Clifford Terry

A by-the-numbers, self-consciously smug blend of "Mod Squad" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." [10 Apr 1987, p.9C]

If Coach were a college football team, it would be Columbia - before it broke the notorious losing streak. [28 Feb 1989, p.C5]

Twisting up his face in perpetual puzzlement and speaking in a strange accent that sounds like a combination of Belfast and the Bronx, Segal, who looks more and more like a younger version of Burgess Meredith, takes on a character who, in his own words, has "a track record like dog poop." [2 Nov 1988]

Bosley, usually competent, is wasted in the kind of chubby, cozy Irish-American role that Frank McHugh played in the '30s. [30 Nov 1987, p.6]

While fitfully entertaining, not only is "China Beach" derivative, but the series... suffers from a leading lady who is not particularly likable, as well as an overabundance of strained humor and forced-march poignance. [26 Apr 1988]

Lacking the charm and bite--however inconsistent--that was evident in the original, the series is reduced to limp dialogue exchanges ... as well as garbled cliches ... and reflections on American mores from the stereotypical, transplanted executives. [5 Dec 1986]

The only possible reason for tuning in to Down and Out is to watch Mike the Dog do tricks and Anita Morris do aerobics. [24 July 1987, p.C7]

Fast Times is strictly spoon-gagging grotty-to-the-max, lacking the bite and outrageousness of the movie and coming across, in its tidied-up-for-television form, as nothing more than a peach-fuzz "Punky Brewster." [5 Mar 1986, p.C7]

Unyieldingly unfunny, Nothing in Common is dragged down by the overeager-to-please, full-court-press performance of Waring, and the tedious script by--depending on which network credit you believe--Samuro Mitzubi or Garry Marshall. [2 Apr 1987, p.C15]

In the opener, the title character learned new terms ("hair-of-the- dog," "bimbo"), but before too many weeks, this particular Starman may comprehend still another phrase: "Midseason replacement." [26 Sept 1986, p.C5]

Everything about the series is cuddly instead of crackling, simpy instead of sexy. Cassidy seems more like an Amherst sophomore than an off- season mechanic, while Hardin flounces around like a perky princess...The dancing itself, although relatively racy for prime-time placement, is not so much dirty as slightly soiled. [28 Oct 1988, p.6]

Little more than a routine cop show with a racial overlay. The pornography- laced plot in the premiere is recycled stuff-you don't have to be a big- city detective to come up with the killer early on-and much of the dialogue lies as flat as a plate of week-old catfish. [4 Mar 1988, p.5C]

An amiable, pleasant piece...While the film was manipulative and filled with obvious humor, Keaton managed somehow to transcend the commonplace, but Jackson just doesn't have the same comedic timing or the ability to juxtapose artfully toughness and cuteness. [9 Sept 1988, p.C2]

Routed as the most promising new series on the woeful CBS fall schedule, Designing Women disappoints. Already tiresomely pegged as a younger version of "The Golden Girls," it seems more like "The Carping Capitalists." [29 Sept 1986, p.7C]

Coming from Cannell, Wiseguy is, of course, all sweat and swagger, bullets and babes, breeziness and bravado. Men's bowling teams are advised to schedule their nights around this one.[16 Sept 1987, p.7C]

Predictably, this means it's a program in which the kids don't act like kids but the adults do. There are all kinds of cutesy-poo situations and lines like, "The baby's sleeping like a baby," your basic thigh-slap diaper- changing scene and a final segue into full-throttle poignance. [22 Sept 1987, p.7C]

Appearing in her first TV series, Bergen brings in a full-court-press performance-stylish, sardonic and funny. Couple that with English's crisp dialogue, which consistently veers off just at the point it seems to be settling for the formulaic, and "Murphy Brown" comes up as a bright, promising half-hour. [14 Nov 1988]

Despite its aim of tweaking television's usual saccharine family vehicles--replacing, in effect, the smarmy with the snippy--it really is just another standard sitcom itself, wrapped in fitfully amusing abrasiveness. [18 Oct 1988]

Familiar turf, but not bad, considering. Trouble is, the premise will wear out quickly. [24 Mar 1989, p.4]

A lead-footed imitation of that fine old radio show, "The Bickersons," which featured Don Ameche and Frances Langford, Married . . . with Children spotlights still another couple trading verbal tweaks and brusque banter. [3 Apr 1987, p.5]