SEASON PREMIERE: The first new TV series of 2020 premieres tonight, starring Stephen Dorff as a somewhat reluctant rookie lawman. I’d joke that it was the best series of the year (the year being two days old), but I’ve learned my lesson. Back on January 1, 1989 – now, sigh, 31 years ago – CBS premiered a terrible made-for-TV movie called
The Karen Carpenter Story, starring Cynthia Gibb. In my advance column for
The New York Post, I called it the best telemovie of the year – but only because it was, at that point, the only telemovie of the year, and that any one that followed would be better, and that by the time the year was over,
The Karen Carpenter Story was likely to wind up as the worst movie of the entire year. CBS took my “Best telemovie of the year” quote and plastered it all over CBS. Never made
that joke again. So even though I shot the sheriff, I will not shoot the
Deputy… For full reviews, see
Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes and
David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.