Subject: "On the Air" starts Saturday (6/20)
From: jgp@zodmate.Rational.COM (Jim Pellmann)
Date: 1992-06-16, 11:26
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks,rec.arts.tv

From "The Couch Critic" column by Jeff Jarvis in the June 20 TV Guide:

ON THE AIR
ABC, Saturdays, 9:30 PM (ET)

Watch out, world. TV's bizarre genius, David Lynch, is back with a vengeance
and with a new sitcom that makes "Twin Peaks" look plain and sane. "On the
Air" is militantly, stubbornly weird. It's a show about the making of a show
in 1957. So it looks like the movie "My Favorite Year." But it also looks
like a bad dream brought on by KGB pharmaceuticals.

Miguel Ferrer, a "Twin Peaks" find, leads the ensemble as president of
Zoblotnick Broadcasting, producer of the improbably popular "Lester Guy Show."
Lester (Ian Buchanan) is forever knowcked unconscious by falling ducks and
such. The sound-effects operator, Blinky, was blind in the pilot but now
(apparently to render him inoffensive) he has a visual disorder that makes his
eyesight resemble an MTV ad--so he hits all the wrong buttons, and guns bark.

The show's dog hates the sponsor's dog food, so he is lashed to his bowl. And
the director, Vladja Gochktch ("Laverne & Shirley"'s Squiggy, David Lander),
speaks with an indeterminate and undecipherable accent: "Can oo scram?" he
asks Marla Rubinoff, token dumb blonde. "Do you want me to leave?" she
replies, hurt. The director's English-to-English translator explains, "Mr.
Gochktch is asking if you're able to scream." "Scram! Scram!" he screams and,
finally, she does.

The pilot, about the launch of "Lester Guy," is the best episode I saw; it was
directed by Lynch and is marked with his endearing insanity. But the whole
series is strange; its jokes are proud to be dumb and its slapstick belongs on
"Ren & Stimpy." Sometime I'm not sure who's supposed to laugh--us at the show
or Lynch at us. But you'll have to admit: it is different. And that's why
we'll watch, especially in the dry, dull summertime.

This happens to be TV's best summer ever, because, as TV Guide reported, we'll
be getting as many as 25 new series. Sure, some of it is shruggable stuff.
But summertime can be filled with bold experiments, like 1968's "The Prisoner,"
another weird series that became a cult classic. I wouldn't want to meet the
cult that grows up around "On the Air," but grow it will. In my office, Couch
Potato World Headquarters, one group watched the pilot and sneered. My group
watched and howled. But nobody shrugged. And that's what makes "On the Air" a
break from the ordinary, and a perfect summer series.

# # #

And in the "Saturday Guidelines" column of the same issue:

"Twin Peaks" creators David Lynch and Mark Frost bring a similar kind of
quirkiness to the spoof "On the Air," a new summer series that takes a
behind-the-scenes look at TV broadcasting circa 1957. Unlike "Peaks," the
accent here is on broad comedy, and tonight's debut revolves around a variety
show's disastrous live premiere. Other "Twin Peaks" alumni include composer
Angelo Badalamenti, who has written a playful jazz score.

# # #
--
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"I lived in my head mostly." | Jim Pellmann (jgp@rational.com)
"That's not a bad neighborhood." | RATIONAL
"There were some pretty strange neighbors." | Santa Clara, California