The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 22

ntertainment Saturday, July 31, 1999 The Pantagraph NBC to overhaul shows, add 5 minorities CRAFT AT THE MOVIES ture black characters. Wayans' show was described as "Not the Bradys," featuring an interracial marriage and the resulting merged family. Several planned cast additions involve minority actors: Sherri Shepherd on "Suddenly Jesse L. Martin on "Law Order" and Michelle Hurd on its spinoff, By LYNN ELBER Associated Press PASACENA, Calif. NBC is putting more ethnic diversity in its new and returning series, partly in response to criticism of the major broadcast networks for a nearly all-white slate of new fall shows.

"It would be totally disingenuous to stand up here and say we did this totally on our own," -NBC West Coast President Scott Sassa said Thursday, ac ney and Goran Vis-njic. Alan Alda and Rebecca DeMornay will guest star in several "ER" episodes, while recurring character Dr. Romano (Paul Mc-Crane) is now a regular. The series returns Thursday, Sept. 30.

NBC, more vulnerable since losing "Seinfeld," also is overhauling shows to improve ratings and try to maintain its top-ranked position. Along with Ms. Shepherd, "Suddenly Susan" will add Eric Idle Rob Estes and Currie Graham as the magazine the characters work for becomes a sports publication. "Veronica's Closet" is losing Ron Silver and bringing aboard a new adversary for Veronica (Kirstie Alley): Silver's young wid ANBC knowledging the effect of complaints from the NAACP and others. The network said it is working with actor-writer Keenen Ivory Wayans and producer Yvette Lee Bowser to develop a pair of sitcoms that will fea- MTV attempts to bring real life to animated series ow.

The series, which has failed to capitalize on its stellar Thursday, slot behind "ER," is moving. tpi Monday. Both "Veronica's Closet'and "Jesse" are getting new producers. The latter also is adding Rahhm as a cast member. "West Wing," a new series set in the White House and criticized as having an unrealistically cast, will add a black actor in a recurring role, said NBC Entertainment President Garth Sassa said the network "should have done a better job" in creating racially diverse shows.

Diversity is good business for the network, he said, because NBC-owned stations in big cities draw more ethnic viewers. NBC's new schedule the week of Sept. 20. video from affiliate WAG But it was 2:57 p.m. befort CNN gave viewers word of the; shooting and cut to video from WXIA-TV.

CNN is affiliated with four Atlanta stations whose live feeds it has permission to use. CNN spokesman David Bit-tier said the network had been monitoring what he termed "conflicting reports" from 16- captations before it chose ttfn go with the story. He said there were "differing accounts of the event from our four afr' filiates," including different reports about the number of wounded. "Our editorial decision was to be accurate "with what we went with, rather than be con- -cerned with being first," Bit- tier said. Cleanse your mouth, Betty White! The big shocker in "Lake Placid" isn't the semi-trailer-sized giant crocodile that rears up, yanks an angry grizzly off the water's edge and swallows him whole (it's the legendary Bart the Bear of "The Bear" and "The Edge" fame, by the way, and, frankly, we're glad to see him silenced).

No, the whopper shocker comes with the introduction of a subsidiary character played by the veteran sitcom actress and game show player, Betty White. She's cast as the aptly named Dolores Bickerman, a widowed old woman who has a special relationship with the semi-trailer-sized giant crocodile that has somehow wandered slightly afield to a mountain lake in Maine. Like putting dirty words into the mouths of babes, the easiest way to get a laugh out of increasingly jaded audiences these days is to put the same On the tongues of "cute" senior citizens. Here, though, TV writer David E. Kelley (of TV's highly lauded "Picket Fences," "Ally McBeal" and "The has gone several steps further than usual, trading on White's image from her own TV days, circa "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Golden Girls." Playing varying degrees of self-righteous andor predatory womanhood in each one, White has always gave the impression that there was a rank-and-bawdy dame just aching to break her FCC binds.

