European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 01, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Television cancelled shows live on for viewers in Europe by Sarah Bottorff one of the Noel things ionic might say the Only Good thing about gelling our to programs 50 late Here is thai when the networks announce a show has been Cam eled in the Stales we still get to Wale h in here1 in about nine months. So whili.1 your mom Hack in Missouri is upset Bee Ause she s Alre Uty seen her last it nity and the pc r.is/, Vii vt1 still got a whole season of Catherine Anel Vinc enl episodes coming up to weep Over. In Fai i you now Start videotaping in reverse instead of having your friends Send you the new shows Riim the slates you Tan be sending them the shows they be already started to miss. Britty and Thi i is was no the Only show to gel the a in a series of late May announcements by the networks. By Rusty was killed loan Collins was leaving anyway. Hui Peinan has had in. Kale Anil Allie. Sine e neither Susan Saint Lames nor Jane Curlin want to do another year is kaput. So is Thi cd Tiati or and the1 Short lived i heartbeat anal As you be probably heard by now Miami vice family vies and moonlighting All separated from their airwaves More or in is in Good standing with final episodes this Spring. But the announcements from the networks this month also included some Good news about shows we re Valc Hing now that have already disappeared in the Stales. Frank s . For instance it s not coming Back but its stars Tim and Daphne Maxwell Reid will be in snoops a mystery drama about a Washington criminology professor and head of protocol for the stale department. Anil the Genius behind Frank s / /.lev, Hugh Wilson has created something called 7/ie famous Teddy a about a Kirl from the mail room of unlimited Talent Agency y who inadvertently becomes in agent. Even Lle Auty a the in my is not quite dead. It will be a backup show lbs had ordered 12 More episodes of it and could re Lorn it to the schedule if one of its new shows c collapses. What s More lbs refused Locane Al tour tit duly. W hich seems to have been far More popular on networks like sup station Ai n and Southern european broadcasting than it is in the slates. A network executive said in was an important show thai should slay despite mediocre ratings stateside. Among other shows surviving the cancellation sweeps designing women i i u7 it. Murder 5/ie wrote the new Hawaii based version of Lake and the i Atman in so Cut a and the soaps knots i Anding Dallas and Falcon in Al. Also Alf 4h hours. M minutes. Tin Cosby show Vilh Lisa Bonet Backa different world the a log it family. Matlock. In the / Leal i Alhi night unsolved mysteries night court Law. J27, Golden girls. Hunter my two dads Duel renamed oped house21 Lump sorrel and i Ernecl strangers. Another survivor of the network cancellations this year is the revamped cheer and those of you in Central Europe and the United kingdom will gel your c Linnet to see the revamping beginning Friday night at h . On the continent Anil 7 . In the . Whal starts on an arc the first episodes without Shelley Long. And what s surprising is that the show still works. A lot of people even Shelley Long fans like in belter. My neighbor who s seen the new show in the stale a says its Success has ,1 lot to do with the woman who plays Sam Malone s new love Hale interest Kirlie Alley. Shelley i Ong was fun bul Alley is Cool and contemptuous but even so exl Retney inner sled or is she in Sam Ted Damon and my neighbor says that adds a lot of kick to the show. I m still missing Shelley i Ong myself. Alley s just a Little Loo Cool for me she looks like she d rather be somewhere1 modelling c lollies. Bul i still like cheers Anil i la still Watt h the show. It s a Little like when a Good Friendl gits divorced. You May have liked the Olei spouse .1 lol but you re willing to gel used to the new one. Seb gets the new cheers in late Only. Se8 is trying Somi Lhing that in a Small Way is a 1v revolution it s putting the Ila Lime soaps on at 9 30 . This May not sound like such a big Deal bul it runs against the tradition that says general Hospital and guiding Light and other soap operas Are always shown in the noon hour when the kills Are bound to be in school and the soap characters can leap in and out of bed with each other without shocking the c Hildren watching at Home. In fact All these soap characters do in their Beds is talk to each other about their problems Trust me i know. Maybe seb knows Loo. In any event after a Survey of viewers it s moving the soaps to morning hours beginning monday. The reason for the move is something even More revolutionary at least Over Here seb is taking the traditional soaps time period and putting today in its place. So today instead of being held until the late afternoon As it still will be on Anis actually going in be shown live from new York beginning at 1 . The afternoon is still for kids shows and game shows like wheel of Fortune will fill in the Early evening hours. Bryant Gumbel no lunch h and Vanna White for dinner it la be inter Sling to see How in works. The movies Are Good on an ibis week. The two part fatal vision starts wednesday at h . 