Jason Robards

The name Jason Robards conjures up images of the hard-living, hard-drinking characters of Eugene O'Neill -- Hickey, the traveling salesman, in "The Iceman Cometh" or Jamie Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "The Moon for the Misbegotten."But what has him excited these days is "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard," Israel Horovitz's new play, which is being billed as "touchingly funny" -- and which begins a pre-Broadway run at the Mechanic Theatre Tuesday.Is this casting against type?

SAM PECKINPAH'S THE LEGENDARY WESTERNS COLLECTION / / Warner Bros. / $59.98 For movie-lovers, it's a must. Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984) was the most prodigiously and prodigally gifted director of the modern era. But he never made charm his top priority, and rarely revealed his capacity for delight. So it's a pleasure to report that The Ballad of Cable Hogue, an ebullient and supremely affectionate movie, arrives on DVD Tuesday as part of Sam Peckinpah's The Legendary Westerns Collection. The box contains his twin peaks: Ride the High Country (1963)

Despite major script revisions made by playwright Israel Horovitz in his play, "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard," during the show's four-week tryout in Baltimore, the New York critics have given his new work a lukewarm reception at best.The play, set in the fishing town of Gloucester, Mass., debuted last Thursday at the Music Box Theater on Broadway. Although a few critics praised the script, the general consensus seems to be that "Park Your Car . . ." is too long, too redundant, too predictable, too contrived and too routine.

Americans have always venerated the great classical British actors, opening our doors and our hearts to Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Kenneth Branagh, Ian McKellen and many more. We've been less quick to recognize our own American school of acting, or to appreciate its classic practitioners, none more prominent among them than Jason Robards. Robards had the tough, unflinching approach of the true American classic, less polished than the impeccably trained British model. He could dig deep into a role, but his wasn't the way of the Method, the Russian-born school that in untutored hands could degenerate into navel-gazing.

ISRAEL HOROVITZ'S new play, "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard," playing through Sunday at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, is undergoing extensive changes before its official Broadway debut at New York's Music Box Theatre on Nov. 7.Set in Horovitz's adopted town of Gloucester, Mass., the two-character play, which stars Jason Robards and Judith Ivy, centers on the relationship between a crotchety, retired high school music appreciation and English literature teacher and his little-educated Irish housekeeper.

THE SWEEP MONTH of May means new episodes of series and a bunch of other highly promoted shows in addition to "Switched at Birth" and "Dinosaurs." Here are a few highlights:Sunday: "Shadow of a Doubt" (CBS) Hallmark Hall of Fame re-make of 1943 Hitchcock classic with Mark Harmon and Diane Ladd.May 3: "Dallas" (CBS) The venerable series that gave birth to the prime-time soap ends its run with a two-hour final episode.May 5: "Night of the Hunter" (ABC) Richard Chamberlain takes over the Robert Mitchum role from the 1955 movie in another re-make.

Can any actor register melancholy better than Jason Robards? Robards can sum up the century's folly in a single, HTC crushed glance, his eyes radiating tragic knowledge, the lines in his face suggesting the trajectory of all human enterprise toward ruin and obliteration.That look is at the core of "Reunion," now peeping gamely off the screen of a single auditorium at Golden Ring Mall's multiplex. It's a meditation of character and destiny, set (tastefully) against the largest of modern calamities.

Americans have always venerated the great classical British actors, opening our doors and our hearts to Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Kenneth Branagh, Ian McKellen and many more. We've been less quick to recognize our own American school of acting, or to appreciate its classic practitioners, none more prominent among them than Jason Robards. Robards had the tough, unflinching approach of the true American classic, less polished than the impeccably trained British model. He could dig deep into a role, but his wasn't the way of the Method, the Russian-born school that in untutored hands could degenerate into navel-gazing.

The most striking thing about "Chernobyl: The Final Warning," a world-premiere movie on cable tonight, is that it's your basic, familiar American docudrama -- except it was made largely in the U.S.S.R., with a mixed cast of Soviet extras, English mid-level players and a couple big American movie stars.Further, it is a remarkably critical replay of the April 26, 1986, reactor explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, whose ultimate toll in death and injury is still being argued. The movie premieres at 8 p.m. on the TNT basic service, with three immediate repeats at 10 p.m., midnight and 2 a.m. (Additional plays are scheduled April 23, 24, 27 and 28.)

A heroic sadness weaves its way through "Magnolia," Paul Thomas Anderson's oversized musing on alienation, connectedness and random acts of spiritual grace. While not as fully realized as Anderson's last movie, "Boogie Nights," "Magnolia" is filmed with the same skillful abandon, and takes many more artistic risks. Throwing out all conventional notions of plot and narrative coherence, Anderson instead indulges his love of character. The result is a movie as fascinating for its flaws as for its considerable successes.