In "Lake Placid," Kelley trips the switch and out springs grandma-from-hell, using language we doubt that her "South grandkids have ever encountered from such senior quarters. And we don't mean the usual variants of darn, shoot and heck. CNN delayed going with shooting news "Law Order: Special Victims Darryl Theirse on "Jesse" and Michael Michele and Ming-NaWen on "ER." Ms. Michele Life on the will play a second-year resident, while Ms. Wen is reprising her role from the medical drama's first season as Dr.

Deb Chen. Joining them will be Maura Tier- Alex endures younger sister' Chaka, a self-involved 17-year-old motor mouth, and her naive best friend, Mecca. Jen is Alex's best friend and a girl who's just one of the guys, though she'd like to be something more to Alex. They all stand a little bit in awe of Goat, a biker type who does as he pleases and, given the chance, lets his friends down in numerous ways but always as gently as he can. Matt and Fruity, 18-year-old buds, provide comic relief.

In the first of 13 completed 30-minute episodes, Alex moves into his own digs. In the process, he foolishly leaves Chaka and Mecca in charge of borrowed transport which is hijacked. "Downtown" will not alter the course of human events, but its relationships and dialogue ring true enough to put it miles ahead of the late-night talk and infomercial programming against which it will be pitted. And if you think back to some MTV animation disasters like the Brothers Grunt, "Downtown" could come off as Peabody Award material. NEW YORK (AP) The shooting rampage in CNN's home town didn't make the cable network's airwaves until after its two all-news competitors had gone with the story.

Atlanta-based CNN said it had conflicting reports about Thursday's office building shootings and held out in the interest of accuracy. Early reports from MSNBC and Fox News Channel were accurate. At 2:43 p.m. CDT, MSNBC broke the story, which began shortly after 2 p.m. Then, at 2:47 p.m., MSNBC cut to a helicopter view of the building, located in Atlanta's Buckhead section, courtesy of its local affiliate WXIA-TV.

Fox News Channel followed at 2:50 p.m. Eight minutes later, it began airing chopper Lake Placid (R) Directed by Steve Miner. Written by David E. Kelley. Stars Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman, Oliver Piatt, Brendan Gleeson, Betty White, Meredith Salenger.

Rated for Betty White with an X-rated potty-mouth, much croc-chomping of heads and other appendages. (1 hr. 22 min.) General practice with emphasis on: DUI TRAFFIC CRIMINAL DEFENSE DIVORCE FAMILY LAW ftrr; a 13 I lmmmzmmm, mm i i i to It's a croc: "Lake Placid." ANTAG a to tiiiMjtitr kiiUi ftrf- y-f-- BrfBj iimm iWiiiiiiiiiii feiiijiiii-ni By JEAN PRESCOTT Knight Ridder Newspapers MTV reduces real life to two dimensions with the introduction of a new animated series, "MTV Downtown," Tuesday night at 9:30 CT. How real could life possibly be on MTV, you must be asking? It is a point well taken, and so let us qualify Many of the characters and situations in "Downtown" were inspired by interviews conducted with real people around Manhattan. We've been told the network even passed on actors and employed real people from the East Village to read dialogue.

It's a little bit like "Real World" but without the incessant whining and a better story line, loose as it is. At the center of this little Manhattan universe is Alex, an un-hip 24-year-old who wants nothing more than to attract the attention of a Gothic princess, Serena, who hardly knows he's alive. Well, Alex really, REALLY wants a Mr. action figure, too, but we'll skip that particular sidetrack and there are many of them. Reynolds' place may become school complex WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.

(AP) Burt' Reynolds' former ranch and movie studio may one day be filled with school books and children. The Palm Beach County School Board has voted 6-1 to buy the actor's 153-acre Jupiter Farms complex for $3.85 million. The deal takes the property out the trust it had been in since Reynolds filed for bankruptcy a few years ago. Included in the complex are production studios where Reynolds shot scenes from "Smoke'y and the Bandit" and "B.L. Stryker," and the chapel where he married Loni Anderson in 1988.

There is enough land for an elementary, middle and high school, but no construction is planned for at least five years. House speaker set to appear at festival MENDOTA U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Yorkville, will be the grand marshal for the Sweet Corn Festival parade at 1 p.m. Aug. 15.

