nxn@ihuxm.UUCP (Dave Nixon) (08/06/85)
This serial is broadcast on the Arts and Entertainment cable channel at 9pm CST on Mondays in the Chicago area. It's one of the strangest (I was going to say bizarre, but the word's been overused recently) programs I've ever seen on TV. The story is centered around the British national zoo, at some time in the near future. At first I thought this was a mutant clone of the popular "All Creatures Great and Small," or possibly "One by One," which is also broadcast by A&E on Monday. Standard "vet has more interesting and 90 percent successful cases in one episode than occur in real life in a month of Sundays" type of thing. However, "Old Men at the Zoo" seems to be more like Animal Farm, but with lots of silly humor. There are two main threads to the plot. First, the daily goings on at the zoo, which are rather comical (the safety expert arrives to inspect the zoo with a cast on his leg). The second thread may be described as political intrigue. Britain sells nuclear weapons to a hypothetical Arab state, the ruler of which is married to an English woman. The marriage was politically motivated, and the woman returns to the UK with her two children. A custody battle is fought and won by the mother, provoking an international incident. The USA and USSR agree to a policy of mutual non-interference, and the stage is set for a nuclear war between the Arab nation and Britain. These threads are linked by "Lord Godmanchester" an autocratic tycoon- politician, who controls the zoo, the press, and increasingly, the British government. He pulls all the available strings to relocate the zoo from London, which is in danger of being bombed, to rural Wales, which he happens to own most of. Is this just an amalgam of two successful formulas (animals, nuclear war) with a modicum of comedy, and which carefully avoids any unnecessary sex or violence? Or is it a political satire fashioned after Animal Farm, with the zoo as a metaphor for the world? Dave Nixon AT&T, Naperville, IL ..!ihnp4!ihuxm!nxn