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Show TTTfTnaT!ThTThnT(TTTTiTnTT!T l;'!M!!!liM!!!i!iiu!lll!!!l!nliulHiiil!iluMillnulNiiiuiliinhnnMiiiiuuniini Wednesday, March 21, 2001 Pacific quickly goes south, despite all good intentions By John Crook CTVDala Features Syndicate It took Glenn Close several years to bring South Pacific to the small screen. Alas, the TV movie, which premieres pre-mieres Monday, March 26, on ABC, lakes only a lew minutes to hejin sinking without a trace. The problem isn't with the source material itself. In a theater, this Tony- and lililer iVie-win-ninj: musical by Richard Roders and Oscar llauimerslem II still has an evergreen power to move and thrill an audience. And however flawed this new adaptation is. it's still miles ahead ol Joshua lagan's botched I'K movie version, virtually unwatch-ahle unwatch-ahle today because of Logan's ill-considered ill-considered experimentation with colored fillers during the musical numbers. By contrast, the ABC production produc-tion - which top-bills executive producer Close as l:.nsign Nellie I'orbush - adopts a naturalistic, even underplayed approach that ultimately works agamsl the very material it tries to honor. Adapted from stones in an acclaimed ac-claimed hook by James I.. Mich-ener, Mich-ener, South Pacific must have felt revolutionary at the lime of its l')49 premiere, chronicling World War II events that may hav e been startling for audiences and attacking attack-ing racism on two fronts: Nellie's discomfort thai her suitor, I rench plantation owner Fmile de Barque (here, Huropean singer-actor singer-actor Rade Sherbedgia), has la thered two children by a native woman, and 1.1. Joe Cable's (Harry (Har-ry Conmck Jr.) lender affair with another native girl. Liat (Natalie Mendoa). Those love slones are juxtaposed juxta-posed with bawdy scenes lor Luther Billis (Robert Pastoielli. Murphy Brown) and his lellow Seahees and l.ial's mother, the raucous Bloody Mary (Ion fan Chum. Micky Bine Eyes). The biggest problem isn't the one most viewers may he expecting: expect-ing: Yes. the 54-year-old Close is too old and too ferociously intelligent intelli-gent and sophisticated to pass as the "htlle hick" Nellie, yet one could make the argument thai racism I mm a more mature woman is even more unsettlm fy MS, A vJF " . - j Glenn Close No. the biggest problem is simply sim-ply thai this .S011 Pacific makes the loving but obvious mistake ol taking a towenng masterpiece and trying to shoehorn it into a fonnat lor mass consumption. Never mind that Conmck. whose laconic chami has worked in other movies, sleepwalks through his role, or that Chum's Bloody Mary is a politically incorrect in-correct nightmare when seen in a jarringly real context. What matters is that this attempt to play the show as realistic drama robs, the work of some of its stature. The scenes of military strategy arc-painfully arc-painfully flat. Musical numbers teeter uncertainly on a thin line between reality and full-blown song-and-dance pieces. More unforgivable is a musical omission nght before "Some Enchanted En-chanted Evening." Nellie and Emile have exchanged "I win Soliloquies" So-liloquies" as they quietly grow attracted at-tracted to each other, and in the stage production, (he music then soars ecstatically into the most rapturous pages Rodgers ever composed: the sound of two human hu-man beings falling in love. It's nothing less than a quintessential moment in American musical theater. the-ater. In the ABC movie, the solilo quies are followed by some pretty musical canoodling until Sherbedgia launches into his big number. That sums up this production: too much pretty cancxxlling, not enough rapture. Obviously, some viewers will disagree. But many will find that this Pacific is at least a sadly missed opportunity. 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Little House Little House on the Prairie Spoken Word Opening Ceremonies "The Par Sid of the Sun" (1988, Drama) Guy Boyd Earth: Final Conflict X Cleopatra 2S2S (In Stereo) X Wildlife Civic Art Life of Utah 1010 "Westward the Women" News ISimpsons X Academy Awards Preview 24 27 WGN Nightman (In Stereo) X TBS H0 15) "True Grit" (1969) v "Rio Lotoo" (1970, Western) John Wayne, Jennifer O'Neill. TNT A&E ESPN ' ; "The Sons of Katie Elder" (1965, Western) John Wayne, Dean Martin ' 1 "Fatal Beauty" (1987. Drama) Whoopi Goldberg It "Flrawalker" (1986. Adventure) Chuck Noms. Amer. Justice "The Rainmaker" (1956, Drama) Bui Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn "No Man's Land" (1987, Drama) 0 B. Sweeney. Tennis Encsson Open - Early Rounds (Live) Cheer1eading ANPL LIFE Champions Champions Jeff Corwin Experience Crocodile Hunter X Shark Gordon Adventure 1(11 00) "Norma Jean and Marilyn" (199G)X CNN Worid Report X AMC DSC MTV TNN NICK FAM SCIFI FXSP TLC E! 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(In Stereo)! News SporttPage Simpsons X Homelmp. X-Filet "Je Souhaite" X 14 KJZZ "Courage Mountain" (1989. Adventure) Juliette Caton. Invisible Man "Impetus" X Maximum Exposure (N) I Adrenaline Newsradio X Thunderbox (N) 1 I WGN Andromeda (in Stereo) 5 jEarth: Final Conflict X NewsX Replay In the Heat of the Night X Matlock "Nowhere to Turn" X Beastmaster "Wild Child" I a TBS )"BigJaVe"(1971,Westem)JohnWayne ti "Rio Lobo" (1970. Western) John Wayne, Jennifer O'Neill. 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(1990) 40 SCIFI Crossing Over In Stereo) X "Lost m the Bermuda Triangle" (1999) Tom Venca I Exposure (in Stereo) X Dark Skies The Last Wave'' Burning Zone "Pilot" I 41 FXSP Boxing Best of Sunday Night Fignts (N) Beyond the Glory NASCAR Victory Lane (N) Olbermann Evening Newt " Sports Report last Word 42 TLC Air Disasters Dangerous Police Videos Supermai Prisons Air Disasters Dangerous Police Videos Super max Prisona 43 E! Talk Soup Behind True Hoilywood Story (N) True Hollywood Story True Hollywood Story Academy Awards Pott Show (Live) 44 CNBC National Geographic Explorer Tim Rutsert National Geographic Explorer Uthuaia 45 I USA 1(5 00) "Death Wish" (1974) X "Death With H" 11982 Drama) Chanes Branson X LtwaOrder La Femme Nikrta (In Stereo! ' Paid Program Paid Program I ailiYl,iiKirlilt"MBrMTi"' -Vit - Ti ' ' , , - .. - ...:..;.-.J.,-.:;. - MAX i4 45) "Raw Man" (1968) X "American Beauty" (1999) Kevin Spacey X 1 "Boys Don't Cry" (1999. 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