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5 standouts set the stage for excellence
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette - November 26, 1999
By Michael Storey
Each of the programs below has broken into TV's Top 20 and features mature characters dealing in issues with which adults can identify.
Each is well-written and acted and demands the viewer invest time and energy rather than simply sit back and let the laugh track wash over. Most also enjoy multi-generational appeal.
Also not surprising, most were created by veteran producers enjoying renewed clout in an industry desperately in need of their talent to lure back a waning audience.
Judging Amy (CBS). Providence is directly responsible for this fall's top drama success. Amy is similar, but with fewer hankies and sick puppy dogs.
Amy Brenneman (NYPD Blue), 34, stars as a single mother and rookie judge who moves back in with her querulous social worker mother, played by Tyne Daly (Cagney & Lacey), 52.
Executive producer Barbara Hall says she's proud her program has become a hit "without gimmicks." Translation: No bare butts; no coarse language; no "pushing the envelope."
Family Law (CBS) features Kathleen Quinlan, 44, as a middle-age attorney trying to revive her struggling law practice after her slimy husband/law partner dumps her. Delighting audiences as a
series regular is Designing Women's feisty Dixie Carter, 60.
The women are smart, headstrong, plucky and empowered -- just the thing to endear them to the target audience.
The drama was created by Paul Haggis, creator of Due South and EZ Streets.
Once and Again (ABC) finds Sela Ward, 43, and Billy Campbell, 40, as single parents grappling with the angst of dating again. Theirs is refreshing theater on the small screen -- adult
relationships, complete with the complications of children, ex-spouses, in-laws and the labyrinth of daily routine.
This witty, sexy, romantic drama comes from the masters of angst, adult and otherwise. Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick also gave us the memorable thirtysomething and My So-Called Life.
Younger viewers may be identifying with the show's kids -- ages 16, 14, 12 and 9. How they deal with their parents' budding relationship makes for a depth uncommon in drama today.
Now and Again (CBS) is a surprisingly touching romantic comedy disguised as science fiction action drama. Its creative juices flow from the mind of Moonlighting creator Glenn Gordon Caron.
The inventive and original series stars Eric Close, 32, as an insurance executive who, after a freak accident, has his brain transplanted into the body of a government-created secret agent.
Margaret Colin, 42, is the wife his handlers tell him he can never see again. Naturally, that's all he really wants to do. The premise sounds bizarre, but the show sparkles.
Caron says he got the idea for the series after watching Dawson's Creek with his 14-year-old daughter.
"It was as if no one over the age of 26 experienced ardor or passion or romantic love," Caron says. "I thought, gee, it would be fun to do a show where people who are older
experienced those feelings."
The West Wing (NBC) is a fast-paced political drama from Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, Sports Night). It follows the adventures of a fictitious presidential administration.
Martin Sheen, 59, portrays no-nonsense Democrat President Josiah Bartlet, head of an eclectic staff of workaholics.
The series shows that America will watch a smart, sophisticated White House drama even in the cynical afterglow of the Clinton/
Lewinsky scandal. Maybe that's because in this White House, the characters act like adults.
TV's freshman failure rate is 70 percent. If there were only one smart, engaging new drama, the season would be a success. That there are at least five is a surfeit of riches.
Add to them the promise of other freshman programs like Freaks and Geeks, Third Watch, Angel, Roswell and Steven Bochco's forthcoming City of Angels, and drama lovers have more than they can say
grace over.
Copyright © 1999 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.
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