18 i- The Prince George Citizen -Monday, April 20,1992 Entertainment Rush is on to the altar as TV season nears end by JERRY BUCK LOS ANGELES (AP) — With television networks figuring wedding bells can ring up big television ratings, characters on TV series are heading for the altar in unprecedented numbers as this season draws to a close. rTt’s a staple of television that births, weddings and such occur in November, February and May, which happen to be ratings sweeps months,” says Alan Stcmfeld, ABC’s vice-president for program planning. “That doesn’t mean nothing happens at other times, but it’s much better when it occurs in those three precious months.” In April and May there will be weddings on ABC’s Civil Wars, Perfect Strangers, The Wonder Years, Homefront, Baby Talk and Life Goes On, on CBS’ Northern Exposure, and on NBC’s The Golden Girls, A Different World and Cheers. “Look, the end of the season is May for most shows,” says Deborah Aal, executive producer of A Different World. “And since May and June are big wedding months I think the thinking among those who produce television shows is that, if you have characters in your : story lines who might appropriately get married this is the best itime to do it.” ABC’s soap opera General Hospital got the highest ratings in the history of daytime dramatic programming when Luke and Laura were married in November 1981. The Brady Bunch, which began with a wedding in 1969, practically turned it into a cottage industry with the Brady Brides in 1981. Cheers has been to the brink a few times with Ted Danson as Sam Malone, while barmaid Carla (Rhea Perlman) has been over the brink. On Thursday, May 14, Woody Boyd and Kelly Gaines will actually get married — although the wedding will be offstage. ABC’s Stcmfeld says he looks for some of the weddings to produce births in time for the November sweeps. Qnc show, ABC’s Baby Talk, is having a wedding for that very reason. “We needed another baby because the baby Mickey is starting to talk on his own,” says Saul Turtcltaub, who is executive producer of Baby Talk with Bemic Orenstein. On the show, the baby expresses his thoughts through the voice of Tony Danza. The series is from the popular movie Look Who’s Talking. The mother, Maggie, played by Mary Page Keller, marries James, played by Scott Baio, in a ceremony to be televised Friday, May 1. NBC might consider a double wedding On Thursday, May 14. That’s the night Woody gets married on Cheers, while Whitley Gilbert is scheduled to marry Byron Douglas on A Different World. The romance between Gilbert and Douglas, played by Jasmine Guy and Joe Morton, has been heating up since she became a volunteer in his campaign for the U.S.. Senate. Whether Whitley’s former boyfriend, Dwayne Wayne, played by Kadcem Hardison, is going to stand aside will be determined that night. ;On CBS’ Northern Exposure Adam and Eve, contrary to popular bc|icf, are not married, but will tie tile knot on Monday, May 11. The ofld couple — he’s a compulsive liaL and she’s a hypochondriac — is j played by Adam Arkin and VJalcrie Mahaffcy. (Beatrice Arthur celebrates her departure from NBC’s The Golden Girls with her marriage to Leslie Miclsen on Saturday, May 9. Betty Vfhite, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty will stay with the s6pw as proprietors of a Miami h{)tel when it moves to CBS next season as The Golden Palace. /Nielsen plays McClanahan’s rich Uncle Lucas who becomes ca^morcd with Dorothy Zbomak (Arthur). (And besides the weddings, there aijp! two proposals. Jllily Harper (Regina Taylor) gets a * proposal from jazz musician Cjqrcnce Charleston (Dorian Hare-wtood) on NBC’s I’ll Fly Away in a Jwo-hour episode on Friday, May 15. On NBC’s Sisters; Beatrice Reed (Elizabeth Hoffman) will get proposed to by Judge Truman Vpntner (Philip Sterling) on Saturday, April 25. BOCHCO BACK, BUT DEY GONE THE FAR SIDE By GARY LARSON More changes in L.A. Law land LOS ANGELES (AP) — It sounds like a rerun. Susan Dcy is leaving. The show may lose other cast members. Same problems but a different season for NBC’s L.A. Law. Closing its sixth year, the legal drama has foundered in the Nielsen rankings and suffered the loss of various cast members, writers and producers. Dcy, who plays Grace Van Owen, is really leaving this season because she has signed a scries deal with CBS for Love Is Hell, a romantic comedy co-starring Jay Thomas. She said she was leaving last season, too, but then changed her mind. The scries suffered a mass exodus in 1991, including male heartthrobs Jimmy Smits and Harry Hamlin, actress Michele Green and executive producer David Kelley. Writer and co-producer William Finkelstein had left the season before. Co-creator, executive producer and writer Steven Bochco had left before Finkelstein. Despite the show’s revolving door of on-and off-camera talent, the scries had managed to earn good ratings and four