It’s back-to-school time. New pencils, new books, school clothes, football games, dances, the exciting trepidation of freshman year, the melancholy of senior year. For the rest: another year of humiliation, social climbing, and just saying no to drugs, sex, or cheap shoes. Back to school means angst. Angst fueled by new love, old love, love lost, love found, tight-knit friendships, and bitter rivalries. It means confronting your demons in gym class, in the mirror, or the slimy, otherworld variety that must be battled for the good of the universe — that is, if you’re going back to school on TV.
Leading the way is the WB network, with season premieres of its predominantly youth-oriented programs. Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Popular return to the airwaves on September 22, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and its spinoff Angel) on September 26, Roswell on October 2, and Dawson’s Creek and Felicity on October 4. Other WB season premieres include The PJs on September 8 and Charmed on October 5. As a side note, Sabrina and The PJs were given a new home at the WB when ABC and Fox, respectively, lost interest. Sabrina moves to Friday nights, joining the WB’s already popular Popular and a new series, Grosse Pointe. The PJs will air on Sunday night with returning WB shows The Jamie Foxx Show, The Steve Harvey Show, and the underappreciated couple comedy, For Your Love. New shows on Sunday night include Hype and Nikki.
Returning to TV, however briefly, is Freaks and Geeks. The peacock network (NBC) dumped the Emmy-nominated series, causing an outcry from devoted fans that sent the show out shopping for a new network. The Fox Family Channel came to the rescue. Although it’s unlikely that Fox Family will pick up production of the show, they do promise to show the series chronologically, in its entirety, including the infamous “three, never-before-broadcast episodes.”
Fans may heap praise upon Fox Family for picking up the terrific dramedy and giving it a proper sendoff. Ironically, the same cannot be said for Fox prime-time, which canceled American High. The “nonfiction drama” raised the bar for all reality shows, but was canceled because of low ratings after only a handful of episodes out of the can. Go figure.
Freaks and Geeks began its run on Fox Family on Tuesday. For Freaks fans everywhere, here are synopses of the three, unseen episodes:
“Kim Kelly Is My Friend,” Tuesday, September 9: Sam takes the fall when one of Kim Kelly’s friends defaces school property. Kim invites Lindsey to dinner so the two can corroborate stories Kim has been telling her parents to hide her rebellious behavior.
“Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers,” Tuesday, October 9: Kim Kelly is guilt-ridden when she accidentally runs over Millie’s dog. Bill’s mother begins to date his gym teacher.
“Noshing and Moshing,” Tuesday, October 17: Neal takes up ventriloquism while the freaks check out the punk scene.
Check listings for show times.
Forget reality
Didn’t summers used to be fun and sun and kicking back? Reality shows, or un-reality shows, depending on your stance, like Survivor, Big Brother, Making the Band, The Real World, and the like have turned summer into three months of melodrama, scandal, backbiting, and sniping. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it gives me a hankering for some fiction — some intentionally made fiction, that is. Fiction with backbone, bite, and the power to transport you to another world. My hankering was quelled with the premiere of Witchblade on TNT.
Based on the comic books from Top Cow Productions, Witchblade is the story of Sara Pezzini (Yancy Butler), a New York detective who discovers she’s the next in a long line of women to possess the Witchblade — or, for the Witchblade to possess her. As Pezzini discovers in the two-hour telepic, it’s not always clear how and when to wield its power. The Witchblade itself is an eccentric bracelet which turns into a protective armor coating when called into action. The jewel of the bracelet — a single, unpolished red stone — allows the wearer to see into the past and see other dimensions unseen by mere mortals. All this is fine, except that it makes Pezzini think she’s losing her mind, particularly when her murdered partner Danny Woo (William Yun Lee) appears at her side at his grave site, telling her not to fear the Witchblade and to ask some well-directed questions to discover who she is and what is happening to her.
Never having read the Witchblade comic books, I have no idea if the film is true to the paper version. What I saw was a marvelously produced action, fantasy, and mystery all rolled into one. Think of it as a grittier, East Coast version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, only this chosen one is a loner with denim, black leather, and a motorcycle helmet as her predominant fashion statements.
Rumor has it that talks are under way to spin the film into a regular series. The end of Witchblade certainly sets you up for more, and if it does spark a new series with the same production values, narrative style, and casting (Butler is great as the skeptical chosen one), I would gleefully seek it out.
Encore screenings of Witchblade are Saturday (9/2, 9:30 pm) and Monday (9/4, 9:00 pm) on TNT. Check listings to confirm show times. Find out more about Witchblade at www.tntwitchblade.com or www.topcow.com.
Take a station break at TVEye@auschron.com
This article appears in September 1 • 2000.