1987-88: THE YEAR OF THE MAN WITH AT LEAST 11 NEW SHOWS FEATURING CASTS DOMINATED BY MEN, MALE BONDING IS THE MAJOR TREND. AND, IN MOST CASES, THEY&apos;RE NOT THE QUICHE EATERS OF SEASONS PAST. - Sun Sentinel
1987-88: THE YEAR OF THE MAN WITH AT LEAST 11 NEW SHOWS FEATURING CASTS DOMINATED BY MEN, MALE BONDING IS THE MAJOR TREND. AND, IN MOST CASES, THEY'RE NOT THE QUICHE EATERS OF SEASONS PAST.
If you like men, this is the TV season for you.
We're talking real men, the kind Sean Connery wouldn't be ashamed to play golf with. Men with feelings, a clear sense of who they are ... and some backbone.
Real men. Not the pantywaist wimps of past seasons, who said such things as: "I'd prefer a glass of chablis, thanks," and "I've learned it's OK for a man to cry."
Most of the men populating this season's new shows would cry only if they arrived at work to find their partner had been murdered. Now that's something to cry about. A good partner is tough to find. Especially if he's your brother.
But that's about what happens in Private Eye, the best action drama of the season -- an NBC series from Anthony Yerkovich, who created Miami Vice in 1984.
Real men also know that the best way to solve problems is not with violence. Sure, nothing speaks louder than a slug from a .45, but that doesn't leave a lot of room for detente. One of the most charismatic men that viewers will encounter this season is Dr. Buck James (played by Dennis Weaver) in Buck James, a Texas surgeon who's in the business of saving lives, not eliminating them.
Still, many of this season's men will be measured by their ability to withstand -- or mete out -- punishment.
The season's biggest and loudest dramatic series is Tour of Duty (8 p.m. Thursdays, CBS), an ambitious, one-hour drama about Americans stationed in Vietnam during 1967. In another CBS series, Wiseguy (9 p.m. Thursdays), Ken Wahl infiltrates the Atlantic City, N.J., branch of the mob; he has to contend with some rough characters.
Even erstwhile softie John (Three's Company) Ritter gives up being a quiche eater. In ABC's Hooperman -- arguably the season's best new program -- he plays a San Francisco police inspector. Hooperman is a nice guy, but you wouldn't want him on your bad side -- as a judge, defendant and two attorneys discover in the series pilot. (You'll have to wait for the Sept. 23 premiere to see what I mean.)
Other new series with male-dominated casts include J.J. Starbuck (with Dale Robertson), Jake and the Fatman, The Law and Harry McGraw, The "Slap" Maxwell Story (with Dabney Coleman) and Once a Hero.
Only in Full House and My Two Dads do we find the kind of young guys who epitomize "cute" -- that term women feel compelled to apply to likable men. These are two sitcoms about male single parents.
But wait. If you aren't interested in series about private eyes or single fathers or cowboy surgeons, will you be left with nothing to watch this year?
No, no, absolutely not. This male-bonding thing is just the major trend, the thing media-watchers have to call attention to, in order to launch the season. The networks haven't canceled Moonlighting, The Cosby Show, The Golden Girls or Kate & Allie.
And the first variety show since Barbara Mandrell's NBC series of the early '80s, ABC's Dolly, is headlined by Dolly Parton. She's a woman, in case no one has noticed.
Here are questions -- and answers -- to fill in more of the blanks.
--Will this season be better than last season?
Yes. Several adequate-to-good shows from last season were renewed -- Max Headroom, Crime Story, Sledge Hammer -- while most of the truly horrible ones were canceled. Add to that the fact that there are at least a handful of good series this year, and that they aren't all scheduled in competition with each other. Also there's less to complain about this season. And there isn't a single miniseries produced by Joan Collins.
--What will be the hit of the '87-'88 season, the L.A. Law or Moonlighting of this year?
This is tough, obviously. (If it were easy for me to handicap the fall hits, I'd be answering this question from my penthouse in Beverly Hills.) But I'm betting on ABC's Hooperman, which is getting such a strong advance push that it may knock off its competition, NBC's Cheers and CBS' Magnum, p.i., which have been on for years and are vulnerable. The dark horse candidate is another ABC show, Dolly -- but only if there's a public appetite for variety shows.
--What will be the biggest bomb of the season?
Three sure-fire floperoos: ABC's Once a Hero and thirtysomething, and CBS' Beauty and the Beast. Each is costly to produce, and each stinks so profoundly that its network won't gain any critical prestige by saving it. (CBS' Tour of Duty, despite being slotted opposite NBC's formidable Cosby, is an ambitious series that is more likely to be moved to another night than canceled if Cosby seriously hurts it.)
--What's the major trend?
Men. See beginning of story.
