THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 11, 1995 TAG: 9503090052
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 28 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
IN ``THE OFFICE,'' a CBS sitcom which premieres Saturday night at 9, Valerie Harper plays a character not unlike the old Rhoda Morgenstern - the overweight, insecure Rhoda on ``The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' who had a hard time getting dates.
Early on in ``The Office,'' Harper tells others in the secretarial pool that if she were meeting men, she'd be dieting, and if she were dieting, she'd be dating. Harper does none of the above in early episodes of ``The Office.''
It's the same as when she was the old Rhoda, Mary Richards' friend and neighbor on ``Mary Tyler Moore.'' (The new Rhoda, in a series of her own in 1974, put it together and landed a guy named Joe, played by David Groh.)
Since then, Harper has worked some in feature films, made-for-TV movies and a series in 1993 (``City'') that faded quickly. She didn't turn her back on series television after ``Rhoda,'' Harper told TV writers in Los Angeles not long ago.
Series television turned its back on her.
``I said to myself, `Where are the good scripts?' There were few. In doing this show, I have no trepidation about the scripts,'' she said.
``The Office'' is standard sitcom stuff.
You take a bunch of people a few degrees off center, toss them together, and let the one-liners roll. Harper in ``The Office'': ``Guys my age are defective in some way. They don't bathe or they live with their mothers or they're half bald with what's left of their gray hair tied up in back in a ponytail.''
A rimshot, please.
``The Office'' is just about as entertaining as ``The Boys are Back,'' the show it replaces on CBS' Saturday night schedule. That's no compliment.
Executive producer Susan Beavers created the show out of her own experiences. She used to be a $75-a-week secretary. Said Beavers, ``There are millions of people out there who work in offices who will relate to this show.'' She hopes.
Network television's spring season brings forth two other new series in the week to come, including just what network TV doesn't need - another show that features doctors at work. With two shows about medicine already on the air, plus another in syndication, who needs ``Medicine Ball,'' which premieres on Fox Monday night at 9 after ``Melrose Place''? I will say this about ``Medicine Ball,'' set in a Seattle hospital: It looks like a Hallmark Hall of Fame production next to ``Models Inc.,'' the show it is replacing.
The third new show to debut in mid-March, ``Under One Roof,'' gives prime time TV something it should have had years ago - an intelligent, well-written, well-acted drama about African-American families. James Earl Jones and Joe Morton head up the cast for ``Under One Roof,'' which starts on CBS Tuesday night at 8.
Seattle is also the setting for this series. ``In television dramas in the past, when I'd looked at the screen, I'd never see me, see people like me,'' said Morton. Morton and Vanessa Bell Calloway play a married couple, the second of three generations living in the big house in Seattle.
So, what else is worthy of the couch potato's attention in the days to come? The ratings sweeps have ended but not the special programming: For instance:
It's been 25 years since ex-Marine Don Cornelius started ``Soul Train,'' which still prospers in syndication. Cornelius now has an awards show all his own, ``The Ninth Annual Soul Train Music Awards,'' which WGNT airs Monday at 10 p.m.
The co-hosts are Patti LaBelle, Anita Baker and Kenny ``Babyface'' Edmonds. Diana Ross gets a salute for being Diana Ross. Is this anti-climactic to the Emmys, or what?
Continuing with the music thing, WGNT on Sunday at 7 p.m. continues its 10-hour presentation of ``The History of Rock 'n' Roll.'' Sunday's segment: ``Have a Nice Decade: The '70s.''
It's the March membership drive at WHRO. That's usually a cue for musical spectaculars on Channel 15, and this year is no exception.
On Saturday night at 6:30, it's ``Glenn Miller's Greatest Hits'' for those still in the mood, and on Sunday at 5:30 p.m., WHRO airs ``Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti with Metha: The Three Tenors in Concert 1994.'' And who says a PBS station can't be moderately hip? WHRO on Saturday night at 8 shows the 1964 Beatles' film, ``Hard Day's Night'' followed by a special about the making of the movie, and then, more Beatles! ``Help!'' airs at 11:15 p.m.
The Virginia Beach-based Family Channel, heavily into original TV programming as its parent company, International Family Entertainment looks to feature films, puts on a new flick Sunday at 7 p.m. ``Dad, the Angel & Me'' stars Judge Reinhold and Carol Kane, who steals the movie as an unconventional guardian angel.
Elsewhere, CNN beams in on the crime and corruption in Russia on Sunday at 9 p.m. in ``The Wild, Wild East.'' Murder in Moscow is up 40 percent, reports CNN bureau chief Eileen O'Connor. . . . The Nashville Network marks St. Patrick's Day on Friday with the ``Music of Ireland'' at 8 p.m., featuring Mary Black and Emmylou Harris. On TNN Tuesday night at 8, ``A Phyllis George Special'' includes interviews with Andy Griffith and Dale Earnhardt, who just may be the best stock-car driver around. . . . The A&E ``Biography'' series also visits Nashville Monday night at 8 with a profile of singer Loretta Lynn. The next night at 8, feminist Gloria Steinem is in the spotlight. . . . With Oscar time approaching, E! Entertainment Television has a preview special, ``Invitation to the Oscars,'' Tuesday night at 10. On March 19 at 5 and 11 p.m., E! goes backstage for ``The Making of the 1995 Academy Awards.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Valerie Harper...and Dakin Matthews...
Photos
Patti LaBelle will co-host the ``The Ninth Annual Soul Train Music
Awards'' Monday night on WGNT.
Legend Diana Ross will be honored at the Soul Train Awards.
Queen Latifah will also be honored at the Soul Train Music Awards.
Feminist Gloria Steinem, shown above, is in the spotlight again. She
is the subject of the A&E Biography series on Tuesday night at 8.
Loretta Lynn is profiled Monday night.
by CNB