A heroic sadness weaves its way through "Magnolia," Paul Thomas Anderson's oversized musing on alienation, connectedness and random acts of spiritual grace. While not as fully realized as Anderson's last movie, "Boogie Nights," "Magnolia" is filmed with the same skillful abandon, and takes many more artistic risks. Throwing out all conventional notions of plot and narrative coherence, Anderson instead indulges his love of character. The result is a movie as fascinating for its flaws as for its considerable successes.

7/8 TC Once again, picking out tonight's highlight is a no-brainer. Watch the World Series.* "World Series Game 4" (8 p.m.-conclusion, WBAL, Channel 11) -- What's not to like? Even the umpires like being in Philadelphia rather than in Toronto, because only a domed stadium such as Toronto's can house the dreaded (to umpires, anyway) over-the-plate camera. Yes, the umps are right in complaining that the overhead shot is a lot different than the view at field level; it's more consistent, for one thing.

Despite major script revisions made by playwright Israel Horovitz in his play, "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard," during the show's four-week tryout in Baltimore, the New York critics have given his new work a lukewarm reception at best.The play, set in the fishing town of Gloucester, Mass., debuted last Thursday at the Music Box Theater on Broadway. Although a few critics praised the script, the general consensus seems to be that "Park Your Car . . ." is too long, too redundant, too predictable, too contrived and too routine.

The changes made during the pre-Broadway run of Israel fTC Horovitz's "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard" become apparent even before the play begins -- there is a pre-curtain announcement that the running time is 1 hour and 45 minutes, and there will be no intermission.This is a full hour shorter than the production Mechanic Theatre audiences saw three weeks ago when "Park Your Car" began its one-month run. In other words, 45 minutes, as well as the 15-minute intermission, have been trimmed from this story of the uneasy relationship between a retired high school teacher (Jason Robards)

ISRAEL HOROVITZ'S new play, "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard," playing through Sunday at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, is undergoing extensive changes before its official Broadway debut at New York's Music Box Theatre on Nov. 7.Set in Horovitz's adopted town of Gloucester, Mass., the two-character play, which stars Jason Robards and Judith Ivy, centers on the relationship between a crotchety, retired high school music appreciation and English literature teacher and his little-educated Irish housekeeper.

The name Jason Robards conjures up images of the hard-living, hard-drinking characters of Eugene O'Neill -- Hickey, the traveling salesman, in "The Iceman Cometh" or Jamie Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "The Moon for the Misbegotten."But what has him excited these days is "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard," Israel Horovitz's new play, which is being billed as "touchingly funny" -- and which begins a pre-Broadway run at the Mechanic Theatre Tuesday.Is this casting against type?

The changes made during the pre-Broadway run of Israel fTC Horovitz's "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard" become apparent even before the play begins -- there is a pre-curtain announcement that the running time is 1 hour and 45 minutes, and there will be no intermission.This is a full hour shorter than the production Mechanic Theatre audiences saw three weeks ago when "Park Your Car" began its one-month run. In other words, 45 minutes, as well as the 15-minute intermission, have been trimmed from this story of the uneasy relationship between a retired high school teacher (Jason Robards)

7/8 TC Once again, picking out tonight's highlight is a no-brainer. Watch the World Series.* "World Series Game 4" (8 p.m.-conclusion, WBAL, Channel 11) -- What's not to like? Even the umpires like being in Philadelphia rather than in Toronto, because only a domed stadium such as Toronto's can house the dreaded (to umpires, anyway) over-the-plate camera. Yes, the umps are right in complaining that the overhead shot is a lot different than the view at field level; it's more consistent, for one thing.

Can any actor register melancholy better than Jason Robards? Robards can sum up the century's folly in a single, HTC crushed glance, his eyes radiating tragic knowledge, the lines in his face suggesting the trajectory of all human enterprise toward ruin and obliteration.That look is at the core of "Reunion," now peeping gamely off the screen of a single auditorium at Golden Ring Mall's multiplex. It's a meditation of character and destiny, set (tastefully) against the largest of modern calamities.

THE SWEEP MONTH of May means new episodes of series and a bunch of other highly promoted shows in addition to "Switched at Birth" and "Dinosaurs." Here are a few highlights:Sunday: "Shadow of a Doubt" (CBS) Hallmark Hall of Fame re-make of 1943 Hitchcock classic with Mark Harmon and Diane Ladd.May 3: "Dallas" (CBS) The venerable series that gave birth to the prime-time soap ends its run with a two-hour final episode.May 5: "Night of the Hunter" (ABC) Richard Chamberlain takes over the Robert Mitchum role from the 1955 movie in another re-make.