September 2, 1994<\/p>\n
L.A. LIFE<\/b><\/p>\n
TELEVISION FOX OPENS SEASON WITH ECLECTIC TRIO IT’S BOND, BASEBALL, AND, WELL, SEX<\/i><\/b>
\nRay Richmond<\/i><\/p>\n
Ready or not, here it comes: the 1994-95 network prime-time television season. It may not be pretty, but its’ nonetheless upon us. And as usual, Fox is getting out of the box earliest (if not best) with three new shows on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
That trio would be the secret-agent drama “Fortune Hunter” (7 p.m.), the baseball comedy “Hardball” (at 8:30) and the raunchdom “Wild Oats (at 9:30), all on KTTV (Channel 11).<\/p>\n
Taken as a group, these are not an especially impressive bunch. But it would be stretching things to say they don’t live up to expectations, since there really aren’t any.<\/p>\n
Let’s begin with “Fortune Hunter,” just because it’s undeniably the most derivative (read: rip-off) series to surface this fall season. It’s already being called “Junk Bond” in many circles because it is so shamelessly modeled after the James Bond series.<\/p>\n
In one episode, for instance, hero Carlton Dial (Mark Frankel) says three times that his name is “Dial. Carlton Dial.” He’s also dashing, debonair and deadpan (along with several other d-words), and he tends to take impossible international missions in calm stride while keeping one eye decidedly open for the ladies.<\/p>\n
Yes, he’s licensed and quite assuredly Bonded. And while Frankel plays Dial with a certain suave British elegance, he lacks the sheer charisma needed to be an effective 007. I know Sean Connery, Mr. Frankel, and you’re not Sean Connery.<\/p>\n
The plot line of “Fortune Hunter” finds Frankel portraying the master agent for Intercept, a high-tech global recovery organization. He’s a kind of agent-for-hire who never botches an assignment, good mercenary that he is. But the only gun Dial can carry pops out tranquilizer darts. Not exactly thrilling.<\/p>\n
The show’s best gambit is the way Dial is connected to a techno-geek named Harry Flack (John Robert Hoffman), who keeps track of the agent in the home office via a sophisticated video computer activated inside a watch on Dial’s wrist.<\/p>\n
It’s all very silly and only marginally exciting. But “Fortune Hunter” is nothing if not, well, familiar. Deja-view television, tailor-made for the just-watched-a-football-game crowd.<\/p>\n
Just don’t tell Ian Fleming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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