Newsday (Suffolk Edition) du lieu suivant : Melville, New York • 183

4 i i 5- vr -rf IE 1L I If You Enjoyed 'The Like KEWFALtSKOWSM i By Drew Fetherston ALTHOUGH premieres tomorrow (9 pm NBC 4) viewers already have had at least a decade to decide whether they like it If you eqjoyed Sherman Hemsley in "The (or even earlier in "All in the there is' small chance that you will dislike imagine that George Jefferson gave up his business interests in New York to take over as deacon of a Philadelphia church founded by his father and you know enough about to plan what to do Saturday night Hemsley plays Deacon Ernest Frye just as he played George Jefferson: prideful irascible sharp-tongued cynical The comedy writing in is similar to and at least in the first SIN KITMANj HOWjig Bobby? In the Shower? Or in the Grave? THE WAY I look at it we can be sure of one thing when the new eeaaon atarta tonight at 9 on CBS 2: 1 Bobby died 2 Or he didn't die As you may recall the show ended last season in the cliffhanger that boggled everybody's mind with Ham opening the ahower curtain and finding a man looking very much like Booby Ewing (aa I call the new undead Bobby) in the ahower atill recovering from that scene I wonder how many hour Patrick Duffy had to rehearse I mean to get those two words just right I had been led to believe by the CBS promos that he would reappear at the wedding He seems to have missed the wedding Nobody holds it against him Look when dead and come back it takes some time to get in gear Thus we had the biggest ahower acene since "Psycho" And now there is only one mind-boggling thing bigger finding out how Booby got there Everybody I know ia even more excited and boggled by the "Dallas" opener than by You can be sure too that the answer come in only one episode These big resolutions can be dragged out for three to six weeks There are IS scenarios for what happens tonight all of which have been printed and documented with pictures it seems in the leading authoritative journals in the supermarket The different plot lines are leaked by the producer Tm convinced to the Enquirer and the Star who pay for all 15 of them Selling top secret scenarios to the Enquirer and Star is a good form of andl-liary rights And it doesn't hurt anybody except the poor viewer at home who believes everything that appears in the papers I notice that even in the promos and ads for premiere they are using the multi-plot lines: "One of these is the right answer" an ad in TV Guidereads: a twin He was revived at the last minute It was all a dream It was all an upset stomach from eating too much pizza with sausage and peppers and anchovies and mushrooms before going to bed 0 made the last one up myself!) You've got to hand it to CBS Whatever they Patrick Duffy plays Bobby Earing on lack in imaginative script writing they make up for in chutzpah Here the network makes the marketing blunder of the century in letting Duffy go They have the ratings to prove it And now shrewdly trying to capitalize on it selling the mistake Have we forgotten about the New Coke? That marketing blunder made them bring back the old Coke The New without Patrick Dufly didn't work And now bringing back belatedly the old classic Patrick Dufly Tom Wyman under whose CBS administration all of these dumbo hijinks took place certainly knows about Coke He even tried to sell the network to Coke which was the last straw for the CBS board of directors who look like members of the Pepsi generation So whafs the story with Booby? he do-ingin the shower? One minute Tm ready to bet my tickets to the Southfork barbecue that a dream the next I think if that Pam foil on her head doing her Jane Fonda aerobics I don't know what to believe anymore My sources suggest that may not even have been Dufly in the shower "I understand that Basil Fawlty was auditioning for the Booby-in-the-ahower role" explained Wendy Binnie of East Northport "The way brain has been scrambled by the Califomia-Texas sun she could have been dreaming of the greatest innkeeper since Norman Whichever scenario they pick tonight one thing Tm sure ofi If going to be an insult to my intelligence such as it is anymore The way the soaps are dealing with death is becoming like the cartoons An atomic device drops on the head of Roadrunner he gets a little headache With this really stupid back-from-the-dead plot line Lorimar Telepictures and producer Leonard Continued on Page 11 justice There is promise in the premiere of a better-wielded foil to parry thrusts in Clifton Davis who plays the educated and self-confident new minister of the church Davis comes by his pastoral skills fairly he is the son of an evangelist and himself a mlnlider in real life an assistant pastor of a church in Iomw Unde Calif The combination of Hemsleyand Davis looks promising In the first episode a young member of the congregation has to decide whether to accept an under-the-table payment from a college recruiter who covets his basketball skills The dea con of course is delighted by a situation that offers quick gain and guides the lad toward the payment The minister argues that the payment is wrong and must be reftised an interesting question particularly when it involves no crime and might do much good for the star's none-too-well-off family the sort of serious situation that didn't get tntii-b Th Juffurun Another possibility for some beyand-Jeflersons humor exists in the relationship with his daughter played tor Anna Marie Hereford We meet her after she has been unlucky in love for not the first time and is naturally looking at the new pastor as the solution of her problems The father-daughter byplay in the first episode doesn't get beyond sitcom depth but the possibility is not yet squandered So "Amen" isn't just "George Jefferson moves to It may yet take that easy way out but it will be some weeks before it becomes dear to viewers Ch 11 Revamping Its Night News Show NEWSDAY FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 26 1986 Pail 11 9 Ch 11 now incorporates elements of the INN national newscast into its local program John Corporon president of INN and news director of WPlX confirmed he is "contemplating a but said haven't committed to anything He said a decision would be made within a tow days However the Tribune sources said the decision had already been readied "When we decide well be able to go with the new format either on Nov 1 or the beginning of Corporon said The changes at WPIX come as Tribune Broadcasting is tightening its news budget for INN staff members but not necessarily for equipment said sources at the Chicago-based company who did not want to be quoted by name For instance the station is planning to but its first truck to allow the station to broadcast live remote re- 'r I By Kevin Goldman YTE7P1X11 is expected to replace its 10 pm If hoiur-long newscast Nov 1 with two separate 30-minute broadcasts sources at Tribune Broadcasting owner of the station said yesterday The newscast titled "Independent Network will be divided into "New York at 10 pm anchored by Morton Dean and Sheila fltainlwM-h and at KWH) pm "USA anchored by Dean Dean and currently wrVifir the 10 pm hour on Ch 11 WPDC produces a half-hour national newscast for 112 stations that make up a consortium called Independent Network News The 10:30 pjn pro- gram will be a taped delay of that newscast which is fed live across the country at 9:30 pm i 4 I I tvi-tr I Sherman Hemsley left and Clifton Davis f) Ui- 01 7t I t- I--? 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