Buddies

 (Tues. (5), 9:30-10 p.m., ABC)

By TONY SCOTT

Read other reviews about this film

Powered By

Taped at Disney Studio by Wind Dancer Production Group and Touchstone TV. Executive producers, Matt Williams, David McFadzean, Carmen Finestra, Michael Ware, Bob Burris; supervising producers, Billy Riback, Daphne Pollon; producers, Gayle S. Maffeo, Walter Allen Bennett, Bill Freiberger, Daryl Rowland, Lisa DeBenedictis; co-producer, Caterina Fiordellisi Nelli; creators-writers, Williams, McFadzean, Finestra; director, Andy Cadiff.
 
Cast: Dave Chappelle, Christopher Gartin, Tanya Wright, Paula Cale, Richard Roundtree, Judith Ivey, Reed Rudy, Gary Bayer.
 

New series about black Dave Carlisle (an ingratiating, funny Dave Chappelle) and white John Bailey (Christopher Gartin) going into a videotaping biz together in Chi has potential thanks to the principal actors, but the pilot material veers from tired black-white joshing to juve innuendoes about genitals. It's scarcely a knee-slapper.

Pilot, made a year ago, involves best friends Dave and John. John's just married to peppery Lorraine (Paula Cale), and Dave's longtime g.f., spunky Phyllis (Tanya Wright), would like to be hitched.

Lorraine's trashy, bigoted mom, Maureen (Judith Ivey in overdone overdrive), drops by occasionally to swill bourbon and drop nasty remarks about Dave's color. Henry (Richard Roundtree), Dave's stern dad, who hasn't much use for whites or for his son being in business with a nonblack, drops his nasty cracks, but they're at least tolerable.

Dave and John borrow from Lorraine to videotape a sure-fire wedding that'll pay well, but the sound's all wrong and it looks grim -- and is the funniest part of the so-so pilot. Adding music to the wedding scene miraculously (if inexplicably) cures the problem; maybe the same thing could happen to the pilot.

Writers Matt Williams, David McFadzean and Carmen Finestra dig around tired material, and director Andy Cadiff finds no pulse. Best things going for the initial effort are a solid cast and David Sackeroff's striking old-apartment-house set. Fresher attitudes, funnier lines and sharper secondary characters would help the cause; as it is, the second line of the pilot, spoken by John, is, "You're the only black man I know who can't play basketball." It's followed by a burst of "audience" laughter, suggesting how vapid the writing is.

Series settles into its regular timeslot, 9:30-10 p.m., on Wednesday, March 13; with 13 episodes in the can (second chapter's a distinct improvement), "Buddies" could find its own level.

Camera, Bob Kaufman; editors, Skip Collector, Marco Zappa; audio, Laura Osborn-King; music, Brian Bennett; theme, Derrick Perkins; production designer, David Sackeroff.