--What's the secondary trend?
Contemporary sitcoms -- repopularized by The Cosby Show -- led by the Cosby spinoff, NBC's A Different World.
--How come several series look familiar, even though I know they weren't on the schedule last September?
They're midseason replacements from last winter -- or, in the case of A Year in the Life, one-shot miniseries -- renewed for this fall. The networks, and some newspapers and magazines, are listing them as new series, but they aren't. These series include Rags to Riches (NBC), Ohara (ABC), The Charmings (ABC), and Max Headroom (ABC).
--Will the incoherent Miami Vice plots finally improve?
Well, right now, they barely even exist. So anything's an improvement. I'm guessing yes. The show has a new writing staff.
--Will Tom Brokaw's NBC Nightly News continue to ace Dan Rather's CBS Evening News out of first place?
Yes. NBC's prime-time lineup is in first place, and climbing. The spillover effect boosts the ratings for news. That's an axiom of life in television. And, anticipating your next question, yes, NBC will remain in first place -- partly because of its superior programs; partly because NBC has some exclusive events, such as the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, which can only boost its standing.
--Which veteran series will finally lose its grasp on its audience and leave the schedule after the upcoming season?
Whether his ratings are superb or atrocious, Tom Selleck has said this season of Magnum, p.i. -- his eighth -- is his last. Dynasty is played out (and its spinoff, The Colbys, was axed after a season), so I wouldn't expect to see that dinosaur last beyond 1988. Cagney & Lacey is running out of steam, and it's losing one of its regulars, Carl Lumbly. It's probably checkout time for Hotel. Spenser: For Hire will get demolished in its Sunday time slot opposite NBC's Family Ties and My Two Dads. NBC's Highway to Heaven is on its last legs; Michael Landon has run out of souls to save. NBC's St. Elsewhere will lose Ed Flanders and add Ronny Cox to its cast, but that shouldn't provide much more than a season's worth of fresh plot detours. Night Court is the weak link in NBC's Thursday schedule. Murder, She Wrote will fold under the competition of Family Ties (on its new night, Sunday) and My Two Dads.
--What will be the first cancellation?
NBC's Valerie's Family (which lost its star and namesake, Valerie Harper, in August), ABC's Once a Hero or thirtysomething, or CBS' The Oldest Rookie. Take your pick. Expect NBC to jettison some dead weight fairly quickly, because it has such "designated hitters" as Mama's Boy and Beverly Hills Buntz just itching for a slot on the schedule. Also, Pat Morita's Ohara, an ABC series most people don't know even exists (although it premiered last season) faces certain doom.
--Which shows are the New York advertising agencies predicting will go down the tubes?
J.J. Starbuck (NBC), Jake and the Fatman (CBS), The Oldest Rookie (CBS), A Year in the Life (NBC), Beauty and the Beast (CBS) and anything on the Fox Network (Werewolf, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Married ... With Children, etc.).
--Will the Fox Broadcasting Co.'s "fourth network" survive?
Not a chance. Dead by spring.
--Who will be this year's David and Maddie (the Moonlighting couple)?
Whoever NBC briefly pairs with Don Johnson when Sonny Crockett gets married on Miami Vice. But she's only going to be around for a few episodes. My guess -- if the series' ratings take off -- is Matt Frewer (in human form) and Amanda Pays on ABC's Max Headroom.
--How will the serial cliffhangers -- and other series loose ends -- be resolved?
Thomas Magnum had an "out-of-body experience," says Tom Selleck -- which means he didn't die last season as he appeared to. But he was seriously injured and will take several episodes to recover; Gwen Verdon, playing his mother, will figure in the scenario. The Colbys was canceled, so its Fallon- enters-a-UFO ending will be casually dismissed -- although John James and Emma Samms will get lots of Dynasty screen time, in a bid for younger viewers.
Cybill Shepherd's real-life pregnancy will be disguised on -- not written into -- Moonlighting. Kirstie Alley replaces Shelley Long on Cheers, as the saloon's new owner. On Cagney & Lacey, Chris Cagney (Sharon Gless) joins Alcoholics Anonymous, and begins her gradual recovery. French actress Leslie Caron replaces Robert Foxworth's character on Falcon Crest (since Foxworth asked to be written out).
Ray Luca (Anthony Denison), the mobster ostensibly killed in an A-bomb blast in the season finale of Crime Story, somehow will return. Series co-creator Michael Mann joked, "Maybe he'll glow in the dark."
L.A. Law adds a black attorney, played by Blair Underwood. Nancy Stafford (an ex-Wilton Manors resident who's the pitch lady for Waterbed City) joins Matlock as Andy Griffith's junior partner. And Victoria Principal and Dack Rambo are gone from Dallas, while Steve Kanaly marries Priscilla Presley.
