Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 71

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1994DETROIT FREE PRESS 7G Crossword TV's hits and misses Five Cool New Faces CUURE DANES: The 15-year-old star of "My So-Called Life" civic pride End of some warnings Creamy cheese German essayistpoet Justus Presses a suit Mouthpiece piece Once around the sun Rarin' to go just one of those things" DOWN Mahal Harem room Process leather Sent out Subatomic particle Mil. address Short swim "What have we here?" Outrageously vile Two-deck card game Dom DeLuise movie Odgen resident Get one's goat Fictional Dallas City in Belgium Draw on (aim at) Silvers role Dutch genre painter Subject to ridicule 75 Old Roman road 76 North-flowing river 77 Nondiscrimination agcy. 78 Weapon (Glover film) 80 Mythical monsters 81 Receptive concerning 82 Goes after 88 '94 action film 89 Jeanne 91 Mecca trek 92 "You worsted me Homer 95 Swarmed over 97 Honorific in India 99 German mysticism founder 101 Going My Way star 103 Chestnut brown 106 Put on hold 107 School, to Sartre 108 Professional caregiver 109 Overdone enthusiasm 110 Actress Stevens 111 Dada artist Max 112 One-fourth of VIII 114 Lightly cooked 120 "Absolutely!" 121 Jazz trombonist 122 This very instant 123 Gene-carrier letters 124 CIA precursor 30 "Nothing 31 Handcuff holders 32 Hide 33 Conceive of 34 Hindu philosophy 35 McCartney tune of '72 36 Little fella 41 Holy Grail seeker 44 Soon 46 Western Samoa capital 47 Pieces' partners 49 Merchandise (Chicago landmark) 50 Sitcom star Scott 51 Money of China 53 Clockmaker Thomas etal. 54 Street language 56 Actress Lena 59 Exalt 61 Larcenous act 63 Shoelace tip 65 Coarse linen cloth 66 Small dams 67 Southern French city 69 Colorful marine fish 72 West Coast NFLers 73 soup yet?" 74 Burn slightly Town criers: Singers with BY DEAN NILES (Answers on Page 8G) ACROSS 1 Emblem on a pole 6 Single-purpose 11 Summer-storage items 15 Folder projections 19 "There Is Nothing Like 20 -terre 21 Go (do battle) 22 Newspaper notice 23 "Me and Bobby McGee" singer 25 Chaucer offering 26 River in Zaire 27 Shoe part 28 Mauna 29 Old World duck 31 "How Will I Know" singer 37 "Cry Me a River" singer 38 Went by horse 39 Le Solell (Louis XIV) 40 Hog hangout 41 hypothesis (New Age concept) 42 Three Lives 43 Ottoman title 45 Middle East gulf: Var. 48 "Don't build it here" acronym 52 Hornblower's milieu 53 Wood-finisher dyes 55 Book end 57 Nonpro sports org.

58 Private pupil 60 Romance writer Victoria 62 Emphatic type: Abbr. 63 Tosca selection 64 Tuckered out 65 "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" singer 68 Chase away 70 Formerly known as 71 Deep blue 72 "Jessie's Girl" singer 79 Where a famous statue was found 83 Pallid 84 Oppositionist 85 Genealogy chart 86 Stage, In France 87 Italian pronoun 88 Safeguard of a sort 90 Is Paris (Lubitsch film) 93 National Leaguer 94 Landing area 96 Emollient form 98 Homily-spouting detective 99 zwei, drel 100 Isthmus 102 Crash into 104 Pilot's aid: Abbr. 105 Roman statesman 106 "Calypso" singer 109 "Bad" singer 113 Quito denizen 115 Part of ETA 116 Mainz 117 Assembly-line innovator 118 Warbled 119 "Candida" singer 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 1 32 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 24 T5 23 31 gettable "Madman of the People" (NBC) still be drawing a Top 20 audience if it weren't blessed with the comfy Thursday night spot between "Seinfeld" and "ER?" Dubious. Nevertheless, "Madman" leads a quartet of "time slot successes." These are the first-year semi-hits with positive scheduling vibrations: "Friends" (NBC), which follows "Mad About You;" "Me and the Boys" (ABC), nicely tucked behind "Full House," and "The Five Mrs. Buchanans" (CBS), a sassy Saturday night follow-up to saccharine "Dr.

