Repeats of “The Torkelsons,” a sitcom that flirted with but never made it permanently into NBC’s 1991 prime-time schedule, has been picked up by the Disney Channel for weekly airing (5:30 p.m. Mondays).
Perhaps the show was too simple or corny for network TV, with its portrayal of Southern mom Millicent Torkelson (Connie Ray), who is left nearly penniless by her husband to raise five young children in a place called Pyramid Corners, Okla.
The first episode, which ran last week, opens with Dorothy Jane (Olivia Burnette), the eldest child, sitting at the window in her room talking to the “man on the moon.”
“Tell me I was switched at birth, that there were two look-alike babies who got mixed up and sent to the wrong families,” says Dorothy Jane. “For 14 years I’ve been forced to live with the Torkelsons when my actual family lives in Palm Beach and drives a Lincoln Continental.”
Perpetually embarrassed by her mother’s unsophisticated and eccentric ways, Dorothy Jane aspires to a more polished lifestyle. The mother-daughter contrast, coupled with the fine acting from all, adds a continual spark of comedy to the peculiar predicaments of this large family.
“Mother, you have four other children, I want you to stop concentrating on me,” says Dorothy Jane.
“Can’t,” says Millicent in a heavy drawl. “You’re the oldest. I’ve been concentrating on you the longest and now you’re like a habit I can’t break.”
As other Torkelson tots round out the harried scene, the show wasn’t played strictly for laughs.
There’s a touching moment between mother and daughter when Millicent is forced to drop all the perfunctory humor and explain to Dorothy Jane that the family is flat broke and needs to take in a boarder, who would have to take over Dorothy Jane’s room.
“This room was my sanctuary from the storm,” says Dorothy Jane, crying. “It was the only thing in my life that you didn’t make from a curtain or wasn’t handed down to me by a relative who is nowhere near my size.”
“The Torkelsons” should be mandatory viewing for those of us who have chosen this roller-coaster ride of raising kids, for it provides us with a little pleasant comic relief.
– It’s a far-fetched idea having wild animals live in your back yard, but that’s the idea behind the Family Channel’s new series “The Mighty Jungle” (7 p.m. Sundays).
Dan Winfield (Francis Guinan) is the new zookeeper at Metro Zoo, home to animals and the Winfields’ house.
Winfield, who comes across as slightly befuddled, wants to prove his theory that predators and non-predators can live together peacefully without dividing walls. Consequently, the entire family, including wife Susan and kids Alison and Andrew, are coping with an orangutan who hangs around the kitchen window stealing bananas off the counter, and a rather aggressive toucan.
In last week’s premiere episode, viewers met Dan and his family and also learned something extraordinary about the animals: They can talk, but only do so to Dan.
Winston, the pompous orangutan with an Oxford accent, is the only actor dressed as an animal. The rest of the group are brought to “life” by animatronics, a mechanical process also used by the dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park.”
The Winfield’s back-yard gang includes Viola, the temperamental toucan (voice by Delta Burke); an alligator (voice by Tony Danza) raised in the sewers of Brooklyn, who “don’t take lip from no one”; and Jack the sea lion, who talks like a surfer dude from California.
Sure, this is the silliest sitcom around and a tad elementary for the older ones, but it’s good for some laughs with the younger kids. Even my 2-year-old daughter, Maggie, was giggling at the wisecracks.
– In keeping with the wildlife theme, WTTW-Ch. 11 begins a seven-part series titled “Survivors” (7:30 p.m. Mondays) in which wildlife conservation issues are confronted. The series travels to Africa, Europe, Australia and the United States to examine issues such as pesticides, overfishing, water and air pollution, deforestation and overpopulation.
