European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 21, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Television an s 24-hour schedule Means More live sports by Wendy Bourland shift workers night owls insomniacs and sports freaks get ready the american forces network is expanding its to broadcast Day to 24 hours minus a periodic half hour maintenance outage on aug. 1. The network currently signs off at 2 . And returns at 6 . Monday through Friday. On fridays an begins its weekend schedule signing on at 6 . And signing off mondays at 2 . The 2 to 6 . Weekday Slot will be filled with programming from the armed forces radio and television service worldwide satellite network. Sports fans will be pleased to learn that monday night football monday night baseball and other major sporting events will be aired live. They will not however be taped for rebroadcast later. When not preempted by sports an s Early morning fare will include the Macneil Lehrer news hour the West coast broadcast of the lbs evening news can s headline news can feature reports and various network specials. However a note of warning the arts satellite network provides programming to affiliates worldwide in multiple time zones and programming can change at the last minute. Viewers in Europe May see shows in part rather than in their entirety and May see advisories being sent to various arts networks around the planet Kef Lavik Iceland for example. And if arts loses its satellite signal an will display a test pattern Complete with audio tone for the duration of the lapse. The half hour maintenance period is from 5 30 to 6 . Weekdays and will allow technicians time to work on microwave transmitter and satellite dish distribution systems. At that time an will go off the air unless a sporting event is still on. Network officials say that they won t know what satellite specials Are coming in More than two or three Days in Advance but an will announce programs Days and times on the air to Alert viewers. New series several shows Are making their debuts on an in the next two weeks or Are returning for another run. They include the spectacular world of guinness records spawned by the famous Book and growing pains july 22 Wiseguy july 23 Ebony Jet showcase july 25 Hunter july 28 the care bears family throb and Challenge narrated by adventurer George Plimpton july 30 and Punky Brewst Erand wonderful world of Disney july 31. The first episode of this season s growing pains is not to be missed. In the opening scene the Star of the show comedian Alan Thicke is in the Kitchen preparing Steak and other delights for the evening meal while belting out Harry Belafonte s Calypso classic banana boat Day o. It s an absolute riot. Thicke is consistently wonderful in his role As a bemused husband and the father of three kids. Weekend update Many viewers who liked the original saturday night live Don t care for the current version but this saturday night s episode is an interesting mix of old and new characters. 5njl alumni Dan Ackroyd puts in an appearance As a debater in the show s opening skit Republican National convention 88. Ackroyd portrays Kansas sen. Bob Dole with gusto battling several of the candidates in a heated discussion of issues. The show s Host family ties co Star Justine Bateman joins the cast in a terrific Send up of her popular prime time to program that should leave Alex Keaton haters and lovers alike in stitches. In tribute on Ebony let showcase monday two tributes Are presented. The first to 23-year-old pop phenomenon Whitney Houston is an insubstantial interview with the Star and her Mother Cissy. A few video clips of Houston were thrown in for Good measure but it s All very disappointing because you Don t learn anything that has t been in a press release or a pop music Fanzine. The second tribute to baseball player Jackie Robinson has a Little More meat to it. This one focuses on the afternoon of jazz concerts that raise Money for Robinson s foundation for disadvantages youth. His widow Rachel has kept the fundraiser going Strong since her husband s death in 1972. The concerts draw famous contemporary jazz artists such As Wynton Marsalis who Are aware of the color barriers broken by Robinson so Many years ago. Monday s program also profiles actor Mario von Peebles the Star of the to show Sonny spoon and the rap group the fat boys. Teen special can a Guy say no that s the question that gives this Abc afterschool special its name. The hour Long program stars Steve Antin As Scott a High school kid who Breaks up with his Girlfriend after she won t go All the Way and Heather Langenkamp As Paula his next door neighbor and the local teenage sexpot. The program airs july 26 at 7 . Words of warning watch out for that spectacular world of guinness episode july 29. The show features male tribesman of a Remote South sea Island performing a ritual land dive supported by vines tied to their Ankles. Whoever wrote an to guide s synopsis of the show could t end it with any of the usual program warnings adult humor mature themes and situations political satire ethnic racial religious or military slurs adult language or drug references. But they had to have something so they ended it like this note tribal Shandling makes Waves with oddball comedy by Jerry Buck associated press in the beginning they were one but More and More Garry Shandling the character is leading a life apart from Garry Shandling the actor. Originally events from Shandling s real life provided the comic fodder for it s Garry Shandling s show which he Calls a Cross Between a situation comedy and outer limits. The set was built to look like Shandling s House in the Hollywood Hills and his real life experiences from trouble with girlfriends to coping with a doting Mother were exaggerated and Given a comic twist. Now he says we be broken away from real life. We be had some hypothetical situations i be never been in. I draw on attitudes but we create things and then imagine what it would be like to go through it s Garry Shandling s show began nearly two years ago on the Showtime pay Channel. Since Marrh 6, it s been seen on both Showtime and on Fox broadcasting co. At least 30 Days later. It s now out of production because of the writers strike. The pickup by Fox was a coup for the struggling fourth network which needed a prestigious comedy show for its sunday lineup. It also gives Shandling a regular substitute Host for carry Shandling Johnny Carson on Abc s the tonight show More prime time exposure. There is one frustrating element about the Fox pickup. People Are seeing shows from a year and a half ago Shandling says. Our new shows Are much better. We re not making the mistakes we made in the beginning. Fox will catch up in the fall and then be Only 30 Days Shandling s show acclaimed As the Best comedy show by the television critics association was turned Down by the three major networks. Perhaps the reason was that the show defies most of the conventions of situation comedy. In fact it s a Send up of the whole genre. It s like one of those clocks with a Glass face so that you can see All the working parts. On this show you see All the working parts plus a few that Don t work. In the manner of George Burns and Jack Benny Shandling knocks Down the fourth Wall and talks to the audience. It s a show within a show. Strangely enough i was t influenced by George Burns show says Shandling. I d done a video with Michael Nesmith called to parts. I did a Little thing there where i talked to the camera. That s where it started. But it s different from George Burns. I Don t have a Cigar or a the George Burns and Grade Allen show which ran on lbs in the 1950s, had Burns and his late wife Gracie Allen playing themselves. Burns was Grade s straight Man and frequently talked to the audience about what was happening on the show. Jack Benny in his Long running show used a similar format of being at Home and talking about his to show. The comedy was created by Shandling and producer Alan Zweibel and the two write most of the shows. Alan and i adamantly watch the direction of each episode he says. We write jokes Between scenes. When we write a script i usually write the first draft and he rewrites it. Then he writes the draft of the next script and i rewrite he says he and Brandon Tartikoff president of Abc entertainment sometimes joke about the fact that Abc turned Down the show. I be known Brandon since i became a to writer in 1975," he says. I think he did t want a show that was so risky and broke so Many Shandling who grew up in Tucson ariz., moved to los Angeles in 1972 and began writing for such shows As Sanford and son and Welcome Back Kotter. He made his first appearance As a stand up comic at the comedy store in los Angeles in 1975. I d go on stage and bomb and go Back to writing he says. I had a Cycle going. Finally i did Well one night. I said it s time to make the switch still i have a writer s identity. I have a Strong writer s his big break As a comedian came with his first time on the tonight show in 1981. Next up is it s Garry Shandling s movie which he and Zweibel will write. Creatively it scares us both says Shandling. It s not going to be an Extension of the television show. But it will be As july 21, 1988 stripes Magazine 27
