Parker Lewis Article From the NY Times (Oct. 8, 1990)

[Skywalker]

When Boys Will, of Course, Be Boys


Suppose you're a male teen-ager and aspire to be Big Man in High School. Helpful tips can be found on at least two new prime-time series, NBC's ''Ferris Bueller'' (Mondays at 8:30 P.M.) and Fox's ''Parker Lewis Can't Lose'' (Sundays at 7:30 P.M.).

Some basic television rules: no matter how cynical or smart-alecky you may appear to be, stay cool and cute; never stop manipulating your nincompoop parents; make life miserable for your sister; don't let the other students ever forget that you run the school and that the principal and teachers are merely buffoonish ornaments, and when all else fails, speak directly into the camera, oozing boyish sincerity.

Developed by John Masius (''St. Elsewhere''), the NBC series is based on the ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off,'' the 1986 John Hughes movie starring Matthew Broderick. Television's Ferris is Charlie Schlatter, and in the very first episode he demolished a lifesize cutout of Mr. Broderick, deemed by Mr. Schlatter to be too much of a white-bread sort. That was a mistake.

Ferris's character gets away with his antics precisely because of his seemingly innocent facade, and so Mr. Broderick was perfect for the role. The smirking Mr. Schlatter is likely to leave most viewers reaching instinctively for their wallets.

Proceeding on the premise that ''life is just one damn thing after another,'' television's Ferris has concluded that there are two states of consciousness - un and sub. At home, while his big sister seethes, Ferris has no difficulty charming his gullible parents. (''Don't you wish they were yours?'' he says, winking.) Mom is in real estate. ''Do you know what it's like,'' she cries, ''trying to dump condos in a soft market?'' Sis is not about to let Ferris borrow her car: ''The thought of you using one of my possessions for pleasure makes me want to puke blood.''

At school, there is Mr. Rooney (Richard Riehle), the principal, a pudgy, sweaty man who seems to expend most of his energy trying to foil Ferris. In typical television fashion, whenever the cameras actually wander into a classroom they find only bored, somewhat sullen students overseen by oblivious teachers. In this context, Ferris is, if nothing else, a welcome diversion.

And he does have his special moments. Wearing tights for a dance session with his girlfriend, he tells us: ''Go ahead and laugh. I'm secure in my manhood.'' And managing a student election campaign, he genially advises, ''Think of the Kennedy years: all image.'' But if Ferris were to suddenly disappear from prime time, most viewers might agree with the dreadful Mr. Rooney. ''I'll miss you, Bueller,'' he tells him, like a 20-pound boil.

Fox's ''Parker Lewis Can't Lose'' is obviously a ''Ferris Bueller'' clone, although in interviews the executive producer, Clyde Phillips, has denied being in creative debt to the movie. Nevertheless, a recent episode did have a character describe the plot of a John Hughes movie, prompting this exchange:

''Which John Hughes movie are you talking about?'' ''All of them.'' In any event, Parker takes to television better than Ferris. For one thing, Parker is played by Corin Nemec, who is indeed white-bread perfect for the kind of fellow who finds the very concept of school totally bizarre. For another, like so many other Fox series, ''Parker Lewis'' is so exaggerated that there's not much danger of anyone taking it seriously.

Parker attends Santo Domingo High School, where, as at Ferris's Ocean Park High School, Hispanic students would seem to be as scarce as blacks among the student body. In this case, the principal is the vengeful Ms. Musso (Melanie Chartoff), whose appearances are often signaled by an eerie, blinding glow inspired by ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind.''

Her special ''obedience helper'' is a strange student known as her mutant teen-age henchman. And then there is the giant football star named Kubiak (Abraham Benrubi), who, Parker swears, once killed a nun when she misplaced his lunch. Kubiak allows that ''high school has been the best seven years of my life.''

Parker has the one requisite sister, this one younger. When not locking her in dark attics, he is arranging for her to gargle with his used mouthwash. Meanwhile, she is apt to say, ''I hate you like the phlegm that you are.''

Parker is not without a social conscience. When his best friend threatens to drop out of school to play in a rock band, Parker becomes responsible, warning that the rock scene is ''burnout city,'' leading only to paternity suits filed by groupies. The friend comes back, admitting that he misses ''the buds thing'' with Parker. Then without missing a beat, Parker offers a moving testimonial to rock, calling it the ''sound track of high school, of growing up, of hope.''

Like Ferris - and a good many television programmers - Parker is not terribly concerned about possible contradictions and underlying messages.




http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/08/ar...7t+lose&st=nyt