Quinn." Other fall '94 notes and comments: Most Overrated Rookie: nbcs "Friends," the fashionably coffee-fueled Thursday evening chatterfest from the producers of "Dream On" (HBO). A six-pack of quirky twentyso-mething chums sit around talking about life, love and bad '70s television. Decent cast, a few lively moments. But like "Ellen" (ABC), another tepid "Seinfeld" wannabe whose wit doesn't nearly match its solid Nielsen numbers, "Friends" is a ho-hum, straining-to-be-hip disappointment. SHE'S UP, HE'S DOWN: Despite tumbling ratings, CBS guessed right in moving "The Nanny" to 8 p.m.

Monday. Fran Drescher's tart, zany family comedy is winning the competitive time slot against "Coach" (ABC), "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (NBC) Place" (Fox.) ABC fumbled badly in switching "Coach" to the Monday at 8 spot, where it has lost millions of viewers. LATE ARRIVAL The fall season actually began in the summer with the Aug. 25 unveiling of "My So-Called Life." And the final fall premiere? NBC's "Earth 2," a sci-fi adventure series that could be described as "Wagon Train Goes to Mars," debuts Nov. 6.

THE OUTTA HERE GANG: If you're keeping track, six of the 27 new fall series already have been yanked off the airwaves. Besides the Fox trio of "Fortune Hunter," "Hardball" and "Wild Oats," the rejects include "McKenna" (ABC), "The Martin Short Show" (NBC) and Dudley Moore's latest dud, "Daddy's Girls" (CBS). Other seriously endangered rookies include "Blue Skies" (ABC), "The Boys Are Back" (CBS), "Touched by an Angel" (CBS) and "Something Wilder" (NBC). ADI0S, PRIME-TIME AMIGOS: David Caruso bids farewell to "NYPD Blue" Nov. 1.

Jimmy Smits joins the 15th Precinct as Kelly's replacement. Up in Cicely, Alaska, Rob Morrow's Dr. Fleischman is preparing to depart "Northern Exposure" at mid-season. Actor-comic Paul Provenza will replace Morrow after the two overlap for several episodes starting in mid-November. Provenza plays Dr.

Phillip Capra, a young physician ready to depart the urban angst of Los Angeles. Before he leaves, though, Fleischman will have one more romantic entanglement with Maggie O'Connell (Janine Turner). Is this the good news or the bad news? 1 T- 6 7 To" Tl- 15 16 17 18 20 21 22 24 25 26 32 33 34 35 36 l37 42 43 Eat! 47 49 50 51 64 b5 66 67 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 ir aii 87 1988 5S 91 92 "193 lL 94 95 1 1 97 98 99 mwToci ioi bill III 103104 105 106 107 108 Pr09 110 111 112 114 115 "13''" mmm T17 TT5 V19 120 121 122 Til T26 T27 Tia f29 130 Til DUFFY, from Page 1G whizbang Thursday night medical marvel and the envy of every other network as it leads an impressive resurgence of one-hour dramas. Now, as the new TV season shakes out in fine style for the Peacock Network, it's time to take a second look at fall '94. Hits, misses, winners, losers.

One month into the season, NBC and ABC are tied for No. 1, knocking CBS out of that spot. For ABC, the Tuesday night network shuffle also has proved delightful. "Home Improvement" and "Grace Under Fire" are perched at the top of the Nielsen ratings on their new night, plus "NYPD Blue" has roared into the Top 10 with the high-impact crime drama's biggest audiences yet. No sophomore jinx there.

And the glum gang? They're over at CBS, the former No. 1 network, which has slid into third place. An aging prime-time lineup from "Murder, She Wrote" to "Murphy Brown" is beginning to wilt. But the loss of NFL football and a fistful of big city affiliates (including Detroit's) moving to Fox also have dealt CBS diminished ratings. Meanwhile, Fox is experiencing a lukewarm, hit-and-miss fall.

