TV Reviews : Arnolds Supply the Laughs in ‘Backfield’

ABC’s “Backfield in Motion” is sort of “The Stepford Wives” in reverse, with Roseanne Arnold playing a rebellious single mother who organizes the blissful, submissive women of her community into a football team that competes aggressively in a controversial mothers-sons game.

It airs at 9 tonight on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42, giving credence to the rumor that Arnold and her husband, Tom Arnold, are joined at the hip. He supports her here as Howard Peterman, the sympathetic boys vice principal who reluctantly agrees to coach the formidable, if awkward gridiron matrons, whom wisecracking widow Nancy Seavers (Roseanne) has assembled in hopes of becoming a role model for her teen-age son (Johnny Galecki). Predictably, Peterman and Seavers connect off the field as well as on.

“Backfield in Motion” also proves that a movie can succeed in spots even if its principal actors--in this case, the Arnolds--can’t act. With occasional help from a slim teleplay by Gene O’Neill, Noreen Tobin and Janet Brownell, director Richard Michaels guides this Roseanne vehicle with a playful wit that at times transcends the inability of the ever-grinning Arnolds to be persuasive.

Despite the latter deficiency, in fact, there’s enough amusement here to recommend “Backfield in Motion” as a watchable two hours, if not a Super Bowl of laughs to build a Wednesday night around.