Touched by an Angel

By ALAN RICH

CBS, Wed. Sept. 21, 9 p.m.

Cast: Roma Downey, Della Reese, Linda Hart, Wendy Phillips, Mark Metcalf, T. J. Lowther, Charles Rocket.

Filmed in Salt Lake City by Moonwater Prods. in association with CBS Entertainment. Executive producer, Martha Williamson; supervising producer, Chris Wuppenthal; line producer, Jon Andersen; director, Jerry J. Jameson; writer, Williamson; Somebody out there still dreams of Jeannie and is still on the highway to heaven, with results that make one long for the bad old days. In this reincarnation of a timeworn videoland plotline, Roma Downey plays Monica, an angel dispatched from that big, lit-up cloud up there to "inspire people to change their own lives when things aren't going as well as they should be." Monica is shadowed by Boss-Angel Tess (Della Reese).

Kicking off the series is a sudsy little weep-along. Monica befriends 8 -year-old David (T. J. Lowther), who scrunches his eyebrows as he tells of his missing mom, whom Monica (need one add?) determines to find in time for the final crawl.

Director Jerry J. Jameson picks out some fine desert emptiness for Karl Herrmann's camera; given the whole of northern Utah as a stage set, who could miss?

With her alluring high cheekbones and her mellifluous brogue, Downey is properly angelic, while Reese could be anybody's favorite mettlesome mother. Both are visible or invisible, depending on outsiders' willingness to accept. Judging from the first episode, the series itself might profit from some of the same.

Camera, Karl Herrmann; editor, Scott Powell; music, Mark Lichtman. 30 MIN.

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