Hastert's 14th district includes Mendota. Each year 50 tons of sweet corn are distributed free in one of LaSalle County's largest tourist events. 828-EG33 800-747-7323 LIVE ROCKABILLY 1-S49-1 HOovm COMDY fonigni Dave Engebretson Mark Knope Show Times 8:00 10:30 Tree House 662-5231 B080 Iraland Qrovt Blm, Hot' rooTis provided by Tre Gueat House tnn -mmw wrw i ttjt.i i bw i mm AT mm Hi mr jy i m- i if A lit i i fi I I im ii P'j i ii m- First off, you might ask: What is either David E. Kelley or Betty White doing adding a giant crocodile movie to their resume? Kelley, who also co-produced the film and let Steve Miner direct it, clearly is in a slumming mode here, trying to match the so-dumb-it's-giddy ambiance of the two films it wants to ape: the 1976 B-movie favorite, "Alligator" (giant 'gator in New York City) and the more recent (giant snake in the Amazon). Known for his snappy way around a TV character, Kelley has created something borderline unique here: "Lake Placid," barely over 80 minutes long, could easily pass for the first episode in a "smart new fall series" about the lives and loves of Manhattan paleontologist Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda), who each week goes looking for love and giant reptiles.

In all the wrong places, of course. Here, the wrong place is Black Lake, Maine, where Kelly (David E. does like the name doesn't he?) is dispatched by the head of the museum who has just ditched her for her best friend. When a croc tooth shows up embedded in the severed torso of a mysterious Black Lake victim, it becomes clear that they're go-' ing to need a bigger boat, etc. About as open to nature as Woody Allen, Kelly is working with multiple strikes against her when she turns up to meet her 1 costars in this week's episode.

They are: Bill Pullman, trapped in at least the most ignoble role of his career as Fish and Game Warden Jack Wells, the straight man who has to watch all the other actors and charac-! ters get those pert sitcom one-liners, because this is, after all, a comedy; Brendan Gleeson, fresh off the title role of John Boor- man's wonderful "The General," as cantankerous Sheriff Hank Keough; and Oliver Piatt, cast as Hank's nemesis, the egocentric mythology professor Hector Cyr, who 'copters in to save, not slay, the dragon. Er, giant crocodile. Fonda has as much fun with her frequently jolted character as 80 minutes of sitcom giant crocodile intrigue will allow, fielding everything from decapitated heads rolling into her, personal space to deflecting her heartbreak into a budding romance with Fish Game Warden Jack. Piatt also is programmed to spout nothing but hilarious comebacks as the mythology professor, while Gleeson seems to be having as much fun as the star of a recent internationally acclaimed, award-winning art house movie can have after selling out to the Hollywood machine. And, of course, there's Betty White, spewing her elder-filth left and right, while harboring her secret relationship with the errant reptile.

It's as if Kelley has supplied each character with his or her personal gag writer, a la Bob Hope and that generation of comics, so that when somebody opens his or her mouth, a really sharp bit of verbiage always emerges, ba-rump. All of this suggests a bunch of bright, witty, cynical people trying to make a cheap, crummy genre movie in spite of itself. The insincerity always shows. For awhile, though, the approach is kind of fun; you just can't begnidgathe spectacle of Betty White feeding the giant crocodile supper (supper being a large head of cattle). But come the croco-dile-eats-the-helicopter climax an homage to "Jaws "Lake Placid" has fallen prey to the dumb thrills it began life lampooning.

ib 4 si. 9 a mm i m. i inn" iir ii i IB ipni -w-r mmm mm ma mmmm I I I I I II II I I a ie i a mm a. i mm ma ft js -mj Ti-fcr mm a turn i i i mi nmntr I I -'fi i i a I it Mi.r a -a a i- am mm at a I I A am IE 1 Ill m. I LI i 1 I I Iff a- a I ,1 i- i a I mr ft i i i ill rw I mm I -v I a a i 1 -K 1 ill i.v iiiww I wi-.