The Buffalo News from Buffalo, New York • 27

INAL The Buffalo NewsTuesda January 17 C7 Television REPORT ROM LA Two comedies rely on the charm of leading cha racters In a way my job is similar to that of the record executive Tom arrell (Tom Cavanagh of in (9 to night WTVB TV) an ell scours the country looking for tire next big thing and discovers that there a lot of future re jects out there His musical ear saves the country from listening to things he cant avoid I try to save you from watching shows that I avoid like ilys Reasons Why and in Those two ABC comedies began a ro mantic January jour ney that continues with and next CBS comedy with Jenna Elftnan All tire Charm coms rely on the ap peal and charm of the lead character more than they re ly on laugh out loud humor Narrated by Cavanagh and based on the best selling book by Kyle Smith is the leader of the charm pack It cer tainly has one of the more intrigu ing show titles By the middle of pilot understand that it comes from some romantic advice given to arrell keep looking for the per fect a gal pal tells him going to end up one lonely Tom is more interested in quoting Bob Dylan and playing basketball with his buddies who are in different stages of relation ships One of his best friends Mike (Jason Priestley) is married to pregnant sister and won ders if anyone envies him for hav ing settled down Next question entourage includes the gal pal Brandy (Judy Greer) a former pro baseball player who is now a sportswriter and a guy who likes to quote Law It is cleverly named after Hugh Grant the actor who in a widely report ed embarrassing incident proved that men may never be satisfied by the smart beauty on their arms The guy roles may be cli ched but all likable arrell also has his profession al rivals who share his vi sion that the music business should be about music and not marketing Tonight he battles with one rival over the talents of a teenager Wayne with a beautiful voice played by Buf falo native Teddy Geiger The pilot is far from perfect but it has some amusing lines and an appeal ing style In short if you loved Cavan comic rhythms and adorable roman tic act in this show may be music to your ears and be willing to go on a second date with him The same be said for (9:30 pm Mon day WIVB TV) which stars Elf man of and fame It plays like a bad second album after a stirring debut album Elf man is a workaholic corpo rate lawyer who used to dress up as a lawyer on Halloween when she was in grade school She grown out of it She takes cell phone calls during dates which is revealed in the unfunny promos for the show Her multi married father (played by Dabney Coleman) wants Alex to get back in the dating game The head of her firm he also wants her to use her powers of persuasion to con vince a stock broker who became a bar owner to sell his family property so a big real estate sky scraper can be built Coleman is as wasted here as Wendie Malick is in in There also is an obligatory male neighbor a Alan Pergament WB news program has uncertain fixture The future of the 10 news being produced at WB 49 is the subject of much speculation in local industry circles after its owner Sinclair Broadcasting an nounced it is folding its news op eration on a ox affiliate in Pitts burgh after nine years The Sinclair cost cutting plan in Pittsburgh is for the ox affili ate to carry news on its station that will be produced by another local affiliate According to sources Sinclair might be discussing whether to end its production of WB news which began in August 2004 and either fold it or make a deal with a Buffalo affiliate to pro duce the 10 news carried onWNYO The speculation comes at a time the ratings for the weekday newscast anchored by Kelly Kraft have shown improvement since the newscast was cut from an hour to 30 minutes According to sources Channel 49 News Director Bruce Corris compassionately advised his staff of the possible end last week and suggested it probably a mat ter of if but when the newscast will be history Corris declined comment to The Buffalo News and deferred questions to his gen eral manager Nick Magnini Magnini said the Pittsburgh situation probably fueled rumors 100 percent business as said Magnini I get from the corporation is the 10 news is full speed Of course Magnini be expected to say anything else be fore a final decision is made be cause it could impact advertising contracts and negotiations If Sinclair decide to end the 10 pm news and makes a deal with another TV news de partment in the market to pro duce news the one sure thing is Channel 4 be in volved because it already carries a highly rated 10 pm news on its sister station WNLO If Walter Cronkite announced 25 years ago he believed Ameri can troops should leave a foreign country it would have made very big news After all the retired CBS evenihg news anchor was consid ered the most trusted man in American decades ago when he delivered a commentary that said American troops should exit Viet nam But not the way it is any more During an interview in Cali fornia with the television critics Cronkite said he would comment on the Iraq war if he were still anchor going to have to leave it with them some day and it is my belief we should get out said Cronkite He believes the Bush administration had an op portunity to exit with honor after Hurricane Katrina Cronkite said the government could have said the natural disaster placed a fi nancial burden that required its troops to exit Iraq before adding that we would do everything we could to help Iraq rebuild Alan Pergament On Sci i a new Who NEW YORK (AP) Doctor Who is again jumping the pond from England this time arriving stateside via the Sci i Channel The The an updated version of the classic TV show that ran from 1963 1989 will begin airing in March on Sci i the network announced It stars Christopher Ecclcston as The Doctor who battles aliens and monsters while time travel ing The original also a British export featured sev en different actors in the starring role through the years Each Doc tor would into an other person when dose to death or after being killed The Sci i channel will also team up with Steven Spidberg on a 12 part miniserics about people reuniting with de ceased loved ones in the afterlife through near death experiences British artist named Julian (Hugh Bonneville) and a female assis tant Josh Randall who played Ca married friend on is the bar owner Scott who is try ing to convince Alex about the powers of spontaneity and sur prises Unfortunately not even Cole comic powers can save the powerless laughless pilot I doubt even charm could have saved it if he had been cast in role It has some charm But as comedy plays a familiar tune has few surprises and is barking un der the wrong tree Ratings: 2V2 stars out of 4 Vb stars I mail: apergamentbvffnewscom Tom Cavanagh left and Jason Priestley are looking for answers on NO ONE DOES ARTS CRATS LORALS BETTER! 4" Hot Melt Reg to $399 Reg $399 Reg 8 2fors5 Reg 69 each Reg to $169 eo 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