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31 FRIDAY 1992 SUMMER OLYMPICS (NBC, 7:30 p.m.-midnight) Scheduled events from Barcelona include a U.S. men's basketball blow-out, men's gymnastics, and swimming.
COOPERSMITH (CBS, 8-9:30 p.m.) Imagine, if you will, an alternate TV universe- one in which Beverly Hills 90210 never existed. Thus 90210 never begat Melrose Place; thus Grant Show, who plays Melrose's resident slab of brooding beefcake Jake Hanson, would have had to earn his living in the less glamorous precincts of CBS' Coopersmith instead. Lucky for Show that Coo-persmith never made it past its dismal, dopey 1990 pilot, which is now airing in tribute to his newly minted Melrosian celebrity. Lucky for viewers as well: Coopersmith's first and only installment is standard-issue, could-have-been-made-anywhere- with-anyone-anytime-in-the-last-20-years junk. The pilot casts Show as a daredevil insurance investigator, a leather- jacket-wearing, motorbike-riding, wisecrack-spouting, irresistible rebel of a renegade of a maverick of a rugged individualist; in other words, he's just like every other yawned-over-and-forgotten TV investigator you've ever met, except he's naked from the waist up. That's right: Show peels off his artfully sweat-stained T-shirt early and often in Coopersmith, mostly to allow him to flex what have already become the most overexposed abs, lats, and pecs of the summer. Coopersmith has a twinkle in his eye and a nose for fishy cases, much to the consternation of his boss (James McDonnell), a growly nonhunk who begins every sentence with ''One of these days '' but does stay fully dressed at all times. It's to Show's real credit that he's only half bad in this; in his better moments,his performance has charm and energy.But no actor could bring off C.D. Coopersmith's explanation of his first two initials: ''Cool dude!'' Show's Coopersmith says with a smile. Or is that a grimace? D -Mark Harris
2 SUNDAY
THE BEST OF TELEVISION: GUNSMOKE (TBS 7:00-9:05 p.m.) What does Louie Anderson have in common with Marshal Matt Dillon? We're not sure either, but the portly stand-up comic is the host for two episodes of the classic TV Western.
MOVIE: TO BE THE BEST (CBS, 9-11 p.m.; concludes Aug. 4, 9-11 p.m.) O what is so rare and jolly silly as this British attempt at American made-for-TV glitz based on a British version of American made-for-the-beach fiction? This two- part, four-hour 1991 adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's breathless 1988 best-seller has already been seen in some 90 countries and, honey, the jet lag shows: CBS was obviously waiting for a couple of sweltering August nights when it was Too Hot to Wear Sequins before treating us to the sight of Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman) in bionically complicated hair and a tenuously British accent as department store heiress Paula McGill O'Neill. Paula, you see, wants to expand the family business empire, but nasty, champagne-loving relatives and their hangers-on try to thwart her at every turn, led by her evil, Jacuzzi-loving cousin, Jonathan Ainsley (Christopher Cazenove of Dynasty) and his creepy right-hand man, Tony Chiu (James Saito of War and Remembrance). Who will save Paula's silk-covered hide? How about Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs) as dashing department store chief of security Jack Figg, possibly the only Academy Award winner around capable of playing bargain- basement James Bond with cheery goodwill. The costars form a directory of Brits who love the classics but who also need to pay the rent, including Masterpiece Theatre regulars David Robb (from I, Claudius, no less), Stuart Wilson (he was Vronsky, for heaven's sake, in Anna Karenina), Fiona Fullerton, and Christopher Blake. The sight of would-be sex bomb Stephanie Beacham (Dynasty, The Colbys), the poor man's Joan Collins, shot through extremely soft focus is, to be sure, a kind of thrill in itself. Hey, this is no Howards End. This is, like, Stephanie's Cleavage. Love it-or watch a repeat of Married With Children instead. C -Lisa Schwarzbaum
