Warner offers more options

Is it worth another buck and some change? Take a little peak at some of the gems your quarter will buy before you decide:

THE HISTORY CHANNEL: (New to all Warner systems getting upgrades.) This new cable channel debuted on New Year's Day with the humble slogan, "All of history in one place."

With classy TV journalists like Sander Vanocur (hosting a prime-time series of historical movies) and Roger Mudd (anchoring a couple of regular shows), it's a feast for those who don't get enough history on its sister channel, A&E, or competitors the Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel.

If all that history with a capital "H" scares you away, the channel's small "h" offerings could tempt you back. Like "Automobiles: A Television History," next Sunday at 6 p.m., which tells us the story of the Corvette and its evolution from "a cute little roadster to the sharp Sting Ray." Other episodes this month will tell us everything we want to know about the Porsche 911, Model T, Saab and Austin Healy.

On April 30, The History Channel dips way back into the archives for "Secretary to Hitler," the inspiring story of Traudl Junge, a wannabe ballerina who traded in her toe shoes for a government job where she could use her shorthand and typing skills.

Unfortunately for her career goals, Junge took dictation from the dictator of the Third Reich . . . and lived to tell about it.

THE SCI-FI CHANNEL: (New to all the Warner systems getting upgrades.) With Rod Serling's visage staring out of much of the channel's promotional material, there's a feeling that this is the creme de la creme of weird and strange programming. Sure, "The Twilight Zone" is there in all 136 half-hour and eight hourlong episodes, as is Steven Spielberg's brief "Amazing Stories."

But wait. There's less. Much less.

Remember "Land of the Giants"? Probably not, unless you were a kid watching Sunday night TV in the late '60s. Remember the mysterious Commander Fitzhugh? Probably not. Think of a fat, vaguely East European version of Dr. Smith from "Lost in Space," also produced by 1960's sci-fi schlockmeister Irwin Allen.

Allen's "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" also can be seen on the Sci-Fi Channel. Did you ever notice how the monsters from "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" would show up later on "Lost in Space"?

Jumping to the 1970s, Sci-Fi offers both "The Bionic Woman" and "The Six Million Dollar Man." No comment.

A cult favorite is "Stingray," a puppet show featuring Capt. Troy Tempest and his high-tech (for 1965) submarine, fighting evil under the command of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol.

Remember, programming 24 hours of TV means there's a whole lotta chaff with that sci-fi wheat.

THE CARTOON NETWORK: (New to Brookfield and the City of Milwaukee.) It's 24 hours of cartoons. Just cartoons. No live-action stuff, except for the commercials and the costumed characters on the "Banana Splits," who sometimes appear on the channel.

With the resources of the Turner Entertainment cartoon library behind it, the network offers the best in animation from the old days at Warner Brothers and shows like "Top Cat," "Johnny Quest" and "The Flint-stones."

Then there's the new "World Premiere Toons," designed to reinvigorate the old animated short with a series of new characters from a trio of superheroes called "The Powerpuff Girls" to a duck named "Yuckie," and a starring role for Fred Flintstone's pet, Dino.

But, remember that cartoons are aimed mostly at kids.

A lot of those kids may not have the same soft spot in their hearts for old "Popeye" shorts from the 1930s or the state-of- the-art Japanese animation that sometimes pops up on the network.

Therefore, the Cartoon Network programs some other shows as well, stuff like "Thundarr the Barbarian," "Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan," and "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop."

If that bores you, flick the clicker. There's always the "Home and Gardens Channel" in the north and south suburbs, or "The Learning Channel," which will go on a 24-hour-a- day schedule in Milwaukee later this year, or Turner Classic Movies in the North and South Shore and Brookfield.

If that's not enough for you, you're watching way too much TV.

Tim Cuprisin

Copyright 1995
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