‘WENN’ Remembers Bygone Era of ‘30s

Is there another show on television as well-crafted as “Remember WENN”? This American Movie Classics original series (which started its third season Saturday) looks great, sounds great, moves great, practically tastes great. (Seems as if there’s always food involved, whether it’s Juicy Fruit gum, pigs’ feet or pickled beets.)

The prewar era--that’s World War II, of course--comes alive in a Pittsburgh radio station brimming with well-dressed dames, debonair men, busybody loudmouths and more fashion sense than the last 10 Oscar nights put together.

But more than that, this half-hour comedy-drama-mystery-musical has heart, lots of heart, heart from here to the hoosegow--that’s “jail” for those of you who don’t speak the language “Remember WENN” remembers so well. It’s never saccharine but often bittersweet, the kind of sentiment that leaves you with lingering longings and a sly grin on your face from its dexterously effortless construction. Just like the movies from the golden era it celebrates.

Creator Rupert Holmes (Broadway’s “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”) proves himself an American treasure in succeeding where the likes of Peter Bogdanovich (“At Long Last Love”) and Stanley Donen (“Lucky Lady”) have failed in capturing the style, spirit and savoir-faire of the 1930s films that practically define the word Hollywood.

Yet Holmes is doing it on a small-screen scale of intimacy, with a crackerjack sense of tube timing. On Saturday’s third-season opener the spring cliffhanger was resolved when former station manager Victor Comstock (even the names are delightful) seemed to return from the dead.

Is Comstock (John Bedford Lloyd) really back from the rubble of a London bombing raid? What would that mean for Betty (Amanda Naughton), his wide-eyed, idealistic young staff writer of undying devotion? Or Comstock’s successor, Scott Sherwood (Kevin O’Rourke)? Or his old station, which was being used by a sponsor to transmit the codes of Nazi saboteurs!

The second episode of the season only amplifies the delightfully theatrical archness that cements the time period--the precise elocution, the sparkling repartee, the irony and cleverness, as hissing husband-and-wife actors Jeffrey (Hugh O’Gorman) and Hilary (Melinda Mullins) plot their Broadway ascent with backing from disparate husband-and-wife sponsors Louis Zorich (“Mad About You”) and Peggy Cass.

It’s criminal to give too much away in either case, except that Holmes’ scripts remain authentically toned and amazingly devised; the guest stars chew the scenery with beaming relish (Malcolm Gets of “Caroline in the City” played a world explorer Saturday, “L.A. Law’s” Harry Hamlin is a playwright this week); and the series’ technical production (it’s filmed in New York City) is one of the medium’s true wonders.

Pay attention to Holmes’ subtle music--from that merry/melancholy clarinet series theme to each week’s astute underscore--and its beautifully faded Technicolor tones (the film is manipulated to look like an old-time movie).

But just what is “Remember WENN”? Is it a comedy? A drama? “A dramedy,” suggests Jeffrey. “Or a comma,” snaps Hilary.

Never mind the defining. “Remember WENN” is unmistakably, as another character says, the cat’s meow.

* “Remember WENN” airs Saturdays at 6 and 10 p.m. on AMC.