User Reviews

"Smells like Fresno!", a Spanish conquistador comments after the pleasure of smelling real California grapes is followed up by smelling the shriveled remains soon to be called raisins. It's in this raisin in the sun in the middle of northern California that the city of Fresno is created, and Katharine Kensington's struggling raisin empire is in jeopardy of being closed down. Rival raisin magnate Tyler Cane (Dabney Coleman) wants to gain the water rights from a river between the two properties, and this leads to the murder of the river's alleged owner (Louise Latham as a clock obsessed Ma Kettle like character). A hunky shirtless stranger (Gregory Harrison) has all the women a-twitter, and is carrying a secret of his own. Katharine's ruthless son Cane (Charles Grodin) bitterly hates Coleman (not realizing that he was named after the S.O.B.) and his bitchy nymphomaniac wife (Teri Garr) has her own goals upon spotting the hunky Harrison. But he only has eyes for Katharine's "adopted" daughter Valerie Mahaffey who longs to find out the truth about her parentage. Other soapy issues include Bill Paxton's arrest for Latham's murder, handyman Luis Avalo's determination to get a raise, and chauffer Charles Keating's desire to get the Rolls Royce fixed. Tune in tomorrow, 'cause for five nights, you are in the continuing story of "Fresno"!

The fear of this mini-series spoof of the 1980's prime time soap opera was that it would be nothing more than an extended Carol Burnett Show spoof. One moment pays comical tribute to a recent soapy TV mini-series. Certainly, each of the character archetypes seems obvious as the right roles for her galaxy of TV co-stars, but wisely, none of those actors were cast here. Burnett only briefly goes into her Eunice characterization, and decked out in all sorts of wacky Bob Mackie costumes, looks like (along with the outrageous Garr) the poster child for any ambitious drag queen. Big shoulder pads and hats, cat fights (the one between Mahaffey and Garr is hysterical), murder, parental revelations and secrets of all sorts move this along (particularly in the second half) quickly. This isn't as funny as it could have been, but all of the actors leave their tongues out of their cheeks as they spew outlandish dialog. The Tyler Cane moniker is obviously a tribute to Burnett's favorite soap opera, "All My Children".

Whether wearing outfits with matching hats, gloves and purses or sitting down in a Scarlet O'Hara gown with expected results (something she had already done on her TV show), Burnett commands attention every time she is on. Her matriarch is not bitchy and scheming like Jane Wyman's Angela Channing, but neither is she the all-wise Miss Ellie of Barbara Bel Geddes. As she tells the long-suffering Avalos, "There are the haves and the have nots. We are the haves, and the rest of you are the have nots." But don't underestimate the have nots in their determination to get ahead. Coleman is a combination of "Dallas's" J.R. and "Falcon Crest's" David Selby, while Grodin seems to be parodying "Dynasty's" Gordon Thompson. They are both deliciously malevolent, with Garr a trashy sex kitten who has no ambition in life other than physical pleasure. Mahaffey's character is a combination of all the second string characters ("Dallas's" Lucy, "Falcon Crest's" Emma, "Dynasty's" Claudia) who were never in leading stories but created outlandish plot twists along the way. Hunky Harrison spoofs the shirtless young men (seen without his shirt in four different opening credit poses), and Paxton is the typical dumb lug with a ditzy singing wife (Teresa Ganzel) who creates a telefon for wives with husbands in prison who are all proclaiming their innocence.

Between stints as the sinister Carl Hutchins on "Another World", Charles Keating took on the low key part of the chauffer, looking elegant and speaking with a beautiful British accent, unfortunately not having much to do but on occasion revealing a secret or two. Jeffrey Jones is the ruthless boss of two buffoon hit men out to kill Grodin who create more havoc by not succeeding then they would had they been successful. A few other supporting players (Jerry Van Dyke, Melanie Chartoff, Pat Corley) intermingle with the convoluted plot. This is by far not a perfect mini-series, only garnering Emmy nominations for a few of its background creative elements, but it has garnered a bit of a cult following, even though it has never been released on home video and doesn't seem to be re-run much. For the record, other than Burnett, I did think of Harvey Korman in the role of the Dabney Coleman character, Tim Conway as the Charles Grodin character, Lyle Wagner in the Gregory Harrison role, Vicki Lawrence as Terri Garr's character, and frequent guest Bernadette Peters either as Valarie Mahaffey or Teresa Ganzel's character, plus an assortment of other comics in the other parts. That would have made an interesting recurring sketch on "The Carol Burnett Show", but it would not have had the same impact as the far more seriously drawn out TV mini-series.

I had almost forgotten that this spectacular mini-series was shown on Danish TV and what luck when I found it on some obscure web-channel that starts with a You.

It's a must that you have a minimum of knowledge of soap operas before you can enjoy this hilarious send-up of them. And also, if you have the chance, check out Barry Kemp's interview on Archive of American Television's web page. Then you will appreciate just how good this is.

It follows the story lines of standard soap opera bibles and twist them ever so slightly to make it just a notch more broad. But, you have to pay attention or you will miss the joke. It reminds me a little bit of the short-lived series Police Squad!, although the comedy is a lot more subtle for the most part.

Here is a few examples of the comedy of ridiculous on this show: Some of the characters talk in these overblown southern accents and others don't even though they are sometimes siblings. The plot revolves around a raisin empire. A handyman who on the surface is just an annoying subplot character, but as the story continues becomes more and more comic. Absolutely side-splittingly funny country music numbers sung by the Teresa Ganzel character. Also check out the name of her and her boyfriend. That's just a few examples.

So if you can stomach it, check all five hours at once. I guarantee you will either love it or say: What the hell was that?

My favorite scene from this mini-series is when the person, in the middle of the trial suddenly bursts out their guilt in a passioned plea. Then realizes they are in the wrong courtroom. Carol Burnett, Dabney Coleman, Charles Grodin and Teri Garr are exceptional in their portrayals. This should definitely be on DVD!