Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 65

Chicago Tribune, Friday, October 23, 1992 Section 5 5 Tempo 1 17 Even in TV's death is a fantasy world, part of life Delayed reaction Months after the LA riots, TV walks the modern mean streets with decidedly mixed success U7 TV reviews TW By Larry Hackett More than a week after actor John Hancock's death, the i. .1 rnp iMjl muii scries imc oi war I still don't know how reality in o. will intrude on their make-believe world. The decision, whatever it is, would be the latest in one of TV's unusual, but not uncommon, rites: keeping a scries alive when a star dies. Hancock, who played the tart-tongued bartender Ike Johnson, died of a massive heart attack at his home Oct.

12. A spokeswoman for Diane English, the show's creator, had no comment on how Hancock's death would be handled on the program. "Love War," which premiered this season and is enjoying healthy ratings, has aired four episodes. Hancock had appeared in four episodes that have yet to be broadcast but are scheduled. Production of the show was shut down last week in Hancock's memory.

Working at the junction of fantasy and reality that death creates "is very tough," says Les Charles, one of the creators of the hit NBC scries "Cheers." "The challenge is you are doing a piece of entertainment, but at the same time it is a really profound and profoundly moving experience everyone is going through, and you don't want to trivialize it." When Nick Colasanto, who played Coach on "Cheers," died in 1985, Charles said everyone decided he would have to die on the show as well which "is very difficult on a comedy show." "The other actors felt their characters needed to grieve for the coach in order for them to move on as characters," he said. "It was necessary for them to address that crisis. I think it was important." The writers decided to introduce a new character who had been taking a mail-order bartending class from Coach Woody, the gold-hearted rube from Indiana. "But we were very nervous," says Charles, who believes Coach had been the show's most popular character. "If sympathies had Michael Boatman (from top), Mario Van Peebles and Harrison Avery in "In the Line of Duty: Street War," Sunday on NBC-Ch.

5. in "Street Wars," the latest in the generally solid "In the Line of Duty" films, set on the hardscrab-ble streets of New York. Written by T.S. Cook and directed by Dick Lowry, the film is interested in more than mere entertainment. This is a film with a social conscience.

The story, which centers on a pair of young black cops (Mario Van Peebles and Michael Boatman), a pair of older white cops (Peter Boyle and Ray Sharkey) and a crack dealer with empire aspirations (Justice Butler), is relatively simple. What makes the film an exciting piece of work is the way in which it takes the measure of contemporary urban life and problems. Listen to Boyle recall the "projects" when he was a young cop, and you hear how good intentions have gone wrong. Listen to the young black cops dream and you hear a generation's fears and hopes. Hear Sharkey call the criminals "animals" and you hear racism.

It is usually impossible for fiction to match the graphic punch of reality. But every once in a while, fiction shows the ability to provide an observation that all the videocams in the land couldn't capture. When the "Street Wars" dealer talks of his providing employment for "the brothers and sisters and puts a spin on his dirty job by saying he's "selling this stuff to people that's gonna kill themselves anyway," he's being a grotesquely inhuman profiteer. But what he says might not be far from some terrible truth. "Memento Mori" translates from the Latin to "Remember, you must die," and is transformed by "Masterpiece Theatre" into a purpose of getting the cheap laughs we often see taken at oldsters' expense.

Short takes: Maria Shriver follows in the footsteps of ABC's Peter Jennings with her own solid but haven't we heard enough? two-hour look at the ins and out of the Cuban Missile Crisis, "One Minute to Midnight," at 8 p.m. Friday on NBC-Ch. 5. "Tall Ship: High Sea Adventure" (6 p.m. Sunday, ABC-Ch.

7) is incredible to look at, as producer James Lipscomb spends a lot of camera time atop a 13-story-high mast to give us the beauty and danger of a five-month Atlantic sailing jaunt on a square rigger. There are a number of spooky stories from women who have been the victims of stalkers on "Jenny Jones" (1 a.m. Sunday night on WMAQ-Ch. 5). The first woman interviewed is especially unsettling, as she relates the terrors of a "relationship" filled with abuse, gunplay and viciousness.

turned slightly the other it would have been a disaster. Woody probably didn't realize it at the time, but he had one scene to win over millions of people." TV has dealt with death in a variety of ways over the years not always gracefully. On New Year's Eve 192, actor Peter Duel, one of the stars of ABC's "Alias Smith and Jones," shot himself in the head. Perhaps reluctant to change the name of their series, the show's producers simply replaced Duel with Roger Davies with nary a word of explanation. In 1977, Freddie Prinze's suicide was explained on his show "Chico and the Man" as a sudden decision by Chico to leave the garage and take up with his wealthy father.

