Alex Mack, the 12-year-old character in the new series "The Secret World of Alex Mack" (premiering at 7 p.m. Saturday on Nickelodeon) has something most pre-teens don't have-superpowers. But Alex isn't a typical superheroine who clobbers bad guys to save the world.
Initially, Alex (Larisa Oleynik) is a normal girl with ordinary problems. She fusses about what to wear on her first day of junior high and feels life is boring.
Older sister Annie is brainy, bossy and thinks Alex is a geek. Ordinary becomes extraordinary when Alex collides with a truck on her bike and is doused with a chemical that enables her to transform into liquid, telekinetically transport objects, zap people and glow when she is embarrassed.
Annie (Meridith Bishop), who now considers Alex a scientific experiment, and best friend Raymond (Darris Love), are the only people aware of her new powers.
"Alex Mack's" producer Tom Lynch, who is responsible for such shows as the now-defunct "Riders in the Sky," the PBS hit "Kids Inc.," and the ratings bomb "Xuxa," says that even though Alex has superpowers she's just dealing with teendom.
"She's not out conquering the world, she's just trying to figure out how to do well in school, to hang out and not fight with her sister. We think the show is unique in that shading of it," Lynch says.
"Alex Mack" will prove to be a good replacement in Nickelodeon's Snick prime-time block now that "Clarissa Explains It All" has concluded. The brightest character to watch, however, is sister Annie-her wit and big-sister role are a hoot.
- In October 1988, Time magazine published the story of a forgiving rabbi whose property was vandalized by four teenagers. That event is competently retold in a new "CBS Schoolbreak Special" titled "The Writing on the Wall" (3 p.m. Tuesday, WBBM-Ch. 2).
On Halloween eve (Devil's Night), the boys gathered their weapons of spray paint, shaving cream and eggs. Their targets were the home and temple of New Jersey Rabbi Eugene Markovitz, and a car owned by a Jewish man who lived in the neighborhood. "I hate Jews" and "Go back to your own country" were some of the anti-Semitic statements found the next morning.
These events happened to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Krystallnacht, the night Jewish property in Germany and Austria was destroyed, marking the start of the Holocaust.
The boys were arrested, and despite the judge's recommendation to send them to juvenile prison for two years, Markovitz argued for permission to instead teach them about Judaism and its culture.
Starring Hal Linden as Markovitz, this TV version is not about vandalism and how corrupt our youth is but rather about ignorance-these four kids admit to not knowing why they hated Jews, they just did.
Markovitz spends five weeks teaching the boys about Judaism through discussion, books and a personal look into the horrors of the Holocaust during a trip to the Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance. The result was an enlightening educational experience, one that would benefit all children.
- The premiere of the series "The Babysitters Club" (5 p.m. Thursdays, The Disney Channel) is apt to excite most pre-teen girls. The series is based on the books by Ann M. Martin and deals with a group of 8th-grade girls who form a club to get together to talk about school, boys and other teen concerns.
- Best Picks:
"By Way of the Stars" (Part I, 6 p.m. Wednesday and 1 p.m. Sunday, The Disney Channel)
"Summertime Switch" (Saturday 7 p.m. WLS-Ch. 7)
"Lyle, Lyle Crocodile: The Musical" (6:30 a.m. Tuesday, HBO)