Julie Andrews is, without a doubt, one of the most talented, charismatic performers in the world. Which makes it hard to under stand why she agreed to do anything as dreadfully lame as ABC's new sitcom, "Julie."
This is wasted talent on a vast scale. In this horribly misguided effort, Andrews stars, quite naturally, as the title character - the star of her own network variety show.(This, of course, is a flight of sheer fantasy. There are no network variety shows these days.)
Anyway, Julie Carlyle somehow meets and falls in love with a veterinarian (James Farentino) from Sioux City, Iowa. (We never do find out exactly how a vet meets a TV star.)
Julie is so in love that she decides to move not only her self but her show to Sioux City, where she becomes the stepmother to her new husband's two children.
Not necessarily a bad premise but horribly executed. This series appears to have been scripted by writers who couldn't make the grade on "Family Matters" or "Full House."
We're talking barnyard humor here. Low-grade cutups that are bizarrely reminiscent of "Green Acres."
And it's impossible to understand this allegedly great love affair - Andrews and Farentino have no chemistry whatsoever.
About the only redeeming factor is that Andrews gets to sing and/or dance a bit in each of the six episodes. But it's far too little to save the series.
ABC knew it had a stinker on its hands, so they held off on airing "Julie" until the summer months and then stuck it on low-viewership Saturday nights. Unfortunately for Andrews, the network didn't bury this altogether, sparing her the embarrassment of having it go out on the air.
The weekend's other new sitcom, "Vinnie and Bobby" (8:30 p.m., Ch. 13) was unavailable for preview. And that's a bad sign.
This is a reworking of the awful "Top of the Heap," which was a spinoff from the increasingly lousy "Married . . . With Children." It's about two young, hunky construction workers making their way in life.
If Fox wanted the critics to see this, it could have sent tapes. Obviously, there was a reason the fourth network didn't.