Still cute as a button, Valerie Bertinelli returns to the made-for-TV movie realm of which she is the reigning queen, playing . . . oh, do you really care who she`s playing, since she remains Valerie Bertinelli no matter who she is supposed to be playing?
In ”What She Doesn`t Know” (8 p.m. Sunday, NBC-Ch. 5), Bertinelli is supposed to be Molly Kilcoin, the pride of an Irish brood. She has just graduated from Harvard Law School and is on the fast track to a big-bucks job in private practice. For reasons that never wash, she accepts instead a gritty position with the district attorney`s office.
Her father, played by the estimable George Dzunda, formerly of ”Law & Order” and an actor who was born to play cops, is a New York City detective. He shuns his daughter after she spurns the corporate world, warming up only after her familiarity with the witness to a mob hit elevates her above her wet-behind-the-ears colleagues.
Only one little problem. Digging into the murder case, Molly comes across potentially damaging info about her father.
Yes, it`s a moral and ethical dilemma, boiled down to patter.
”The world is full of gray, little girl,” says Mom.
”And the law is black and white,” says Molly.
Not so black and white that things don`t work out for the best. No one, least of all moviemakers, would want anything bad to happen to Bertinelli.
It`s a shame, really, that this actress continues to take parts that offer few challenges. I see flashes here and there of her skill. I`d like to see her given the chance to exercise it.
”WHAT SHE DOESN`T KNOW”
An NBC made-for-TV movie. A Republic Pictures Production, executive producer Laurie Levit; produced by Jay Benson, directed by Kevin Dobson, from a script by Andy Tennant and story by Tim Stack. With Valerie Bertinelli, George Dzunda, Micole Mercurio and Andrew May. Airing at 8 p.m. Sunday on WMAQ-Ch. 5.
Channel hopping . . .
– I don`t understand the appeal of the Steve Urkel, the supernerd character in ”Family Matters.” And every time Urkel pops up in ”The Jaleel White Special” (7 p.m. Saturday, ABC-Ch. 7), I wanted to throw a shoe through the TV set. I didn`t, of course, in some part because I was perversely fascinated that a young teenager, no matter how popular, might be given the sort of extravagant showcase provided White in this hourlong show.
He plays himself as a lovestruck, would-be moviemaker trying to impress a high school honey. In fantasy sequences, he is Rhett Butler and Chaplin`s tramp. Although White has a certain charm, I have to believe that he will look back on this exercise as a mildly embarrassing and not at all fruitful ego trip.
– ”Fatal Charm” (8 p.m. Saturday, Showtime), in which Christopher Atkins gives a performance bad enough to scuttle his career, is a vile little film that could be categorized as (1) exploitative, in that it gives us teenage fantasies; (2) insensitive, because one character says, ”Why would anybody that gorgeous need to rape somebody?” (3) just plain stupid; or (4)
all of the above.
It is the story of a naive teen (Amanda Peterson), ignored by her mother
(Mary Frann) and molested by her mother`s boyfriend, who starts a letter-writing relationship with the Atkins character, a man on trial for the serial rape/murders of six young women.
He claims innocence and she falls for it. Viewers are asked to stick around-through the girl`s high school classes and the boy`s cliched jailhouse encounters-for the inevitable meeting between the two. Don`t bother.
– In brief . . .
It`s an unholy hour, I know, but ”In America” (5:30 a.m. Sunday, WMAQ-Ch. 5) is a solidly reported, well-packaged newsmagazine program. This week`s edition-perhaps you might tape it-includes pieces on whales, female gangs and a chemist involved with AIDS research.
Those who think Mayor Richard Daley doesn`t have a sense of humor might tune into this week`s ”Wild Chicago” (10:30 p.m. Sunday, WTTW-Ch. 11). The last of this season`s installments, the show visits Daley in City Hall, where the mayor shows host Ben Hollis and his camera crew around his office-even taking them into the bathroom.
Other segments of this always-enjoyable diversion include a trip to a sandwich shop noted for its subs; a neighborhood-newpaper reporter and his jaunt to a condom store; and the show`s 3-D effect called Wildvision.
The line between news and entertainment is further blurred by a special called ”I Witness Video” (7 p.m. Sunday, NBC-Ch. 5). This show, produced by NBC News but paid for by NBC Entertainment, might as well be called
”America`s Scariest Home Videos.” It gives us six videotapes taken by non-professionals and embellishes them with interviews about the events captured on tape.
There`s a cop`s shooting death, a fire in Chicago, a tornado, a helicopter chase and the silly story of a man who got caught for not paying a highway toll. Packaged and presented with a shrill tone, this is likely to develop into a series. Just what we don`t need.
