TV REVIEW : ‘Hollywood’ a Brainless Game Show

A quick brain-teaser: You see a poster advertising the recent hit film “White Men Can’t Jump,” just like the ones that adorned every bus stop all spring long. The famous faces of the two principal actors are--no pun intended--whited out. For big money now, tell us . . . who are those two mystery men?

Ex-squeeze us? A trick question, perhaps? Is there a devious catch here? No, it’s just another incredible example of what actually passes for “movie and television trivia” on tonight’s prime-time premiere of “The Hollywood Game” (at 8 on CBS, Channels 2 and 8)--which only proves that no institution is too low, not even the lowly game show, not to be subject to the “dumbing down” of America.

This is a lot like watching a half-hour of the E! network, only E! doesn’t pawn its wares under the guise of an intellectual challenge. Here you’ll thrill as handsomely anonymous host Bob Goen introduces a clip from “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” then asks one of two competing teams just who that nasty baby-sitter is. You at home are guessing Tuesday Weld or Lana Turner, but the Mensa-member contestants correctly name Rebecca DeMornay! The crowd goes wild! America’s brain trust is momentarily safe from Japanese overthrow after all!

Executive produced by Ray Stark and Marty Pasetta, “The Hollywood Game” seems to exist for the sole purpose of spurring video rentals (and also, perhaps, to drive real movie trivia buffs insane).

Which doesn’t mean the show is above hyping new movies, too, presenting an excerpt from the current trailer for “Batman Returns”--a clip from a clip?--for no reason other than “to help you sharpen your trivia skills,” as Goen vaguely but cheerfully relates.

If watching previews is what passes for a research project these days, truly this is a nation in double jeopardy.

God save Alex Trebek.