United Feature Syndicate - TUNE IN TONIGHT

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 27, 2002 -- The offbeat series "Who Needs Hollywood?" (8 p.m., Oxygen) travels to small towns all over America, where host Katie Puckrik and her flamboyant choreographer Marvin Thornton recruit local talent to perform thematic, improvised song-and-dance numbers. Combining the "Let's put on a show" spirit of old Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movies and the cringe-worthy humor of the Christopher Guest comedy "Waiting for Guffman," the series walks a careful line between celebration and condescension.
Tonight's first show takes place at the Raleigh Hotel in South Fallsburg, N.Y. This time-capsule resort is one of the last remaining hotels in the old "Borscht Belt" circuit, famous for launching the careers of countless comedians. Puckrik enlists the hotel's largely geriatric staff and clientele to help celebrate the region's "Dirty Dancing" legacy. The results are both amusing and endearing. A second episode (9 p.m.) visits an exotic dancing museum located in the Mojave Desert.