1987-88: THE YEAR OF THE MAN WITH AT LEAST 11 NEW SHOWS FEATURING CASTS DOMINATED BY MEN, MALE BONDING IS THE MAJOR TREND. AND, IN MOST CASES, THEY&apos;RE NOT THE QUICHE EATERS OF SEASONS PAST. - Sun Sentinel
1987-88: THE YEAR OF THE MAN WITH AT LEAST 11 NEW SHOWS FEATURING CASTS DOMINATED BY MEN, MALE BONDING IS THE MAJOR TREND. AND, IN MOST CASES, THEY'RE NOT THE QUICHE EATERS OF SEASONS PAST.
If you like men, this is the TV season for you.
We're talking real men, the kind Sean Connery wouldn't be ashamed to play golf with. Men with feelings, a clear sense of who they are ... and some backbone.
Real men. Not the pantywaist wimps of past seasons, who said such things as: "I'd prefer a glass of chablis, thanks," and "I've learned it's OK for a man to cry."
Most of the men populating this season's new shows would cry only if they arrived at work to find their partner had been murdered. Now that's something to cry about. A good partner is tough to find. Especially if he's your brother.
But that's about what happens in Private Eye, the best action drama of the season -- an NBC series from Anthony Yerkovich, who created Miami Vice in 1984.
Real men also know that the best way to solve problems is not with violence. Sure, nothing speaks louder than a slug from a .45, but that doesn't leave a lot of room for detente. One of the most charismatic men that viewers will encounter this season is Dr. Buck James (played by Dennis Weaver) in Buck James, a Texas surgeon who's in the business of saving lives, not eliminating them.
Still, many of this season's men will be measured by their ability to withstand -- or mete out -- punishment.
The season's biggest and loudest dramatic series is Tour of Duty (8 p.m. Thursdays, CBS), an ambitious, one-hour drama about Americans stationed in Vietnam during 1967. In another CBS series, Wiseguy (9 p.m. Thursdays), Ken Wahl infiltrates the Atlantic City, N.J., branch of the mob; he has to contend with some rough characters.
Even erstwhile softie John (Three's Company) Ritter gives up being a quiche eater. In ABC's Hooperman -- arguably the season's best new program -- he plays a San Francisco police inspector. Hooperman is a nice guy, but you wouldn't want him on your bad side -- as a judge, defendant and two attorneys discover in the series pilot. (You'll have to wait for the Sept. 23 premiere to see what I mean.)
Other new series with male-dominated casts include J.J. Starbuck (with Dale Robertson), Jake and the Fatman, The Law and Harry McGraw, The "Slap" Maxwell Story (with Dabney Coleman) and Once a Hero.
Only in Full House and My Two Dads do we find the kind of young guys who epitomize "cute" -- that term women feel compelled to apply to likable men. These are two sitcoms about male single parents.
But wait. If you aren't interested in series about private eyes or single fathers or cowboy surgeons, will you be left with nothing to watch this year?
No, no, absolutely not. This male-bonding thing is just the major trend, the thing media-watchers have to call attention to, in order to launch the season. The networks haven't canceled Moonlighting, The Cosby Show, The Golden Girls or Kate & Allie.
And the first variety show since Barbara Mandrell's NBC series of the early '80s, ABC's Dolly, is headlined by Dolly Parton. She's a woman, in case no one has noticed.
Here are questions -- and answers -- to fill in more of the blanks.
--Will this season be better than last season?
Yes. Several adequate-to-good shows from last season were renewed -- Max Headroom, Crime Story, Sledge Hammer -- while most of the truly horrible ones were canceled. Add to that the fact that there are at least a handful of good series this year, and that they aren't all scheduled in competition with each other. Also there's less to complain about this season. And there isn't a single miniseries produced by Joan Collins.
--What will be the hit of the '87-'88 season, the L.A. Law or Moonlighting of this year?
This is tough, obviously. (If it were easy for me to handicap the fall hits, I'd be answering this question from my penthouse in Beverly Hills.) But I'm betting on ABC's Hooperman, which is getting such a strong advance push that it may knock off its competition, NBC's Cheers and CBS' Magnum, p.i., which have been on for years and are vulnerable. The dark horse candidate is another ABC show, Dolly -- but only if there's a public appetite for variety shows.
--What will be the biggest bomb of the season?
Three sure-fire floperoos: ABC's Once a Hero and thirtysomething, and CBS' Beauty and the Beast. Each is costly to produce, and each stinks so profoundly that its network won't gain any critical prestige by saving it. (CBS' Tour of Duty, despite being slotted opposite NBC's formidable Cosby, is an ambitious series that is more likely to be moved to another night than canceled if Cosby seriously hurts it.)
--What's the major trend?
Men. See beginning of story.
