Lost ‘Brothers’ Found by Needy UPN

One seldom thinks of unearthing “lost episodes” of a show canceled after less than a season, but such is the case with “Between Brothers.” The situation comedy aired on Fox from September 1997 through January 1998 before being canceled, despite ranking as the year’s most-watched prime-time program in African American households. Beginning Tuesday, “Brothers” returns on UPN, which continues to seek short-term solutions to help stabilize its listing prime-time lineup. UPN has acquired seven episodes of the program, five of which were produced for Fox but never aired. Another 10 installments did air previously on Fox, and if the series clicks by UPN’s modest standards, there’s a chance the network might rerun those as well. The show, which featured a central quartet that included “A Different World’s” Kadeem Hardison and Tommy Davidson of “In Living Color,” wouldn’t be able to assemble the original cast again, but a UPN spokeswoman wouldn’t rule out the possibility of resuming production if the program catches on. At the least, to borrow a promotional phrase from NBC, if you haven’t seen the old episodes, “They’re new to you.”

Fictional Fruit Features Real Music in ‘Crazy’

How about this for a package concert tour: Spinal Tap, Eddie & the Cruisers, the Commitments and Strange Fruit. Strange Fruit? That’s the latest fictional rock band to have its all-too-real saga chronicled in film--the British comedy “Still Crazy,” which opens wide on Friday, following a very limited release last month. The film follows a ‘70s band getting back together 20 years (and a few lost hairs and added pounds) after breaking up amid constant squabbling. The cast is actors, not rockers, with Stephen Rea as the now-broke keyboard player, Bill Nighy as the vain lead singer still trying to lead the life of a star and Billy Connolly as their loyal former roadie. But for the music, writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (who also did “The Commitments”) and director Brian Gibson went for the real thing, getting Mick Jones of Foreigner to write melodies and Squeeze’s Chris Difford to do the lyrics. Others contributing musically included Jeff Lynne, Russ Ballard and the film’s music producer, Clive Langer, himself a former member of the ‘70s British band Deaf School and noted producer of such acts as Elvis Costello, David Bowie, Morrissey and Bush. Was the experience of writing songs meant to be from a band’s past glory days a little too close for comfort? “That’s what I feared when I set to writing these,” says Jones. “But it was like a cleansing, putting myself back to that time period and reliving what I was doing. It ain’t over till you start it over again, to paraphrase a favorite baseball player.”

Awaiting the Latest From the Silkk Collection

Is this the week the music industry finally shakes off the post-holiday doldrums? Don’t bet on it. The annual January sales freeze is in full force and it will likely continue when the sales figures for last week are announced Wednesday. New albums from the Black Crowes and rapper Keith Murray have just hit the stores but the early word is that neither “is really lighting up the charts,” according to Gary Arnold, a senior vice president at Best Buy. Arnold said the next big thing “on the radar” is the third album from Silkk the Shocker, the New Orleans rapper and younger brother of Master P. “It’s going to be huge,” Violet Brown, the urban music buyer for Wherehouse, said of the Silkk collection that will be released Tuesday. “There have been no gigantic releases lately, but [Silkk] will be very strong. We’re all waiting for that one.”

--Compiled by Times staff writers and contributors