Who says TV isn't what it used to be?
ABC's "Me and The Boys" (7:30 p.m., Ch. 4) is a throwback to the old "My Three Sons" - only without all the charm and Fred MacMurray.Stand-up comedian Steve Harvey is woefully out of his element as a sitcom dad - a widower with three sons. Harvey is fine as a comedian, but someone should have invested in acting lessons for him.
Instead of Uncle Charley, "Boys" has Grandma Mary (Madge Sinclair) - the fictional Steve's mother-in-law. She's there to dispense sage advice, and Sinclair is the only real actor on the show.
On top of this horribly derivative format the producers have added lame, unoriginal and trite stories and dialogue - meaning ABC has once again served up another brain-dead family sitcom.
But, on the other hand, "Me and the Boys" might just turn out to be a hit - it is on after "Full House," after all.
ABC COMEDIES vs. NBC COMEDIES: Tonight begins Television's Titanic Tuesday Tussle: ABC's sitcoms vs. NBC's sitcoms. And while we won't know for a few days who wins in the ratings, here's a look at what to expect from tonight's episodes.
- 7 p.m.: ABC cheats a bit here, putting a rerun of "Home Improvement" up against the season premiere of "Wings."
"Wings" comes up with a pretty good episode for its move to a new night and time. Brian gets a "Dear John" letter from Alex, and Joe gets even worse news - despite the fact that they just spent the night together, Helen still plans to marry another guy. And Joe's answer to this problem marks a fundamental shift in the focus of this show.
Advantage - NBC.
- 7:30 p.m.: In terms of quality, both ABC and NBC are losers.
ABC's "Me and the Boys" is just awful. (See the top of this story.)
And while NBC had to work hard to come up with something even worse, it's done so with the second episode of "The Martin Short Show," which could end up being the single worst new show of the season if it doesn't show some major improvement soon.
Advantage - ABC. But only because ABC's show isn't quite as horrible as NBC's.
- 8 p.m.: Ah, the real battle ground between two top-five shows from last season. And whichever you prefer, you can't lose here.
"Home Improvement" is still a fun half-hour of viewing, but despite some laughs tonight's season premiere also demonstrates what could be a problem for the series.
The plot tonight, in a nutshell, is this: Jill comes home with some bad news, looking for some understanding from Tim. Tim acts insensitively, upsetting Jill. Tim talks to Wilson, who tells him the error of his ways. Tim acts sensitively, Jill forgives him, and all is well.
Until the same things happens next week.
The "Home Improvement" crowd have got this formula down, but it's beginning to wear rather thin. There are plenty of laughs, but some originality would be nice.
On NBC, "Frasier's" second season premiere isn't one of this series' best episodes. But it's still better than just about anything else out there these days.
Frasier is incensed to discover that someone he knew at "Cheers" has taken the story of his first romantic encounter and turned it into the best-selling novel "Slow Tango in Seattle" (which is an obvious lampoon of "Bridges of Madison County") But it also leaves him feeling somewhat guilty about his past, and there's a hilarious scene in which he confronts that past.
Advantage - NBC.
- 8:30 p.m.: ABC's "Grace Under Fire," which largely rode the coattails of "Home Improvement" last season, goes up against NBC's "The John Larroquette Show," which is hoping to ride the coattails of "Frasier" this season.
"Grace" finally introduces the much-talked-about-but-never-seen ex-husband (Geoff Pierson) tonight. As floodwaters rise, the ex shows up to lend a hand - and try to rekindle things with Grace (Brett Butler).
As always, this is a funny show, with Butler tossing off some great one-liners. But despite the hype, this episode is rather predictable.
"Larroquette" makes some big changes tonight - John moves to a new apartment and acquires a new love interest, the ever-appealing Alison LaPlaca. This still isn't a particularly good show, but it does appear to be improved over last season, when it was nearly un-watch-able.
Advantage - ABC.
The best answer, if you're a fan of shows that are now competing against one another, is to get that VCR set to go.
RATHER ODD TV MOVIE: CBS airs a made-for-TV movie tonight that's set in Utah.
However, "Shadows of Desire" is not a true story. Nor was it shot in Utah, it was shot in Texas.
And the Utah references are just sort of tossed in there rather oddly.
"Shadows" (8 p.m., Ch. 5) is a brooding, sort of languid drama full of brooding, rather languid people. The good guy is Jude (Adrian Pasdar), the nice son who has stayed in this unidentified small Utah town to run the family dry-cleaning business for his unpleasant mother (Piper Laurie).
Into his life comes Rowena (Nicollette Sheridan), a woman with a past that includes his ne'er-do-well brother, Sonny (Joe Lan-do).
At times, "Shadows" appears to be an excuse to display Sheridan in bikinis and underwear, as well as affording Lando a chance to lounge around wearing nothing but a towel.
As for those Utah references, they include the dry cleaning business struggling because of the mall in Provo (where, of course, there is no mall); the mother hearing about Rowena's reputation at Relief Society; Sonny having been a star athlete at the U. - in baseball, of all things; and a references to an alcoholic beverage that Mormons won't drink but jack-Mormons will.
It's never made quite clear if the brothers were raised LDS, but their behavior would seem to indicate that if they were, they didn't pay much attention.
The movie is rather predictable - except at the conclusion, when there's a sudden unexplainable swing in the mother's character.
In the end, though, "Shadows of Desire" is pretty much a waste of a couple of hours.
IT WAS ABC'S FAULT: Loyal "Lois & Clark" fans weren't happy about losing 10-15 minutes out of the middle of the show on Sunday night.
Particularly when Peter Jennings kept assuring viewers they'd see ABC programming in its entirety after the special report on the situation in Haiti.
Well, viewers in the Eastern and Central Time Zones did see all of the movie. And they'd already seen all of "Lois & CLark" before the news report.
But the network chose to chop those minutes out of the show for those of us in this time zone - a particularly obnoxious move.