Priest shows up on NBC

When the new fall TV season opens, ABC will add a third night of "20/20."

To match that, CBS has announced a second night of "60 Minutes," to debut in a few months.

Not to be outdone, NBC will unveil a fifth night of "Dateline," its magazine show.

In other words, be prepared for a lot more news stories in prime time about Princess Di, the mortal dangers of everyday life and how car dealers rip you off, the common fodder for such programs.

As the fall season approaches and I continue my previews of the new shows, let's examine what else NBC has to offer, including four comedies and two dramas. The comedies include:

* "Jesse" was originally titled "All My Life," and a change in title before a show premieres is not a good sign. Starring Christina Applegate, the daughter on "Married...With Children," this series focuses on a single mom, her brothers and their father who owns a beer garden where she waitresses. She has to get along with the males. Cheers!

* "Conrad Bloom" works in an ad agency (which didn't do Tom Selleck any good; his similarly set series bombed on CBS last spring) and battles his ex-girlfriend, sister, mom, boss and co-worker. In sort of the gender reverse of "Jesse," he has to get along with those five females.

* "Encore! Encore!" stars Nathan Lane as a Pavarotti-like opera singer who recuperates from voice woes at his family's Napa Valley winery. During his recitative, he runs up against his mom, sister and nephew who live in the aria. (This concludes my operatic puns until the fat comedian sings.)

* "Will & Grace" replaces "Ellen" as the gay comedy in prime time that seems to have become de rigueur. He's a homosexual lawyer; she's a straight interior designer. They find friendship together.

NBC also has a pair of new dramas:

* "Trinity" could become this year's "Nothing Sacred" since its cast includes a priest. The spotlight is on a large Irish family in New York that includes a cop, union leader, stockbroker and the aforementioned clergyman. At the head of this bunch are the parents, originally played by Philip Bosco and Anne Meara (whose real-life husband, Jerry Stiller, has a role on a new CBS comedy, "The King of Queens"). Those two, however, were dumped after preview audiences found them too old.

* "Wind on Water" stars the recently widowed-in-real-life Bo Derek as a single mom who is a cattle rancher in Hawaii. Two of her grown children are surfers and skiers. She has to keep the ranch out of the hands of a greedy neighbor; they have to win contests to help her financially.

NBC NOTES: All ready to replace "Jesse" is "Providence," about a plastic surgeon who returns to her Rhode Island hometown after her mother's death to care for her family..."Alice in Wonderland," "Crime and Punishment" and "Wuthering Heights" will be TV movies...Richard Dreyfuss plays "Einstein" in a bio film...Jon Voight will be Noah in a four-hour mini-series about the biblical story of the ark...On Saturdays, children can tune to NBC for "One World," about a husband and wife who adopt six racially diverse teenagers....

(09-10-98)

[[In-content Ad]]