‘Yearling’ Rises Above Mediocre Script
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ novel “The Yearling” (1994) is a slow, depressing yarn about a poverty-stricken family living in the wilderness. And so it makes sense that the TV adaptation, repeated on CBS Sunday at 9, also moves slower than afternoon traffic.
Like the book, the TV story becomes intriguing when Jody (Wil Horneff) grapples with a coming-of-age conflict over the fate of his pet deer. The deer starts to be a family nuisance, and soon Jody must make difficult choices regarding the pet.
Peter Strauss, as the boy’s father, does the best he can with the bland script. He manages to bring some depth to his character.
Jean Smart as the family matriarch is not up to the job of trying to give soft edges to her overly proud character. She confuses pride with coldness and apathy.
That’s a shame, given that the character has much impact on Jody’s emotional makeup.
It’s a movie worth slugging through, especially for the atmospheric direction and unusual pacing.
Highlights
“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” KXLY Sunday at 5: The sci-fi series ends another season with Odo (Rene Auberjonois) reduced to goo. That’s part of a cliffhanger that involves Klingons, double crosses and dishonesty and which leaves fans hanging until September.
“Hope & Gloria,” NBC tonight at 8: In the last original episode for this series, the half-hour takes its lead from “My Favorite Year” (1982). Cindy Williams plays the hard-drinking new co-host of “The Dennis Dupree Show.”
She hits the bottle at an inopportune time. Where’s Peter O’Toole when you need him?
“Touched by an Angel,” CBS tonight at 8: The guest stars - Joan Van Ark, Ed Begley Jr. and Concetta Tomei - shine in this two-hour-long family-in-turmoil episode. It’s all about Monica’s effort to help a family come to grips with a dying father’s deep, dark secret. Repeat.
“Mad TV,” FOX tonight at 11: This comedy-sketch series bids the season adios with a merciless spoof of “Afterschool Specials.” There’s also a “Gumby” parody that will have you slapping your knees.
“Muppets Tonight,” ABC Sunday at 7: The muppets return to prime time with new episodes. The first one features Sandra Bullock in a parody of her hit movie “Speed” (1994).
“Jack Reed: A Search For Justice” (1994), NBC Sunday at 9: Brian Dennehy deserves applause for his honest portrayal of a troubled cop in this gritty police TV-film series. Dennehy’s Jack Reed is tough as nails as he contends with Miguel Ferrer, playing the homicidal leader of a crime ring.
“Space: Above and Beyond,” FOX Sunday at 7: Back for another run is the two-parter that mixed romance with high action. Shane (Kristen Cloke) contends with her feelings for a former boyfriend while the aliens mobilize for an attack.
Cable Calls
“American Dreamers,” TNT Sunday at 5: The cable channel ushers in Independence Day with an uplifting documentary, full of film clips and interviews, on the “American dream.”
Witty Mel Brooks, reflective Michael Jordan, clever Mario Cuomo, funny Brett Butler and intelligent Maya Angelou are among the celebrities and ordinary folks offering commentary.
Clips from 45 films, among them “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) “Rocky” (1976), “Citizen Kane” (1941) and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939), show how Hollywood depicts the concept of the “American Dream.”
“Beyond the Call” (1996), SHO Sunday at 8: Can a suburban housewife (Sissy Spacek) save her high school sweetheart (David Strathairn) from the electric chair? Tune in to this intense, albeit melodramatic, made-for-cable movie to find out.
Movie Marquee
“One More Mountain” (1994), ABC tonight at 9: When we last left Meredith Baxter, once beloved TV mom Elyse on NBC’s “Family Ties,” she was honing her skills at performing melodrama as Betty Broderick in the “A Woman Scorned” movies.
In “Mountain,” she proves she has successfully developed the desired weepy, whiny skills needed to star in sappy TV movies.
As Margaret Reed, in this factbased historical drama about the famous Donner party’s treacherous emigration, she attempts to give a soapy performance even Scarlett O’Hara would be proud of. As a dutiful mid-19th-century wife, she agrees to leave behind her well-to-do life in Illinois to go west with her four children and husband (Chris Cooper).
You may remember this movie. It’s the one where her character drags her near-death daughter into the snow and starts slapping her to keep her alive. (The overacting award goes to. …)
“Danielle Steel’s ‘Vanished”’ (1995), NBC tonight at 9: Here’s a bad script with some uninspiring acting. (Can’t think of a worse way to spend an evening.) Lisa Rinna (“Days of Our Lives”) stars as the heroine of this tearjerker set in the ‘20s and ‘30s.
First you have to suffer through the death of her son. Then it’s off to a sanitarium and divorce by her first husband (Maurice Godin).
If you think that’s bad, stick around for her romance with millionaire Malcolm Patterson, played with arthritic grace by George Hamilton.
“The Marrying Man” (1991), ABC Sunday at 9: Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger teamed up for this Neil Simon comedy in which the two fall in and out of love several times.
xxxx Wrestling Trials Freestyle action of the U.S. Olympic Wresting Trials, taped in in Spokane June 8, appears in an hourlong program on ESPN2 at 7 tonight. Greco-Roman competition in Concord, Calif., is also included.