Something for kids, adults

If you're under 11, a couple of new shows should be right up your alley. If you're over 21, there's another you might like.
Friday nights on ABC have long been dedicated to pre-teeny-boppers, and this year a pair of newcomers are sure to delight anyone still in grade school.
The first is "Two of a Kind," starring the Olsen twins as sisters who are, actually, not two of a kind. One is a tomboy interested in sports; the other longs to wear make-up to school. They live in Chicago with their professor dad, a widower who needs a nanny to take care of his youngsters. Enter one of his pupils -- and maybe love.
The Olsens, Mary-Kate and Ashley, are familiar denizens of Friday nights where they were part of the crowded "Full House" for years. If your children don't require acting talent in their stars and thrive on punchlines about breakfast cereal, "Two of a Kind" is perfect for them.
Also new on Fridays is "Brother's Keeper," about another widower who is a college prof. He's up-tight, conservative and worried about his little son's rearing. Enter Dad's ne'er-do-well brother, a football player on probation who has to live with responsible people to keep his job.
A major theme of the first show was how to snort a marble out of your nostril, a topic sure to thrill third-graders (whose parents hope they don't imitate it).
The humor is ultra-goofy with Uncle Punter dashing around the house destroying things while shaking up his straitlaced bro. Parents might blanch, however, over the implication that the uncle has sleep-overs with women he met the night before.
When the children are doing homework, you might be attracted by another ABC show, "Vengeance Unlimited." If you're mad that O.J. Simpson got away with murder; or that the British nanny was found guilty by a jury, only to be released by the judge; or that a certain president of a major western nation can lie under oath and win the plaudits of millions, this is the series for you.
In it, Mr. Chapel, bearing a grudge against the justice system for unexplained reasons, tries to set things right for victims of calculating lawyers, ladder-climbing cops and others who bend the system until it breaks. All he asks in return is a favor from those he has helped, a favor repaid when they aid him in catching another miscreant.
The schemes he concocts to catch the bad guys are hard to believe; everything takes place in the dark; and the star, Michael Madsen, speaks as if he had to clench gauze between his teeth. So why do I like it? Maybe because it releases the frustration of the O.J trial, but mostly because I'm a sucker for intricate planning in the style of "Mission Impossible" and countless POW escape movies.
If you like old music, tune in to "Buddy Faro" on NBC or to ABC's back-to-back Saturday night offerings, "Fantasy Island" and "Cupid." All three rely on Jack Jones, Louis Armstrong and old blues numbers to make up for little else of interest.
On "Buddy Faro," the main character, an old detective brought out of retirement, swings around L.A. in a convertible and talks jive. It's highly stylized and filled with cinematic tricks like split screens and odd angles. But the plots aren't much, unless you're really concerned about George Hamilton being chased by villains.
"Fantasy Island" cues up plenty of special effects to warn people to "be careful what you wish for; you might get it." In the original series, Mr. Roarke, the proprietor of the island of mystery, was played like an angel. The new Mr. Roarke has a decidedly more demonic approach.
As for "Cupid," it's a dreary and depressing hour about a man who claims to be the mythical god of love, come to earth to unite 100 couples. He can't do it soon enough for me. I wonder if Mr. Chapel could persuade him to go back where he came from.

(10-15-98) [[In-content Ad]]