Television: Knots Landing on the Prairie

By Richard Zoglin

Few brand names in television have been as successful in recent years as the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Its tony TV movies, usually uplifting slices of Americana (Sarah, Plain and Tall; Promise), have consistently won Emmys as well as high ratings. O PIONEERS! (CBS, Feb. 2, 9 p.m. EST), Willa Cather's 1913 novel about the Nebraska frontier, must have seemed an ideal Hallmark project. It is certainly ideal for Jessica Lange, one of those over-40 movie actresses who are increasingly turning to TV for "mature" roles. As Alexandra Bergson, the Swedish farmer's daughter who tames the "wild land," she has a steely grace. But what was grand and moving in the novel comes out small and ordinary. Maybe it's because screenwriter Robert W. Lenski and director Glenn Jordan treat every event in Alexandra's life (a family quarrel, a sudden death) as if it were a scene from Knots Landing. Or maybe it's just that Cather's bittersweet picture of frontier life can't be reduced to greeting-card sentiments. R.Z.