TV REVIEW : ‘Father’s Homecoming’ Should Have Stayed Away

“A Father’s Homecoming,” airing Sunday at 9 p.m. (Channels 4, 36 and 39), was directed by Rick Wallace, who has “Hill Street Blues” and “L.A. Law” to his credit, and was written by the “American Graffiti” team of Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck.

Which just goes to prove that nobody’s perfect.

Written in the dramedy vein--thoughtful and tragic, but full of yuks--the film features Michael McKean as a former child of the ‘60s who becomes headmaster of a ritzy prep school.

McKean does prove he’s left his Lenny role in “Laverne & Shirley” behind him.

To infuse snobbish Oakmont School with heart, McKean has uplifting scenes with students. As a divorced father trying to make up for his absence, he has painful scenes with his sullen son (Jonathan Ward) and his daughter (Marcianne Warman), both students at the school. He has wistful scenes with girlfriend Laura (Nana Visitor).

No one is left out. Oakmont overlooks a poor factory town, so Ward, Byron Thames and Brandon Douglas have climactic moments as pals personally involved in the town’s union strife.

They also muck through scenes of teen titillation with the school nurse, a stereotype Swedish blonde in mini-skirted uniform. Meanwhile, Warman, a militant feminist, soon swoons over Oakmont’s male pulchritude, a beefcake photo opportunity with close-ups of tight jeans and glistening pectorals.

Then, a picture of Laura in a pajama top and Michael in a bathrobe, embracing, ends up in the school newspaper. Is the new headmaster discredited?

Nope. A union official has been shot in town and Michael stops classes for a day, solemnly invoking the Kennedy assassination to drive a moral lesson home. No one seems to consider it an extraordinarily blatant diversionary tactic.

Everyone here is trapped in a noxious blend of the melodramatic and the stupefyingly ludicrous. There are no survivors.