7 . In the it s the highly controversial version of the highly controversial Story of Jeffrey Macdonald the former Green Beret Captain who May or May not have murdered his wife and two daughters at fort Bragg . Unnatural causes is television s All Empl to Deal with the agent Orange controversy with sex / Looper Man Ohn Ritter at 10 40 . Friday. And the Man who would be King got enthusiastic reviews from four people sitting around me at stripes when i asked if anyone had heard of it. It s a 1057 movie but it s got Sean Connery and Michael Caine and apparently it s a memorable account of two British soldiers in the Laic 19lh Century who decide to ice asian natives make them Kings. The Only returning series Starling on seb is the spectacular world of guinness records Al 25 . Thursday. But there is a Good film the Grey Fox about a senior citizen train robber and his much younger feminist love in some of the most Beautiful Canadian Countryside you la Ever see at 1 10 . Friday. Lucy was the funniest sitcom expert says by Richard Bock associated press a Man who has seen them Al television Silva lion to Menelic a that is says there was nobody like Lucy. In fat 1. Says Richard . A professor of Communia aliens at Washington stale University 00 pure enl of the sitcoms Ever made follow the pattern of / Cove a the show the late Lucille Ball Anil Desi Ami look to the airwaves in 1051. 11/1 y and ils followers ire really acc oms he said. 1 hey Star with a disruption of the status quo and then follow the main c har Acler s actions As he or she Trie s to restore things to Normal. The charac Ler invariably causes further More humorous disruptions. Characters in a Cums Are Tine dimensional and Une hanging. Bul the special ones such As Lucy and Ricky Are hilariously entertaining Taflinger says. Sitcom episodes fill a is Able chunk of Taflinger s memory Banks since he spent two years watching them seven hours a Day. Few Couch potatoes could match such viewing habits bul Taflinger was doing research or his Book sitcom what ii in and How it works. I be watched at least one episode of every sitcom that s been on the air since 1050, about 500 or so he says. Taflinger has watched All to / Linit Lucy episodes i i go of the Dick Van dyads Ivand All 200 of m a s h. He s also Analysed Bose tire Short lived programs that few television viewers Ever saw such As Shirley s world which starred Shirley Maclaine for All of three episodes. Bul Taflinger said the series that had the briefest run was a Tim Conway vehicle called time out. Cloned from the popular laugh in. Time out Drew sue h a flood of complaints during ils Tirol 10 minutes on the air thai the plug was pulled on the program Halfway through us hour Long premiere. A second Type of sitcom beside ".idioms," is the Domestic comedy says Tal Tinget. Lather knows lies was the first in 1057, and later sue e esses included my i rec sons the Brady Bunch. The courtship of it die s rather family affair Ami family ties. The top rated show of rec enl seasons has been the Cosby show bul Taflinger said it in t really a Domestic comedy anymore. I m not entirely sure what it is he says. It s great fun Lei watch Bill Cosby do stand up comedy but nothing happens they have no problems. They simply live which is Why it s Starling to slip in the ratings i a number of sitcoms Between / love Lucy and Cosby that were built around other established stars have not enjoyed the huge popularity of those two series. Taflinger says the lops Ine lulling Shirley Maclaine s show. The Limmy Stewart show and the Smith family starring Henry Fonda lacked Good scripts and other necessary elements for a successful sitcom. The same principle applied to recent ill fated attempts Al resurrecting to veterans Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore whose Long running original series concluded with final episodes not even Lucille Ball whose return to series television in 1962 with the Lucy show later Changet to Here s Tocy lasted 13 years was immune from a Flop. Her 1986 life with Lucy sitcom Drew Low ratings and was cancelled within two months. I Ler last sitcom really was t a very Good show it depended More on the fact thai in was Lucy than on Good writing and producing a Good Quality Taflinger says. He also notes thai at 75, she was unable to do the physical Slapsk k comedy with which Lucy Ricardo delighted audiences in the 50s. The rarest variety of sitcom is the dramatic comedy which must have Well rounded characters who Are humorous but also think cry lose Antl sometimes die Taflinger says. There have Only been a handful of dram Edies All in the family m a s a Barney Miller Maude but All enjoyed successful runs and also ended with a final episode rather than cancellation. Taflinger expects the Only drama comedy Darmedy currently airing night court to last until its producers decide to end in with a final episode. Taflinger s sitcom research began in 1972, and his two years of seven hours a any viewing spanned 10711-80, when he was writing his dissertation at Washington stale. He continue to his research and expanded it into his sitcom manuscript. He has about .,000 sitcom soundtracks recorded on cassette tapes. 10 stripes Magazine june 989