consecutive Emmys for best drama series. This year, however, it looked as if the fate of L.A. Law finally had been written in ink. Critics hated the 1991-92 season. The spark was gone. The fun was gone. Half the cast was gone. Patricia Green was suckercd into taking a job she didn’t want — executive producer — and abruptly PRINCE GEORGE ALCOHOL AND DRUG SERVICES SOCIETY MORE AWARENESS LESS ABUSE FAMOUS PLAYE ARM AMD mmm assante rjm Mat»tbo 3 h KINGS MW RS Eves: 7:10 & 9:10 p.m. ffSvg) B.C. WARNING: Occasion* nud Ityft KSHBu suggestive scenes, very coarse U inguage. THE I VIUSICAL NEl VSIES Eves:7 :00 p.m. only b.c. w> kRNING: Occasional griSiHB violence ft swearing. (855D ifti Straight MTALK DOLLY PARTON KfWi JAMES WOODS Eves: 9:15 p.m. only F~rr£^H| B.C. WARNING: Occasional ooarse languaga @5rv5) THE CUTTING BLr EDGE Eves: 7: 50 & 9:00 p.m. L'-i/.Mi* b.c. v YARNING: Occasional coarse hhmh * su9s lestive language. quit earlier this year. Bochco has said she was just fed up. Green was a supervising producer before Kelley left last season to do his own series for CBS. A lawyer with a twisted sense of humor, Kelley was the driving force of L.A. Law’s bizarre plot twists. Under Green, this season started out as a dry, court-bound vehicle void of the events that made L.A. Law famous — shootings, sex, passing gas, gorilla suits, philandering attorneys and lesbian kisses. Last year, the series ranked 22nd at season end. This year, it ranks 29th, with viewcrship down by three percentage points. Green’s departure has put Bochco back in control, after two-and-a-half years of being gone from the series’ day-to-day operation. The man who also created Hill Street Blues had plenty of other work. As part of his 10-series, $50 million US production deal with ABC, Bochco also oversees Doogic Howscr, M.D., Capitol Critters, Civil Wars and the upcoming NYPD Blues. Contractually, he had to finish Admission NOW ONLY S5 • SENIORS & CHILDREN S HALE PRICE TUESDAYS (Based on Adult Admission) ODEON CINEMAS 355 VANCOUVER ST. ■ 562-2935 SLEEPWALKER Nightly 7:05 8.9:05 P.M. B.C. Warning: Frequent gory violence. ODEON1 Nightly 7:10 & 9:10 PI (SunjEt) FERN GULLY ONE SHOW NIGHTLY @ 7:00 P.M. BASIC INSTINCT NIGHTLY ONE SHOWING 8:45 P.M. B.C. Warning: Frequent gory violence, nudity, suggestive scenes and very coarse language. ODEON 3 YAMAHA Electone JJSfi'"1 4- •» K-!;. is Tuesday, April 21 at 7:00 p.m. in the showroom of our store Three winners will be travelling to preform in the National YAMAHA ELECTONE FESTIVAL Finals in Vancouver and staying at a first class hotel, all expenses paid by YAMAHA CANADA, in July, What a terrific opportunity! COME AND ENJOYI THE Bs.B MUSIC LTD. 316 George Street, Prince George 563-0691 up those projects before he could come back to L.A. Law. Beginning last Thursday, the NBC program began a six-episode run of original scripts overseen by Bochco. He even has restored his old credit line of executive producer. . Two previous installments in March left little doubt that Bochco’s influence was back. In them, Amic Becker’s testicle was twisted and Van Owen defended a baseball player accused of rape. Bochco also will trim the show’s ensemble cast, which now numbers 16, before next fall’s season, but which characters will get axed has yet to be decided. A spokeswoman said, however, that Dey’s character will be written out by bringing back Smits for another guest appearance. Smits left with barely a word last season after marrying and impregnating Van Owen. As for the future of L.A. Law, it most assuredly will return for the 1992-93 season, an NBC spokeswoman said. An official pickup is expected within the next few weeks. Scene from "Cape Buffalo Fear” I HAVE A MUFFIN HERE FOR MY LUNCH..YOU DON'T HAPPEN TO HAVE ANY 6RAPE JELLY IN YOUR DESK, DO YOU, MA'AM? MAYBE SHE LIKES EASIER QUESTIONS {pss-r-y D0NT MMCE ME GO TO SCHOOL PLEASt D0NT MAKE ME/ HELP/ lEGGO/ ON? STOP/ 10U DOHT UNDERSTAND? Ml HOROSCOPE SMS M IRRESISTIBLE TO GIRLS TODM / I’M TOO POPULAR? I’M GOING TO GET BIG dividends/ augghhh/ WHAT IF SVJSIE KISSES ME ?/ I DONT YfANT ROMANCE / I HATE SUSIE ? CALL ME IN SICK / HELP/ DEAR, T GOT HIM/ GRAB HIS FEET WHILE t PM HIS FINGERS LOOSE/ / t>-—-r------------^ [ WONDER VWAT IT WOULD COST TO RENT A PLACE IN TOWN.T WH- LEEZE-'/ UJCK.W&Z,... A cat-o'-mne-tails -------------7-------------------- 2^ IW llWil * i i I. i ■ ■ i r T I G E R MY Kooaa'S a MBSS,HlkSo. IAI£6otTADD SOMB-miN^ a sour ir THE TERN "WHITE-COLLAR WORKER* ORIGINATED IN A mo mOVIE WHERE GINGER ROGERS PLAYE0 A SECRETARY WHO WORE A LITTLE WHITE COLLAR V IT STARTE0 A FAD ANO FEmAlE SECRETARIES OF THE DAY BECAME KNOWN AS "WHITE-COLLAR GIRLS”. H0U) IRONIC THAT, 52 YEARS LATER, MEN HAVE CLAMED THE TITLE ‘WHITE-COLLAR WORKER* AS A SIGN OF PRESTIGE ANO HIGH INCOOIE... WHILE SECRETARIES-THE ORIGINAL WHITE-COLLAR WORKERS-ARE STILL GP GA-GA flHHH- Dee-Dee-deeeee£ Rfl-Bfl-Bfl-RFWfl MUM-MUH-MUMN i