As an actor, Steve Young makes a great football player.
It's not particularly surprising that Young - the San Francisco 49ers and former BYU quarterback - shows up on Sunday's episode of "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" (7 p.m., Ch. 4). After all, pro athletes appear with some frequency on TV shows.What is surprising is that Young is actually acting - or at least attempting to act. He doesn't play himself, he plays Lois' former high school heartthrob.
And, mind you, this is from a guy who wasn't particularly convincing when he played himself on an episode of "Beverly Hills, 90210" a few months back.
Young makes more than a cameo appearance. He's in three separate sequences of the show. (And in one, he loses a battle with a vending machine.)
But it quickly becomes apparent that he's a quarterback, not an actor. Young is more stiff on camera than he is after a hard day on the gridiron.
Oh, he's not awful. And, to his credit, he's not overacting or anything.
If anything, he's underacting. He delivers his line with all the enthusiasm of the 49ers after they lost to Green Bay in the playoffs.
In an episode co-written by Lois herself, Teri Hatcher, Young is cast as Joe Malloy, a - what else? - former high school football hero and Lois' former boyfriend. He's not a happy camper, however. His wife has just disappeared without a trace.
Turns out that the class wallflower (Elizabeth Anne Smith) - bent on making herself best friends with the people who ignored her in high school - has shrunk Joe's wife down to teeny weeny size, along with the spouses of a couple of other ex-classmates.
And her next target is Clark Kent (Dean Cain), resulting in a teeny weeny Superman.
It's sort of dopey, silly fun. Your average "Lois & Clark" episode.
And what with the over-the-top performances surrounding him, Young's lack of acting experience doesn't stand out. Much.
Actually, Young fulfills yet another fantasy held by men and boys all across America. He's already quarterbacked a team to a win in the Superbowl. Now he gets to hug Hatcher. Twice.
(He doesn't get to save her from death, however. That honor goes to Superman, of course.)
Fortunately for Young, he's got that career in football to fall back on. Not to mention his law degree.
He's not going to be winning any Emmys or Oscars any time soon.
- VIDBITS: Perhaps NBC should retitle "Mad About You" for its one-hour season finale on Sunday, May 16. Something like "Mad at You."
According to the network, Paul and Jamie will "angrily agree to separate after each confesses to a minor indiscretion."
Actually, perhaps "Mad" should sue for divorce from NBC. After becoming a fixture in the Top 10 on Thursday nights, the show has often finished third in its time slot after being moved to Sundays.
- "Muppets Tonight!" just got a vote of confidence from ABC. The show, which was recently yanked off the air and currently sits on hiatus, has gotten an order for 13 more episodes for next season.
That's in addition to the seven episodes from this season that haven't made it on the air yet.
Now, if only they could find a time slot for the show.
- Charlie Sheen will make his sitcom debut in the Thursday, March 9, episode of "Friends." He'll play a sailor "with a passion for Phoebe," who arrives in New York only to find that she's down with a case of the chicken pox.
"Friends" is getting just a little bit carried away with these celebrity guest stars.
- NBC has ordered a fourth season of the daytime talk show "Leeza."
Leeza Gibbons' gabfest is considerably less sleazy than a lot of the daytime talkers - but that's sort of damning with faint praise, isn't it?
- Fox has named Chip Caray as host of its baseball studio show. He's the son of Atlanta Braves announcer Skip Caray and the grandson of Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray.
Gee, the Carays are to baseball what the Ewings were to oil.