Amnesia for Samantha Who? proves to be a terminal case

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Former rock heartthrob John Taylor, left, stretches to play a former rock heartthrob on Samantha Who? with Christina Applegate.

THE  case of amnesia for  Samantha Who? is terminal, evidently. The occasionally witty, often whimsi­cal sitcom starring Christina Ap­plegate as a young single looking for love after suffering a bout of retrograde amnesia, will vanish for good after the current run of  episodes ends next month.

Better enjoy it while it lasts, then.

Tonight's outing, The Rock Star, features a guest shot by an SSRq80s heartthrob from Duran Duran, "the band that video made famous."

No, it's not Simon Le Bon, but for those old enough to remember Girls on Film, Hungry Like the Wolf and Union of the Snake, John Taylor will do.

Taylor plays an aging rock superstar -- no! -- named Tommy Wylder who Sam begins dating after feeling an unexplained twinge of recognition. Wylder is an idol from her teenage years, only she has no recollection of her teenage years.

That's a wonderful setup for a goofy, lighthearted tale of star-crossed romance and mixed signals, and it's precisely the kind of slightly bent premise that made Samantha Who? so much fun to watch.

That, and Applegate. Applegate has an easy, natural charm as the ditzy but well-intended singleton -- so much so that it's impossible to tell that this is the same person who played lusty adolescent Kelly Bundy for 11 seasons in Married With Children.

Applegate won an Emmy last year for Samantha Who? -- no surprise for anyone who watched the show from the beginning -- and she may well be nominated again when this year's nominees are announced next month.

It seems a shame that an Emmy-worthy sitcom is about to retire when there are so many unworthy comedies on TV, but that's the nature of network television today. Ratings count for everything.

Tonight's outing is not unforgettable, exactly, but it's well worth a look. (ABC, 7 p.m.)

-- Canwest News Service

3 to see today

A mess in the office microwave that nobody will fess up to, and a squabble over what to do with a $4,000 budget surplus: It's just another day in The Office, in back-to-back episodes from earlier in the year. That budget surplus? That's how you can tell The Office is fiction. (Global, 7:30 and 8 p.m.; NBC, 8 and 8:30 p.m.)

Cat Deeley stretches -- literally and figuratively -- as another would-be dancer is sent home on So You Think You Can Dance and Deeley has to pad an hour of filler around a 30-second announcement. Oh, well. Better her than Ryan Seacrest. (CTV, Fox, 8 p.m.)

If the hapless wedding party in Harper's Island would simply stand there and admire the Bowen Island, B.C., scenery instead of killing each other off, the wedding would be a lot more fun. As it is, in tonight's episode, the town dock blows up real good and the survivors realize they're going to be stranded on the island for a while. Until the killer is found, anyway, or somebody builds a new dock. Whichever comes first. (Global, 9 p.m.)

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 25, 2009 E5