If you`ve been wondering where those kids might go when they leave
”Beverly Hills, 90210,” CBS provides an answer of silly sorts in its new series called ”Freshman Dorm.”
The show is billed as a drama, and it does awkwardly flirt with issues such as losing one`s virginity, the politics of sororities, teachers playing favorites and teacher-student love affairs. But in so doing, it provides so many unintentionally hilarious moments, encounters and snatches of dialogue in its hourlong premiere (8 p.m. Tuesday, WBBM-Ch. 2) that you might mistake it for a comedy.
– ”Oh, my, you`re a lesbian,” says one girl when her new roommate announces that she doesn`t date (she has a boyfriend). ”Oh, fab! My mom`s gonna have an absolute cow.”
– ”I`m a big jock and I`m living like a monk,” says one young man, in an attempt to seduce his girlfriend. ”It`s embarrassing.”
– ”Be careful what you wish for,” says one black student. ”I wanted a black Supreme Court justice and I got Clarence Thomas.” (In that case, the comedy may not have been inadvertent.)
The show focuses on three female dorm mates. They are a covey of stereotypes.
Kamala Consuelo (”Call me K.C.”) Richards (Arlene Taylor) is the child of a working-class Hispanic family trying to hide her humble origins while climbing social ladders. Her philosophy: ”I want to run an international corporation one day, and the contacts I need to make aren`t on the volleyball court.”
Molly Flynn (Robyn Lively) is a homespun theater major from Milwaukee whose boyfriend, the aforementioned horny jock, lives across campus.
Paige French plays the most potenially interesting character, Louise
(”Call Me Lulu”) Abercrombie. She`s filthy rich and from Manhattan, she tosses around French phrases and she displays a viperishly sharp tongue. She looks 30 and behaves with a wonderful, world-weary haughtiness.
These three spin in and around various subplots and various fellows, including the surfer (Casper Van Dien) who lives next door and the teacher who`s a heartthrob.
Molly loses her virginity and speaks her mind to a slimy director. K.C. joins a sorority and gets a job. Lulu has a grand time insulting the leader of the school`s No. 1 sorority but finally falls into a self-obsessed funk when her philosophy teacher is cool to her advances.
There`s a gratuitous beach scene-bare chests and bikinis-and, finally, a dorm room revelation:
”Everything`s so different here,” says Molly.
”But isn`t that why we came?” asks K.C.
Ah, don`t worry, ladies. In four years, you can move into ”Melrose Place.”
– Those who watched the Olympic Games have seen and heard more about Spain than you may have cared to, but you have heard very little about the man who is the subject of a splendid BBC documentary called ”Franco: Behind the Myth” (7 p.m. Tuesday, Arts and Entertainment cable).
Dead for 17 years, Franco and his shadow still linger-in strangely quiet ways-in Spain, and this program goes a long way toward straightening out some facts and falsehoods.
Using archival film footage, previously unseen home movies and lengthy interviews with Franco`s friends and foes (including, for the first time on camera, daughter Carmen), writer Jonathan Dimbleby and producer Anthony Griffin trace Franco`s life and career.
They examine, among other facets, his relationship with Hitler, his role in the Spanish Civil War, his relationships with American presidents, and the repressive measures he instituted.
It`s all interesting and some of it is chilling, as when Franco`s niece describes how he would blithely sign death certificates with his dinner coffee.
