Not a moment too soon, FRIENDS (NBC, Thursdays, 8-8:30 p.m.) has done something about its guest-star problem. Last season, the sextet of regulars got shunted aside for the overhyped likes of Tom Selleck, Julia Roberts, Brooke Shields, and Charlie Sheen. Instead of a nice little sitcom about a tight-knit group of pals, the show became like a Gen-X version of The Love Boat. Perhaps trying to keep the cast happy (and make them earn their hard-fought salaries), the producers have drastically reduced the wattage of this fall's guest stars. Selleck had a vocal cameo (he was heard on an answering machine), and Elliott Gould returned for a brief scene as the dad of Monica (Courteney Cox) and Ross (David Schwimmer). Otherwise, big names have been rare: Isabella Rossellini (who played herself) and David Arquette (who played a stalker) aren't even the most famous people in their families. Of course, this could all change come November sweeps. But with the Super Bowl on Fox, at least we know there won't be another Super Friends--this season, anyway.
Anyone familiar with Charles S. Dutton only from his overemphatic work on the 1991-94 Fox sitcom Roc may have been surprised by his deft dramatic turn as an embittered lifer in the "Prison Riot" episode of HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET (NBC, Fridays, 10-11 p.m.). Anyone who knows a bit more about Dutton probably wasn't. He's not only a trained stage actor (he re-created his Broadway role in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson for a 1995 CBS TV movie), he's also an ex-convict, having served time for a 1968 street-fight stabbing. And Dutton brought his whole life's experience to the role of Elijah Sanborn, an inmate who was given a new lease on life by Detective Bayliss (Kyle Secor). This bodes well for the drama series Dutton is slated to star in and produce for NBC next season. If the show succeeds, it could pave the way for more African-American dramas, a genre ignored even by the black-sitcom-dominated UPN and WB networks.
CHOICE RERUNS
Fed up with Lois & Clark's dippy romance and silly villains? Then race on over to THE FLASH (Sci-Fi Channel, Sundays, 9-10 p.m.), a vastly superior 1990-91 CBS superhero series. Cleverly scheduled to air right after ABC's Superman show, Flash stars John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen, a Central City police chemist who achieves superhuman speed after he's struck by lightning. Adapted by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo (The Sentinel) from the DC comic books, Flash features snazzy effects and a sweeping theme by Danny Elfman (Batman). In his red spandex bodysuit, the hulking Shipp makes Dean Cain look like an undernourished Urkel. And as his love interest, Amanda Pays is every bit as babelicious as Teri Hatcher.
