THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 13, 1996 TAG: 9601110058
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
HERE ARE three things you cannot escape: Death, taxes and a TV series with Robert Urich in it. Come Friday at 9 p.m. on WGNT, Urich stars in his 11th series, ``The Lazarus Man.''
Think of it as ``The Fugitive'' set in the American West of the 1860s.
In none of Urich's 10 other series was his entrance so spectacular. In ``The Lazarus Man,'' produced for syndication by Castle Rock Entertainment and Turner Program Services Inc., Urich comes clawing out of a shallow grave covered in blood and muck on Halloween night in 1865.
Shades of ``Carrie.''
When Urich's character recovers from his wounds, he tells the family nursing him back to health that he can't remember who he is or where he came from.
Perhaps he fought in the Civil War. Perhaps he was a spy. Who knows? He had enemies, for sure, who left him half-dead and buried.
In his diary, the Lazarus Man writes, ``I must put faith in Providence that some knowledge of who I was will return.'' It's Urich as the Fugitive with a little vintage Clint Eastwood tossed in.
Off he goes, searching for his past - much as the wrongly accused Dr. Richard Kimble tracked his wife's one-armed killer for four seasons on ``The Fugitive.'' Urich admits the similarity to the series that made David Janssen a household name.
``It has the same compelling elements of a man being pursued by his past while searching for his future,'' said Urich.
As for working so much in episodic TV, plus a parcel of made-for-TV movies, Urich said he can't help himself. He's a blue-collar guy from Ohio who was brought up to think it's a sin to be lazy and a crime not to take work when it's offered.
``The Lazarus Man'' begins with a pilot that was handsomely produced, but frustrating.
It's easy to lose patience with producers who keep viewers in the dark. It worked for ``The Fugitive.'' But back then, we didn't have an itchy trigger finger on the remote.
This is a series where nobody has a name; instead, they have descriptions: Dark-Haired Woman, Derby Hat Man and, of course, Man With No Memory. In an unusual programming twist, the TNT cable network also will begin running ``The Lazarus Man'' soon after it is launched in syndication.
Other happenings on cable:
American Movie Classics on Saturday at 9 p.m. recalls the golden age of radio in a new series, ``Remember WENN,'' a spoof of life at a Pittsburgh radio station before World War II. No shock jocks, no morning zoo. Radio back then was programs like ``The Lone Ranger,'' ``Dr. I.Q'' and ``Duffy's Tavern.''
The Nashville Network on Monday at 9 p.m. unveils a 90-minute music and talk series replacing the Crook and Chase hour. Tom Wopat, late of the ``Dukes of Hazzard,'' and most recently of ``Cybil,'' will host ``Prime Time Country.'' The guy can act and sing.
``The Outer Limits,'' which had a revival last year on Showtime, was such a hit with viewers that the network has renewed the spookfest for a second season starting Sunday at 8 p.m. First up from the network ``controlling the vertical and horizontal'' on your set is a story about life in the future. The story: Only machines roam the Earth, including one that wants to grow a human from a scrap of DNA.
On HBO later this month, the naughty ``Dream On'' sitcom ends its run of original episodes. The adventures of the oversexed book editor, Martin Tuper, will continue on Comedy Central starting Monday at 10 p.m. To mark the premiere, Comedy Central will run two episodes at 10 and a third at 12:30 a.m.
Is Jane Austen hot or what? Her novels have been revived in films and on TV including A&E's presentation of ``Pride and Prejudice'' starting Sunday at 8 p.m. This is a talky six hours, the final episode starting Tuesday at 9 p.m.
The Family Channel tonight brings back ``North and South,'' the 24-hour miniseries that will run for the next three weekends. Part one airs at 7 p.m., with part two following at 9. It's time again to get involved in the family dynasties of the Hazards and Mains with Patrick Swayze, Kirstie Alley and Lesley-Anne Down leading the cast. The plot gets rolling when Southerner Orry Main (Swayze) meets Pennsylvanian George Hazard (James Read) at West Point.
The Learning Channel this month premieres a new series, ``Neat Stuff,'' and brings back another, ``Amazing America,'' on Thursday nights. ``Neat Stuff,'' which airs at 10, is about such neat stuff as collecting movie posters. This week on ``Amazing America,'' which follows at 10:30, the show focuses on some of the 22,000 offbeat organizations in the United States, including the Deadheads, fans of the recently deceased band The Grateful Dead.
If you were hoping for a Rambo revival to start the new year, you get your wish on Saturday when the USA Network reels off the ``Rambo Trilogy'' starting with ``First Blood'' at 3 p.m.
Elsewhere, viewer-fave David Hasselhoff shows up in prime-time Sunday.Hasselhoff of ``Baywatch'' stars in ``Gridlock'' on NBC at 9 p.m. Can cop Hasselhoff and gal pal Kathy Ireland foil bad guys out to break a federal reserve bank?
And ``The Long March of Newt Gingrich'' puts the House Speaker under the microscope on ``Frontline'' Tuesday at 9 p.m. on PBS. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Robert Urich...
by CNB