The risky switch of "Melrose Place" to 8 o'clock Mondays has worked pretty well, slightly boosting the soap opera's audience. Better yet, "Beverly Hills, 90210" is enjoying an audience revival on Wednesday nights. The bad news? Fox totally flopped on Sunday nights, receiving zilch assistance from its expensive NFL deal. Result: Fox's trio of Sunday night rookies "Fortune Hunter," "Hardball" and "Wild Oats" already have been given the hook. But for those tired of suffering from the newsmagazine virus, it's been a splendid month.

The antidote to tabloid fever? A refreshing cycle of new one-hour dramas. NBC owns the breakout success of "ER." But "Chicago Hope," CBS's own medical drama, is a worthy alternative to the newsmagazine banality brigade. And the promising freshman drama batch also includes "New York Undercover" (Fox), "Under Suspicion" (CBS) and "Due South" (CBS). Even Bill Cosby may have a potential hit with his wry urban whodunit, "The Cosby Mysteries" (NBC). The drama downside? Critical darlings "My So-Called Life" (ABC) and "Party of Five" (Fox), the two best new series not named "ER," have been thoroughly rejected by viewers.

So far, luckily, both also have been given the solid support of their respective networks. The same can't be said for "Homicide: Life on the Street" (NBC), the exceptional police drama that has been buried at 10 p.m. Fridays, where it finished a disheartening 77th with its season premiere last week. As for the inspired lunacy of a witty, first-rate sitcom, you won't find much of it among the new comedy series this fall. It's not a laugh famine, exactly.

But would Dabney Coleman's for If Nl IL II gives America a teenager of wit, intelligence, complexity and a ton of natural emotional honesty. She's the real adolescent deal. (8 p.m. Thursdays on Channel 7.) STEVE HARVEY: Hey, a Fred Mac-Murray for the '90s. Stand-up comic Harvey, relaxed and resourceful, gives "Me and the Boys" a father figure who talks softly and doesn't carry a big shtick.

Result' A warm, agreeable variation on "My Three Sons." (8:30 p.m. Tuesdays on Channel 7.) MARGARET CHO: A firecracker lifeforce. And that's crucial, since Korean-American comic Cho is the best thing about Girl," an otherwise lame entry as television's first Asian- American sitcom. Cho is spirited, funny and assertive. Too bad the show isn't.

(8:30 p.m. Wednesdays on Channel 7.) KAREN SlLLAS: Way cool. Best known for her appearances in quirky art films Happened Was," Brooklyn native Sillas has created a compelling new-style female detec- tive a deadpan dame with moxie in the neo-noirish CBS "mystery series "Under Suspi-" cion." (9 p.m. Fridays on Chan-: nel 2.) SCOTT WOLF: He's cute, he's smart, he's sensitive, he plays football! As anxious, ultra-responsible orphan boy Bailey Salinger on Fox's "Party of Five," Wolf is the most engaging teen ro mantic since Fred Savage was boppin' through "The Wonder Years." (9 p.m. Mondays on Channel 50.) mmmm I IFA itajopcra Ifnlmll COMitMlUllraUUM GfrPROlXCEllS x- 7 ft A j.

i Jrf I r. "A SUPERIOR THRILLER." Mtr Trim, IOUJNG STONE -A POWERFUL PSYCHOLOGICAL kftry Lpnt, SNEAK PHEVIEWSLVONS 0CN RADM) 'absorbing, intriguing, spine-chilling; -Wet tfima, WNWK RADM) 'A THINKING PERSON'S MURDER MYSTERY. RICHARD DREVFUSS IS SUPERB." -Scon laibin Sitgd, SIECEL tNTERTAINMEVr SYNDICATE TAUT, INTELLIGENTLY CRAFTED, COMPELLING. RICHARD DREVFUSS IS RIVETING. UV TILER IS LUMINOUS AND SPLENDID." mum danger, CRN AMERICAN MOVIE CLASSICS tJ wffnd inlin ctvlftaft )0 DiKECTFDR mmmm mm mmm pip iiiwmiom nnnnlnni 1 fnrtnf Jim l-mif Irnn kiflfllriir iin UtilUUUC 1.

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