TELEVIEWS / April may not be the cruelest month for TV audiences

March 7, 2008 by Dennis Amith

In a recent Televiews column for the Daily Yomiuri, Wm. Penn wrote “April should be interesting. The king of the Japanese TV world will be taking over the prime ministership as well.”"Yes. How does “Kimura Takuya Sori Daijin” sound to you? Actually, at this point, some people probably would be willing to give SMAP a chance to run the country, but Kimura’s tenure will be only fictional, of course.”

“The super SMAPster takes over Fuji’s Monday, 9 p.m. slot from April with a new series that is so new it doesn’t even have a formal title or a starting date yet. Kimura plays an elementary school teacher with little interest in politics who somehow ends up in the top job and dedicates himself to making life better for the people.”

“Sounds a bit like the plot of the movie Dave, where Kevin Kline cleans up the White House.”

“Eri Fukatsu, a very talented actress, will play the prime minister’s very capable political secretary and most of the staff from the hit drama Hero, in which Kimura starred as a public prosecutor, will be on hand too. This new venture could be another 30 percent-plus ratings winner for Kimura, just about the only guy who can command numbers like that anymore. Can’t wait to check this one out.”