Posted on: Saturday, August 24, 2002

Television offers couch potatoes war, drama, games

Advertiser Staff

If staying home on the couch is your plan today, throw the popcorn in the microwave and grab the remote.

Check out "Johnson County Wars," 5 and 8 p.m. on the Hallmark Channel, Oceanic channel 60.

This absorbing, sometimes harsh epic was filmed as a miniseries but will be shown in one night. It creates a world in which good guys always shoot straight and bad guys almost always miss.

In 1892 Wyoming, two visions of America collided. One was the European land-baron tradition. The other was the New World notion of small ranchers who showed their rugged independence.

The two sides went to war and the result helped define a nation.

Some of the characters in the movie spring from reality. Cain Hammett (Tom Berenger) and Queenie (Rachel Ward) are based on what happened to real-life rebels.

Others are works of first-rate fiction. Luke Perry plays Cain's young brother, Michelle Forbes is their sister-in-law, and Burt Reynolds is a scowling villain.

If your taste gravitates toward more contemporary subjects, tune in to FX (Oceanic channel 45) at 5 p.m. for "The Insider."

This film about a "60 Minutes" producer relentlessly chasing proof of misdeeds by tobacco companies is worth the time. Al Pacino (as the producer) and Russell Crowe (as the scientist who might be ready to talk) are superb.

Other choices tonight:

• Little League World Series, 4:30 p.m., ABC. Didn't this game used to involve kids having fun? Today and Sunday, it takes up a large chunk of ABC's prime time.

• Football, 1:45 p.m., ESPN. Who says the college football season has to wait for the semester to start? Tonight, Nebraska hosts Arizona State.

• "Meet My Folks," 7 p.m., NBC. In this episode, the participants are on a farm struggling with early chores.

• "The District," 8 p.m., CBS. The police department faces strong criticism from blacks.

• "The Agency," 9 p.m., CBS. A chemical plant will soon be bombed. Jackson scrambles for a way to save people who are slave laborers in the plant.