Thursday, February 03, 2000
Sweeps offer a few sweets
10 shows among the ratings month's 'very special episodes' truly are not to be missed
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Biggest isn't always best.
At 10 hours, NBC's The Tenth Kingdom is the longest miniseries during February sweeps, the four-week ratings period starting today used to set advertising rates through spring. Don't confuse quantity with quality.Besides, who has 10 hours to waste on any miniseries?
In the next four weeks, the air will be filled with “very special episodes,” miniseries, reunion movies and fact-based docudramas, Black History Month specials and stunt casting. You'll see Jean Smart on Frasier today, Lyle Lovett on Dharma & Greg Tuesday and WWF's The Rock as a Pendari alien on Star Trek: Voyager Wednesday.
Despite a pledge last month to reduce its sleazy reality shows, Fox has scheduled a half-dozen specials about The World's Sexiest Commercials, The Truth Behind Sitcom Scandals, and daredevil Robbie Knievel's attempt to jump over a speeding locomotive on his motorcycle.
To help you cut through the clutter, here are my picks for February sweeps. You'll find plenty to watch this month — like Sunday's Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Missing Pieces and the Feb. 23 Grammy Awards, but these are the 10 shows not to miss:
1. Friends: NBC's most consistently funny comedy ratchets up the laughs this month when Rachel's little sister Jill (Reese Witherspoon from Pleasantville) goes after Ross (David Schwimmer) 8 p.m. today and next Thursday, and a one-hour special Feb. 17 with the gang fantasizing about how their lives would have been different if Ross stayed married and Joey (Matt LeBlanc) became a huge soap opera star. (8 p.m., Channels 5, 22)
The X-Files: For 61/2 seasons, the truth has been out there about the alien abduction of Fox Mulder's sister. In a two-parter starting 9 p.m. Sunday, agent Mulder (David Duchovny) discovers new information about the case while looking for a missing child. On Feb. 20, The X-Files marks its 150th episode in the style of Fox's Cops, shot on jittery hand-held video cameras. (9 p.m. Sunday, Channels 19, 45).
Mary and Rhoda: Sure, reunion movies always disappoint us, but we watch anyway. ABC's sweeps film should be no exception, with Mary (Mary Tyler Moore) taking a TV station job in New York after the death of her congressman husband and recently divorced Rhoda (Valerie Harper) working for a Manhattan photographer. (8 p.m. Monday, Channels 9, 2).
Nova's Secrets of Lost Empires: PBS' award-winning science series asks today's experts to replicate ancient engineering marvels by erecting a 25-ton granite Egyptian obelisk (Tuesday), a 15-ton Easter Island monolith (Feb. 15), a three-chamber Roman bath (Feb. 22) and a Chinese wooden arch bridge (Feb. 29). (8 p.m. Tuesdays, Channels 48, 54, 16)
The West Wing: TV's best new drama keeps getting better when President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) must decide in 48 hours to spare the life of a murderer on death row (Feb. 9). The following week (Feb. 16), the president must figure out how to distance himself from a Supreme Court candidate (Edward James Olmos) jailed for drunk driving and resisting arrest (Feb. 16) while an African-American Cabinet member (CCH Pounder) calls a prominent Republican a racist. (9 p.m. Wednesdays, Channels 5, 22).
Good Grief, Charlie Brown: A Tribute: Walter Cronkite hosts this Charles Schulz retrospective three days before his final original Peanuts cartoon appears in the Enquirer and other papers. (8 p.m. Feb. 11, Channels 12, 7).
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal: The best of the February miniseries is CBS' four-hour movie about Thomas Jefferson's controversial 38-year relationship with his slave mistress, Sally Hemings. British actress Carmen Ejogo (Metro) stars as Hemings opposite Sam Neill (Merlin, Jurassic Park). Hundreds of Ms. Heming's Ohio descendants get a sneak peek at the miniseries Saturday at Ohio State University because of the large concentration living in Ohio. (9 p.m Feb. 13 and Feb. 16, Channels 12, 7)
For the record, the networks' other major miniseries all start on Sunday, Feb. 27: ABC's The Beach Boys (four hours); CBS' dramatization of the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town (four hours); and NBC's The Tenth Kingdom fantasy (10 hours).
Homicide: The Movie: After NBC canceled Homicide: Life on the Street last May, executive producer Tom Fontana said he would only do a reunion movie wrapping up story lines if he could re-assemble the entire cast. Here's the good news: Everyone is back, even the dead Homicide characters, for the movie about Lt. Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto) being shot while campaigning for Baltimore mayor. (9 p.m. Feb. 13, Channels 5, 22)
2Gether: Think Spinal Tap or John Belushi's delightful rip on Joe Cocker. That's what MTV does to the Backstreet Boys and other “boy bands” with a satirical film about the making of a fictional band called 2Gether. The parody songs, particularly “You+Me=Us (Calculus),” are a hoot. It's a perfect warm-up for the Grammy Awards two days later on CBS. (8 p.m. Feb. 21, MTV)
Freedom Song: TNT explores the impact of the civil rights movement on a small Mississippi town in 1961 through the eyes of an African-American teen-ager (Vicellous Reon Shannon from The Hurricane), whose involvement with the desegregation movement threatens his relationship with his father (Danny Glover). Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams) wrote and directed the 21/2-hour film produced by Mr. Glover for TNT, after major studios rejected it as a feature film. The cast includes Vondie Curtis Hall (Chicago Hope), Loretta Devine (Waiting to Exhale) and Glynn Turman (A Different World, How Stella Got Her Groove Back). (7 p.m. Feb. 27, TNT)
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. Write: 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330.
