First there was the film "The Big Chill," which brought a group of thirtysomething friends back together a decade or so after they graduated from college.
Then there was the movie "St, Elmo's Fire," which recounted the trials and tribulations of a group of twentysomething friends just after they graduated from college. It was derisively called "Baby Big Chill."Now we have the television show "Glory Days" (8 p.m. Ch. 13), which reunites a group of teensomething friends three months after they graduated from high school.
Call it "Baby St. Elmo's Fire." Or "Baby Baby Big Chill."
This is the story of four high school buddies who have taken opposite directions - sort of - since graduating but still stick together.
Walker Lovejoy (Brad Pitt) was the high school football star who dropped out of college when he didn't make the team. Dave Rutecki (Spike Alexander) is a rookie cop.
Peter "T-Bone" Trigg (Nicholas Kallsen) has only one ambition - to do nothing. And Dominic Fopiano (Evan Mirand) is going to the local college and has joined a fraternity.
The story idea is not necessarily bad. But as it's executed, "Glory Days" is anything but glorious.
During Fox's day on the summer press tour, Patrick Hasburgh, the executive producer of the series, proclaimed his show "realistic" and "gimmick free." But last week's premiere was based on two big gimmicks.
First, Rutecki was less than three weeks out of the police academy, but he was out on his own without a partner. He ended up gunning down an unarmed man.
And Walker Lovejoy, 18-year-old college dropout, walked into a newspaper office and got himself hired as a cub reporter. Right.
I hate to complain about a show portraying newspaper people unrealistically - this is television, after all - but "Glory Days" is so far off the mark it's embarrassing. Walker's boss told him that she too once had high journalistic ideals, but she learned you have to bend the truth to sell newspapers.
I screamed at this point.
Prodded by the critics, Hasburgh admitted "You have to stretch reality on a series." But he went on to say that this paper is the "third or fourth paper in town . . . clearly, this is a tabloid type, sensational newspaper."
What he's totally oblivious to is the fact that no small town could possibly support three or four newspapers. Few have more than one.
Anyway, if this were the show's only problem it would still be in pretty good shape. But it isn't and it isn't.
"Glory Days" comes to us from the same producer who was in on "21 Jump Street," and this is not exactly a job reference. It's overwrought, overwritten and overacted.
The best thing going for it is that it's something new in a sea of reruns, and for that reason it might be worth a look. Just don't expect too much.
And, by the way, this is the last time it will air on Wednesday night. Beginning Aug. 23, "Glory Days" will finish out its run on Thursdays at 8 p.m.
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CONNIE, BABY: As you probably know by now, our ever-mercurial Connie Chung has decided to forego her weekly CBS series to attempt having a baby. "Face to Face" will return as a series of occasional specials, in the tradition of the Barbara Walters specials over on ABC.
Not that having a baby isn't a wonderful, admirable pursuit. But it seems rather odd coming just a couple of weeks after Chung expressed great excitement over her show's move from Saturdays to Mondays.
And the comments from both Chung, 43, and her husband, "Inside Edition" host Maury Povich, are also a little odd.
"I now need to take a very aggressive approach to having a baby," Chung said.
Aggressive approach?
And the 51-year-old Povich, who has 24- and 26-year-old daughters from a previous marriage, said "This is a very personal decision on Connie's part. Therefore, it would be inappropriate for me to comment."
Inappropriate for the prospective father to comment?
Odd indeed.
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GLESS IS BACK: The good news is that the demise of "Face to Face with Connie Chung" means the rise of Sharon Gless in "The Trials of Rosie O'Neill."
The star of "Cagney and Lacy" will regain her old time slot, Mondays at 9 p.m., in a show produced by "C&L" producer Barney Rosenzweig, Gless' current boyfriend.
She plays a woman in her early 40s who's dumped by her husband for a younger woman. Rosie O'Neill quits her Beverly Hills law practice to become a public defender.