Washington Man's Tale Explored In `Forgotten Sins'

If what's happening in "Forgotten Sins," the ABC movie airing at 9 tonight on KOMO-TV, starts to sound familiar, it is because it is based on events involving Paul R. Ingram, a deputy sheriff in Thurston County, who, in 1989, admitted sexually molesting his daughters and involvement in a Satanic cult, none of which was ever proven beyond Ingram's insistence it had happened.

It was such a bizarre story it caught the attention of Lawrence Wright who wrote about it in a series of attention-getting articles in The New Yorker, which served as the basis for T.S. Cook's film script.

The setting is not identified but looks vaguely Californian and the central character is now named Matthew Bradshaw and played by John Shea. Bess Armstrong plays his wife and William Devane plays the sociologist who was called in by the prosecution but who soon begins to realize there's no evidence that any of the things Bradshaw claims to remember actually happened. And, in the film, by the time Bradshaw realized this, he's unable to escape a prison term.

It's an odd, creepy, unsettling movie, with a notable performance by Gary Grubbs, under Dick Lowry's direction, as a misguided minister.

New ones

"Muppets Tonight!," which ABC premieres at 8:30 p.m. tomorrow on KOMO-TV, is an updating of "The Muppet Show" and every bit as goofy and entertaining as it used to be. Miss Piggy tangles with guest star Michelle Pfeiffer in a "Sound of Music" face-off and new characters and old ones combine in delightfully silly sketches like "Bay of Pigs Watch," some dancing cheeses and a flock of Elvises. Welcome back!

"Malibu Shores," NBC's new Aaron Spelling series which debuts at 8 p.m. Saturday on KING-TV, is awful, filled with whining teens whose lives consist mainly of driving expensive cars to the beach - a kind of "Melrose Baywatch 0000" overlaid with the Tony and Maria/Romeo and Juliet plot. It's silly, vapid and will appeal only to pre-teens stuck home on a Saturday night, who'll probably think "it's cool."

Short takes

"Heck's Way Home." This Showtime movie, which premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday, is a good family film, the story of a dog separated from his owners, and his journey to find them. Chad Krowchuk is engaging as Heck's owner and Alan Arkin is wonderful as a dedicated dogcatcher.

"Disney's Champions on Ice." This ABC special, 8 p.m. Saturday on KOMO-TV, has good skating, especially a jazzy number by Surya Bonaly, but too much of the time everything is Disneyfied. Building a skating sequence around "Pocahontas" is a particularly bad idea.

"Stop the World, I Want to Get Off." Reviving this thin musical from the 1960s was another particularly bad idea. The show wasn't very good then and sold only on the basis of Anthony Newly as star. Peter Scolari and Stephanie Zimbalist try hard but it adds up to zero. A&E airs it at 7 and 11 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday.

Video notes

The zany Flying Karamozov Brothers, who perform at A Contemporary Theatre June 5-30, will be featured on tonight's episode of "Seinfeld" (9 p.m., KING-TV), in which Jerry attends a Brothers K magic show and they make his jacket disappear. . . PBS is counting heavily on the "Scottish Fiddle Orchestra" as a fund-raising event tonight: KBTC-TV has a five-hour marathon beginning at 6:30, KCTS-TV has a two-hour program begibnning at 7 . . . Bravo airs a profile of Mark Morris at 7 tonight. . . . USA Channel has two hours of figure skating by Olympic Gold Medalists, "Champions on Ice," at 8 tonight . . . CBS has a promising special at 10 p.m. tomorrow on KSTW-TV, "Walker: Behind the Scenes," which will follow an episode of "Walker" from the first script stages to air date . . . HBO is repeating the latest in its series of "Composer's Specials," this one called "Liszt's Rhapsody," at 2:30 p.m. Saturday . . . TNT will repeat "Andersonville" starting at 1 p.m. Sunday . . . CBS is bringing back last fall's "Bonnie Hunt Show," now simply "Bonnie," at 8:30 p.m. Sunday on KSTW-TV . . . Marcia Alvar has a conversation with Andrew Sullivan, editor of The New Republic and author of "Virtually Normal: An Argument about Homosexuality," at 12:30 p.m. Sunday on KCTS-TV . . . Laine Pomeroy talks with David Abram, philosopher, ecologist, magician and author of "The Spell of the Sensuous," at 9:30 p.m. Sunday on Public Access Channel 29.