--What's 
the secondary trend?
Contemporary sitcoms -- repopularized by The Cosby Show -- led by the Cosby spinoff, NBC's A Different World.
--How come several series look familiar, even though I know they weren't on the schedule last September?
They're midseason replacements from last winter -- or, in the case of A Year in the Life, one-shot miniseries -- renewed for this fall. The networks, and some newspapers and magazines, are listing them as new series, but they aren't. These series include Rags to Riches (NBC), Ohara (ABC), The Charmings (ABC), and Max Headroom (ABC).
--Will the incoherent Miami Vice plots finally improve?
Well, right now, they barely even exist. So anything's an improvement. I'm guessing yes. The show has a new writing staff.
--Will Tom Brokaw's NBC Nightly News continue to ace Dan Rather's CBS Evening News out of first place?
Yes. NBC's prime-time lineup is in first place, and climbing. The spillover effect boosts the ratings for news. That's an axiom of life in television. And, anticipating your next question, yes, NBC will remain in first place -- partly because of its superior programs; partly because NBC has some exclusive events, such as the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, which can only boost its standing.
--Which veteran series will finally lose its grasp on its audience and leave the schedule after the upcoming season?
Whether his ratings are superb or atrocious, Tom Selleck has said this season of Magnum, p.i. -- his eighth -- is his last. Dynasty is played out (and its spinoff, The Colbys, was axed after a season), so I wouldn't expect to see that dinosaur last beyond 1988. Cagney & Lacey is running out of steam, and it's losing one of its regulars, Carl Lumbly. It's probably checkout time for Hotel. Spenser: For Hire will get demolished in its Sunday time slot opposite NBC's Family Ties and My Two Dads. NBC's Highway to Heaven is on its last legs; Michael Landon has run out of souls to save. NBC's St. Elsewhere will lose Ed Flanders and add Ronny Cox to its cast, but that shouldn't provide much more than a season's worth of fresh plot detours. Night Court is the weak link in NBC's Thursday schedule. Murder, She Wrote will fold under the competition of Family Ties (on its new night, Sunday) and My Two Dads.
--What will be the first cancellation?
NBC's Valerie's Family (which lost its star and namesake, Valerie Harper, in August), ABC's Once a Hero or thirtysomething, or CBS' The Oldest Rookie. Take your pick. Expect NBC to jettison some dead weight fairly quickly, because it has such "designated hitters" as Mama's Boy and Beverly Hills Buntz just itching for a slot on the schedule. Also, Pat Morita's Ohara, an ABC series most people don't know even exists (although it premiered last season) faces certain doom.
--Which shows are the New York advertising agencies predicting will go down the tubes?
J.J. Starbuck (NBC), Jake and the Fatman (CBS), The Oldest Rookie (CBS), A Year in the Life (NBC), Beauty and the Beast (CBS) and anything on the Fox Network (Werewolf, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Married ... With Children, etc.).
--Will the Fox Broadcasting Co.'s "fourth network" survive?
Not a chance. Dead by spring.
--Who will be this year's David and Maddie (the Moonlighting couple)?
Whoever NBC briefly pairs with Don Johnson when Sonny Crockett gets married on Miami Vice. But she's only going to be around for a few episodes. My guess -- if the series' ratings take off -- is Matt Frewer (in human form) and Amanda Pays on ABC's Max Headroom.
--How will the serial cliffhangers -- and other series loose ends -- be resolved?
Thomas Magnum had an "out-of-body experience," says Tom Selleck -- which means he didn't die last season as he appeared to. But he was seriously injured and will take several episodes to recover; Gwen Verdon, playing his mother, will figure in the scenario. The Colbys was canceled, so its Fallon- enters-a-UFO ending will be casually dismissed -- although John James and Emma Samms will get lots of Dynasty screen time, in a bid for younger viewers.
Cybill Shepherd's real-life pregnancy will be disguised on -- not written into -- Moonlighting. Kirstie Alley replaces Shelley Long on Cheers, as the saloon's new owner. On Cagney & Lacey, Chris Cagney (Sharon Gless) joins Alcoholics Anonymous, and begins her gradual recovery. French actress Leslie Caron replaces Robert Foxworth's character on Falcon Crest (since Foxworth asked to be written out).
Ray Luca (Anthony Denison), the mobster ostensibly killed in an A-bomb blast in the season finale of Crime Story, somehow will return. Series co-creator Michael Mann joked, "Maybe he'll glow in the dark."
L.A. Law adds a black attorney, played by Blair Underwood. Nancy Stafford (an ex-Wilton Manors resident who's the pitch lady for Waterbed City) joins Matlock as Andy Griffith's junior partner. And Victoria Principal and Dack Rambo are gone from Dallas, while Steve Kanaly marries Priscilla Presley.