Count On Laughs With ‘Comedy Classics’
The weekend is here and you could use a good laugh, right?
CBS has the answer with a first-run special, “Television’s Comedy Classics” at 8. Host Leslie Nielsen will make sure that even though the clips may be familiar, this show (unavailable for review) won’t go wanting for extra laughs.
Here’s some of what’s on tap: John Belushi’s “Samurai Delicatessen,” Dana Carvey’s “Church Lady” and Eddie Murphy’s “Buckwheat Sings,” all from NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” and early stand-up appearances by Jim Carrey, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Newhart, Roseanne, Bill Cosby, Billy Crystal and others.
You’ll also see classic moments with Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Rodney Dangerfield, Steve Martin, Whoopi Goldberg and Ellen DeGeneres.
The highlights vary from Jackie Gleason’s somewhat obscure “Chef of the Future” to Abbott and Costello’s overplayed “Who’s on First.”
If you have to watch repeats, why not watch some of the best?
Highlights
“Sliders,” FOX at 8: The sliders land in a world in which men finish off the last 20 weeks of their wives’ pregnancies. It’s Rembrandt (Cleavant Derricks) who is the unlucky one this time, as he is mistaken for his parallel-world double, the husband of a royal princess.
Rembrandt is shocked to find that he’s carrying the heir to the throne.
Somewhere here there’s a message about how society views childbearing and a test of attitudes about how men take certain things for granted. Repeat.
“Unsolved Mysteries,” NBC at 8: Included in the repeat hour is a report on the Thanksgiving Day murder of a Florida couple, whose daughter is one of four selfproclaimed vampires accused of the crime. Repeat.
“JAG,” CBS at 9: Harm (David James Elliott) investigates a series of air crashes believed to be related to a squadron jinxed after the accidental bombing of an Iraqi mosque during Operation Desert Storm.
To disprove the theory, JAG flies a mission. But the jinx appears to be for real. Repeat.
“Sabrina, The Teenage Witch,” ABC at 9: Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) broods in an alternative world after being mortified by a giant wart. Teens can relate. Repeat.
“Homicide: Life on the Street,” NBC at 10: The gritty crime drama returns to the air with this year’s season-opening two-parter.
Returning to work after suffering a stroke, Pembleton (Andre Braugher) is a shadow of himself, left on the sidelines when a gunman who has shot his way into a school threatens to kill the teacher and students he’s holding hostage.
Cable Calls
“Kansas City” (1996), MAX at 8: Robert Altman directed this film at the ripe old age of 71. Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as the wife of a small-time hood (Dermot Mulroney) who gets into trouble with a powerful mobster.
Set in Kansas City in the 1930s, the movie features an inspired K.C. jazz motif. But the performances are so stylized they will leave many cold.
As usual, Altman delivers unique characters who sometimes behave more like they are in a movie than what we think of as “real” people. And the plot is thin, at best.
Jazz is the theme, as the actors and actresses play off each other as if this were an extended jam session.
“The Seven Year Itch” (1955), AMC at 6 and 10: Marilyn Monroe is a delight to watch opposite Tom Ewell in this classic Billy Wilder comedy.
Ewell plays a home-alone husband and father melted by his sexy upstairs neighbor at the height of a heat wave. Ewell’s Walter Mitty-like flights of fantasy are a scream.
Talk Time
“Tonight,” NBC at 11:35: Heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield and musical group Radiohead.
“Late Show With David Letterman,” CBS at 11:35: Actor Samuel L. Jackson, director Barry Sonnenfeld and comedian Eddie Brill.
“Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher,” ABC at 12:35 a.m.: Louie Anderson, Jim “Soni” Sonefeld of Hootie and the Blowfish, American Civil Liberties Union President Nadine Strossen and author-physician Dr. Cary Savitch.
‘Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” NBC at 12:35 a.m.: “Mr. Food” Art Ginsberg.