TV2’s LATEST BOX OF GOODIES

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34131, 19 April 1976, Page 4

TV2’s LATEST BOX OF GOODIES

(By

ROBIN TURKELL)

Television Two’s “new season,” beginning next month, should be strong and varied with something of value for most people. The Saturday afternoon movie will stay. It has proved what hundreds of thousands of viewers had been saying all along — not everybody wants to watch sports then. “Phyllis” is being put in on Saturday afternoons, too, and that looks like a mistake, a throwaway of what promises to be a first-rate situation comedy. The show, a spin-off from “Mary Tyler Moore,” stars Cloris Leachman as the self-centred, abrasive Phyllis. A second series of the strong “Little House on the Prairie” leads into Saturday prime time, which begins with "A Touch of Country,” the big new Christchurchproduced show with a Nashville flavour and waggonloads of North American country and western stars. A new series of “The Two Ronnies” (Barker and Corbett) holds air for “Movin’ On,” the new series about the two truck drivers that looked a winner in its pilot last week. The late-night movie remains a Saturday fixture. Sunday afternoon features a new series of “Alias Smith and Jones” and a new children’s nineteenth century adventure tale from Yorkshire Television, “Boy Dominic,” which starts this Sunday and sounds good in advance notices. ‘‘Frances Durbridge Theatre’’ is a Sunday night

highlight. “Encounter,” which has been doing well enough for a documentary, is being moved later to get it out of the line of fire of TVl’s cultural blockbusters. On Monday Ronnie Barker appears again in “Pobridge,” which recently won a British film and television award. Having done well with American police dramas, TV2 is bringing on “Starsky and Hutch” on Mondays. The show, new this past American season, did not send critics into raptures, but almost anything in this line has to be better than “Caribe.” Happily, “Caribe” hands in its badge soon, to be replaced by “Softly, Softly” on Tuesdays. The big news is earlier in the evening, when “Tandarra," an Australian production, takes over from “Cash and Company.” This is an Australian adventure series starring the gravel-voiced Gus Mercurio, darling of “Cash and Company.” “Tandarra” is playing in Australia now, doing even better than its predecessor. On Wednesdays, “Kojak” returns. The Telly Savalas vehicle is one of the best police dramas ever made. TV2 could have a problem on Thursdays. “Dad’s Army,” which successfully bucked ’“Coronation Street,” returns, but "Opportunity Knocks” stays. The latter could drive viewers away from one of TV2's contin-

uing high spots — the Thursday-night movie. Friday, a non-commercial night, remains a mixed bag, with Gordon Dryden’s important "Friday Conference,” the awful situation comedy “Never Mind the Quality,” the character study ‘‘Helen,

a Woman of Today,” and a new boudoir costume drama, “Napolean in Love.” This is the amorous side of the little Corsican, as played by lan Holm. After seeing the series overseas critics wanted to move up the date of Waterloo.