With the exception of a Barbara Walters interview of former hostage Terry Waite on ”20/20” (9 p.m. Friday, ABC-Ch. 7), this television weekend`s a bust.
The Walters interview with Waite is an American television exclusive. She handles it well and with directness and compassion, reminding us of the newswoman she used to be before becoming celebrated for her celebrity chit-chat.
She lets Waite, the top aide to the head of the Church of England and a top hostage negotiator, talk about the four years he was held captive by the Islamic fundamentalist group Hezbollah.
Among many details, he tells us how he saved himself from suffocating while being held in a refrigerator; says there was no arms-for-hostages deal; and admits that the Bible failed to give him any solace.
”Were you tortured?” Walters asks.
”Yes,” says Waite.
”How?” asks Walters.
He gives the particulars, and after hearing them it is easy to understand why Waite is able to now feel joy ”just being able to feel the wind on your cheeks . . . and breathe deeply the cool air.”
– Those of you who understand what a new Fox show called ”Sightings” (8 p.m. Friday, WFLD-Ch. 32) means when it states, ”There is a there there,”
may be interested in what follows in the following 30 minutes.
Otherwise, this show, from the same people who brought you ”The UFO Report” and ”Ghosts,” will appear just another twist in the reality-based programming path, offering an examination of ”a different phenomenon” every week.
We are promised the usual suspects: Big Foot, the Loch Ness monster, psychic healing, UFOs and ESP.
But first up is a look at after-death experiences.
I don`t mean to make light of the experiences of those who believe they have traveled ”to the other side.” But you try not cracking a grin when one woman says, ”I actually felt more alive dead.”
– It tells me something when a film that was originally intended for theatrical release winds up instead making its debut as a cable special.
So, I didn`t expect much from ”Boris and Natasha” (7 p.m. Friday, Showtime), a live-action romp based on the nasty spies who bedeviled Rocky and Bullwinkle in Jay Nash`s cagey cartoons.
It stars Dave Thomas and Sally Kellerman, and they do their best. But the script, heavily influenced by the high jinks of ”Airplane!” and ”The Naked Gun” but without those movies` comic sensibilities or appreciation for camp, eventually drowns the stars and the story.
This was a good idea-the cartoon characters were great-sadly made with look-ma-I`m-being-funny pretensions.
– Another member of the reality show brigade is ”Against All Odds,”
premiering with back-to-back 30-minute programs at 6 p.m. Sunday on NBC-Ch. 5. Hosted by Lindsay Wagner-why can`t this decent actress find a good role?-and the board-stiff Everett McGill, the program-COMPLETE WITH RE-CREATIONS!-offers stories of, drum roll please, ”extraordinary courage and heroism.”
We get to see, and feel sort of creepy doing so, a near-fatal parachute free fall; some divers trying to manage an underground rapids; a kid who helped his mother up a ravine; a grandmother who goes undercover to help the police; and, of course, a dog-a Rottweiler that played hero during the San Francisco earthquake of 1989.
If this is NBC`s idea of a viable competitor to CBS` ”60 Minutes,” it`s final proof that the network`s executives have gone completely off their rockers.
– In ”Revolver” (8 p.m. Sunday, NBC-Ch. 5), which is named for the huge gun the hero carries, Robert Urich plays a man who has lost the use of his legs as the result of an assassin`s bullet.
After a sufficient amount of self-pity, the wheelchair-riding former government agent comes out of retirement and goes to Barcelona to get the guys who done him wrong and, in the process, break up a biochemical weapons smuggling ring and, of course, fall in love with a beauty.
On every level, the film`s a dud.
Here are a few of its cliches, which, arranged in chronological order, should give you the whole story:
”You`ll go, because no matter what, you still care.”
”Give me a few days and I`ll deliver (the bad guy) on a silver platter with all the dressing.”
”I never thought I could feel this way again.”
”Gentlemen, I believe the fat lady has sung.”
– ”The Secret” (8 p.m. Sunday, CBS-Ch. 2) is the basis for the cover feature story of Sunday`s TV Week. In the story, star Kirk Douglas tells us how he feels about a variety of things, including his role in this film as a Cape Cod store owner who has always thought himself ”dumb” until realizing, thanks to a grandson, that he suffers from dyslexia.
My only question: Isn`t there something more challenging for Douglas than this sappy piece of fluff?
