history of television or breaking ground in any way, forget it.

The only reason these shows are looking good is because the competition is miserable. SHE'S a writer of mysteries, living in Maine, so New England she seems to have clam chowder running through her veins. He's a black obstetrician, living in Somewhere, U.S.A., married to a lawyer, and the father of five children. What do they have in common? Quite a bit, actually. They are the lead characters in the two most successful new shows of this TV season.

They are both enacted by old pros who are neither sexy nor violent; in fact, they are almost unbearably wholesome. And despite the high production values, fine writing and tight direction obvious in both shows neither of these two characters are the least bit original, or truly interesting. They are both as safe as apple pie and hypothetically as difficult to dislike. Both "Murder, She Wrote" (Sundays at 8 p.m. on CBS) and "The Cosby Show" (Thursdays at 8 p.m.

on NBC) were highly anticipated, highly pedigreed, and highly touted shows before they ever hit the airwaves. Since their debuts, both have also become highly rated. Both had major obstacles to overcome. Angela Lansbury the star of "Murder, She Wrote" was unknown to a great part of the television audience, despite a long and illustrious career in both theater and film. And "The Cosby Show" was placed opposite CBS's "Magnum P.I.," considered one of the most unbeatable shows on TV.

Both overcame these obstacles with ease, thanks in large part to the fact that each show was being produced by people considered to be the absolute best in their field. "Murder, She Wrote" is the work of Levinson and Link, the creators of "Colombo" and many of the best TV movies of the past two decades. "The Cosby Show" was given its initial thrust by Ed Weinberger "The Mary Tyler Moore countless others) until he quit over the proverbial "artistic differences" two weeks ago. With these kind of heavyweights behind them, the shows could risk the obstacles. Lastly, both shows are using traditional television formats.

Along with the serial drama, the sitcom and the light mystery are television's longest-running forms. They are the sorts of things television can do better than films when they are handled right. So, it comes as no great surprise that both these shows are pretty good. The only thing that's really surprising is that they're not better than pretty good. "Murder, She Wrote" is a nicely done TV series, and it will probably never be painful to sit through an episode, but, so Stay tuned ley, Claude Akins, Howard Duff, Jeff Con-away, Gabe Kaplan, Arthur Hill, George Maharis and many others have walked through the show; it's become a directory of out-of-work actors).

Still, it is good for TV (possibly the most backhanded compliment in history). The scripts move well, everything looks nice, and Lansbury has an aging giddiness that's fun if not exciting. Probably a more fair comparison would be to NBC's "Remington Steele," the only other successful show of the genre currently running. But, whereas "Murder, She Wrote" may take its mystery a bit more seriously, it still fails the character comparison when Lansbury is put beside Pierce Brosnan. The truth simply is that half the thrill of a mystery is the mystery itself; the other half is in the person solving the mystery and at least for now Lansbury's character just isn't that interesting.

Bill Cosby's character, though, on "The Cosby Show" is interesting, if only because the actor seems to be playing himself and many of his own attitudes and prejudices are expressed in the scripts (the likely reason for Ed Weinberger's departure). Other than that the situation in this sitcom is notable only for it's complete lack of distinction: two successful professionals are raising five kids and family far at least, it seems to lack any real flair about it. The inevitable comparisons to "Colombo" are probably unfair, but what the heck, no sense in avoiding them since that older show still stands as the mark by which all other TV mysteries should be measured. The first obvious problem is that while Angela Lansbury is quite likeable and somewhat interesting, Peter Falk made for a stronger character by being somewhat likeable and very interesting. His quirks, mental turnarounds, and almost clumsy presence were a lot more fun to watch than Lansbury's fairly chirpy character (although the problem can't really be laid on Lansbury; there doesn't seem to be much in the script to interpret).

But, other factors conspire to weaken the show in comparison. The fact that "Murder, She Wrote" usually runs in an hour format is certainly limiting (although its two-hour debut just seemed a doubling of its formula rather than a deepening), and the parade of guest stars who show up in each episode tends to be distracting (since its first episode Tom Bos- DANCE THE MIGHT AWAY! THE BATTLE OF THE BANDS! ALL AT EVERY SATURDAY MIGHT IN OCTOBER an 99 MOVIE DEAL RENT 3 MOVIES FOR 2 DAYS at 5.97 (That's 99' per movie per day) FREE MEMBERSHIP ALL RATINGS STAR STRUCK VIDEO 710 FRONT ST. SANTA CRUZ Open 7 Days 429-6814 -niuni I tou Munoaiun THE BEST LOCAL BANDS COMPETING FOR $1000 IN PRIZES! PLUS BREAKDANCING DEMOS, VIDEO GAME WARS MORE! FOR MORE DETAILS CALL 438-2222 Jj.