ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN UNLESS NOTED CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS. - - - - - - - - - - - - RECENTLY IN BLUE GLOW April Fool! (04/01/98) Insignificant others (03/31/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - ENTERTAINMENT THIS WEEK Mercury Rising Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin and an autistic cryptology prodigy Mike van Diem An interview with the Academy Award-winning director - - - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE ARCHIVES MOVIES TELEVISION INTERVIEWS FEATURES

blue glow SALON'S TV PICKS FOR WEEKEND, APRIL 3-5, 1998 BY JOYCE MILLMAN R E V I E W From the Earth to the Moon (8 p.m. Sunday, HBO; airs Sundays at 8 through May 10) Rousing astronaut adventure movies like Philip Kaufman's "The Right Stuff" and Ron Howard's "Apollo 13" make it hard to imagine how anybody could make the story of the U.S. space program seem dull. But executive producer Tom Hanks has boldly gone where no man has gone before. His 12-part HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon," which begins Sunday, is the sort of dry, technology-besotted, NASA-groupie stuff that only Al Gore could love. With a $65 million budget, "From the Earth to the Moon" is the most expensive TV movie production ever. The series dramatizes the story of America's Apollo moon missions in 12 hour-long episodes shown in two-hour blocks over the next six weeks. Hanks introduces each episode on camera; he also co-wrote three episodes, directed one and has a small part in the finale, which he wrote solo. It's a massive undertaking with the battle-by-battle feel of those World War II documentaries that air endlessly on the History Channel. And that makes sense, because, for boomers who were space-struck kids during NASA's glory days, these missions provide the nostalgic pride our fathers and grandfathers got from The Big One. Damn, we were good! We put a man on the moon! And although it has more loving close-ups of hardware than you need, the sincerity of Hanks' pet project is often touching. He went into orbit in the tense and lyrical "Apollo 13," fell in love and hasn't splashed down yet. Unfortunately, "From the Earth to the Moon" -- at least the four preview episodes I saw -- is too focused on the nuts and bolts of the space program, and too ambitious (hey, it happens) in its scope to make the emotional impact it should. There are too many scenes of men with military haircuts and skinny ties in meeting rooms telling us what's happening when we should be seeing what's happening. Among the massive cast, which includes Tim Daly, Mark Harmon, Sally Field (who also directs an episode about the astronauts' wives), Gary Cole, Dave Foley, JoBeth Williams, Stephen Root and Chris Isaak, a few actors manage to make their characters register as people. In "Apollo 1" (9 p.m. Sunday), about the terrible 1967 launch pad fire that killed three astronauts, Kevin Pollak turns in a wonderful, complex performance as a heartsick NASA administrator grappling with blame and guilt. And David Andrews and Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson, make strong impressions as astronaut Frank Borman and his wife, Susan, in "1968" (9 p.m., April 12), an expressionistic semi-documentary episode about a turbulent year that ended with Apollo 8's Christmas mission to orbit the moon. Too many of the actors, though, are encumbered by the weight of movie history, by other actors' indelible performances playing the same characters. Damn it, Tom Hanks is Jim Lovell, not Tim Daly, and Fred Ward is Gus Grissom, not Mark Rolston, and Ed Harris is mission control honcho Gene Kranz, not Bulldog from "Frasier." And that's the biggest problem with "From the Earth to the Moon" -- it's been done. Plodding and reverential, it seems like one mission too many. Ground Control to Major Tom ... S P E C I A L S Martin Scorsese's sumptuous 1993 adaptation of The Age of Innocence (8 p.m. Fri., USA) has its basic-cable premiere. Michelle Pfeiffer, Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder star. The World Figure Skating Championships continue with ice dancing (3 p.m. Sat., ABC) and the women's final (8 p.m. Sat., ABC). Rosie O'Donnell hosts the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards (8 p.m. Sat., Nick), honoring kids' entertainment favorites of the past year. Henry Fielding's bawdy satire Tom Jones (8 p.m. EDT/9 PDT, Sun., A&E) gets the miniseries treatment. This joint A&E/BBC production is suitably ribald, with lively performances from Max Beesley as the amorous Everyman, the chameleonic Samantha Morton (last seen as the pallid heroine in A&E's "Jane Eyre" and radiantly bountiful here) as his true love, Sophia, James d'Arcy as Tom's scheming cousin and rival and John Sessions as Fielding, the on-camera narrator. The six-hour miniseries continues Monday and Tuesday. The new TV movie The Patron Saint of Liars (9 p.m. Sun., CBS) stars Dana Delany as an unhappily married pregnant woman who leaves her husband and is rejuvenated by her stay in a Catholic maternity home. Based on the Anne Patchett novel. Another new TV movie, Tempting Fate (9 p.m. Sun., ABC), is a sci-fi thriller starring Tate Donovan as a man attempting to live his life over in a parallel universe. S P O R T S NBA: Lakers at Cavs (8 p.m. Fri., TNT); Lakers at Pistons (1 p.m. Sun., NBC); Bulls at Rockets (5:30 p.m. Sun., NBC). Baseball: Red Sox at Mariners (9 p.m. Sat., FX); Giants at Diamondbacks (8 p.m. Sun., ESPN). S E R I E S On Homicide (10 p.m. Fri., NBC), Munch and Gharty investigate the murder of a high school basketball star and a war breaks out among members of Georgia Rae Mahoney's gang. The new animated series CatDog (9:30 p.m. Sat., Nickelodeon) is about a feline and canine who share the same body. Steve Buscemi hosts Saturday Night Live (11:30 p.m. Sat., NBC), with music from Third Eye Blind. Homer goes undercover for the FBI in a sting to nab Mr. Burns for embezzlement on The Simpsons (8 p.m. Sun., Fox). On The Larry Sanders Show (10 p.m. Sun., HBO), head writer Phil quits the show to develop a sitcom for the network, with disastrous results. T A L K Friday: Rosie O'Donnell (syndicated) welcomes Heather Graham and Natalie Imbruglia; Tom Hanks and Scott Weiland appear on David Letterman (CBS); Jay Leno (NBC) features Billy Crystal and scenes from "Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk"; Dennis Miller (HBO) talks with Stephen King; Hanks is also scheduled for Charlie Rose (PBS); Al Franken and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy guest on Conan O'Brien (NBC). SALON | April 3, 1998 Blue Glow for < href="/ent/glow/1998/04/02glow.html">Thursday April 2, 1998

ILLUSTRATION BY CATERINA FAKE