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- <text id=92TT0213>
- <title>
- Jan. 27, 1992: View Points:Television
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Jan. 27, 1992 Is Bill Clinton For Real?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- VIEW POINTS, Page 67
- TELEVISION
- Mr. Mouse Goes to Washington
- </hdr><body>
- <p> On The Simpsons, Itchy and Scratchy are a sadomasochistic
- mouse-and-cat team that enacts scenes of baroque violence in a
- running parody of kiddie cartoon shows. On Capitol Critters,
- cats really do chase mice--and the trouble is, it's no parody.
- The new animated series from Steven Bochco Productions (ABC,
- debuting Jan. 28, 8:30 p.m. EST) revolves around Max, a country
- mouse from Nebraska who moves in with his cousin and a ragtag
- band of rodents living in the basement of the White House.
- Anyone expecting savvy political satire, however, is due for
- disappointment. With a few exceptions (Max gets stuck in the
- briefcase of a Senator taking bribes), the comedy comes from
- sitcom-style wisecracks and routine cartoon sight gags that
- might just as well be taking place in Omaha. The Hanna-Barbera
- animation, though a cut above the Saturday-morning usual, has
- little charm. Cartoons aimed at the whole family ought to be
- either funny (The Simpsons) or cute (The Little Mermaid).
- Capitol Critters is neither.
- </p>
- <p>By Richard Zoglin.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-