The show, which had been a hit and made Prinze a star, fizzled in his absence. The premiere episode of "Bonanza's" 14th season in the fall of 1972 was supposed to be a two-hour special featuring Hoss' wedding. Those plans were scrapped when Dan Blocker died that spring at age 43. Within months, NBC announced plans to cancel the series. When Redd Foxx died last year, the producers of his new show "The Royal Family" brought in comedian Jackee to star as the sister to Delia Reese, Foxx's widow.

The show then shut down for several months, returning with Jackee now playing Reese's daughter. The series did not last into this season. Michael Conrad, who played the verbose Sgt. Phil Esterhaus, died in the middle of the 1983-84 season of "Hill Street Blues." Esterhaus, the officers were told, died nobly of a heart attack while making passionate love to the widow of a late cop. Over the nine-year run of "Night Court," three women had played the bailiff.

Selma Diamond died of cancer after the first season, and was replaced by Florence Halop. When she died of cancer after one season, she was replaced by Marsha Warfield. When Johnny Carson asked Warfield if she was worried about following in their footsteps, she said, "Hey, it doesn't bother me. It's sort of like becoming the queen. It's the only way to get the job." New York Daily Nws Speaker at WGN-TV, well-known numerous community awards and: i educational camouflage? Slli-Clli grado teachers THE ClilCflCO TR1BUHE HEEDS VOUI By Rick Kogan TV critic he fiery, bloody civil disorder that struck Los Angeles in April is the reason we are now seeing "In the Line of Dutv: Street War" (7 o.m.

Sunday, WMAQ-Ch. 5). The film was originally scheduled to air in May, but NBC executives, displaying an unusual social consciousness, deemed its story of cops and crack dealers set against a crumbling urban backdrop potentially (embarrassingly?) exploitative, and delayed its broadcast until now. The same riots are the focus of a chilling edition of Arts Entertainment's "Investigative Reports" called "Los Angeles: Anatomy of a Riot" (8 p.m. Friday, Using videotape shot by amateurs and pros, the program gives us lengthy tape of the earliest moments of the riots, as a peacful protest escalated into a rampage.

Its later sections, dealing with looting and arson, are less graphically violent but no less frightening. This is a fascinating document, but it prompts a question: Is it valuable or merely compelling? The immediacy of the images smiling faces of looters, the angry faces of children make an answer difficult. Host Bill Kurtis, who is also seen driving through the ravaged city, doesn't offer any specifics (the "anatomy" of the title), so we are left to seek context in the pictures. They fail to provide it, and we are left mere voyeurs to the violence. The LA.

riots may have been sparked by known matches the verdict in the beating of Rodney King but there were many things that fueled the fire, among them endemic bigotry, gripping poverty, drugs and the money one can make from selling them. Such elements shadow the events G.I. Joe in By Kenneth R. Clark i Media writer the eyes of WGNO-TV, New Orleans, "G.I. Joe" is a cartoon show that adequately meets the educational and informational needs of children, as mandated by the Children's Television Act of 1990.

In Chicago, WGN-Ch. 9 offers an episode of "Chip 'N' Dale's Rescue Rangers" as fare worthy of FCC approval. "Sure," says Peggy Charren, president of Action for Children's Television. "And ketchup is a vegetable." Charren, who has lobbied Congress since 1968 for the law passed two years ago, was referring to a Reagan administration decree that ketchup could be considered a vegetable under nutritional guidelines for the nation's school lunch program. Government policy has been no different for children's television, she said.

"For the past 12 years, any issues relating to children have been pushed to the back burner and turned inside out," Charren said. The Children's Television Act, which took effect in October 1991, was designed to address the concerns of children. It mandates that all television stations, on pain of challenge to their licenses, air programming that "furthers the positive development of the child in any respect, including the child's cognitive, intellectual or emotional social needs." It further states that "some" of that programming must be "specifically designed to meet the educational and informational needs of children." The first batch of license renewal applications hit the FCC under the new law this year and set off an unexpected firestorm. Various stations claimed that requirements were met by "The Jetsons," because it teaches children about life in the 21st Century, and by "G.I. Joe," a war cartoon vilified by critics as everything from a commercial for toys to a vehicle of ultra-violence.

The ensuing brouhaha quickly obscured other, more serious children's programs submitted for FCC consideration soch as "Clown About Town," in which Bozo takes kids to various city cultural centers; "The Cosmic Challenge," which provided a TV linkup with space shuttle astronauts; documentaries "The Tuskegee Airmen," about the World War II black pilots; and "The New Latinas" on WGN, a program on Chicago's Latino Tribune Educational Services Department and the EidNews staff for charming film. The two-hour, two-part presentation (9 p.m. Sunday and Nov. 1 PBS-Ch. 11), based on Muriel Spark's 1959 novel, is hardly the stuff of Aaron Spelling-esque soapers: Here are elderly people contemplating death.

"Remember, you must die," says the voice on the phone to a number of elderly men and women. Who and why are the questions that drive the action, but the film is less a mystery thriller than a carefully, sensitively drawn portrait of the manners and mores, loves and betrayals, sass and quirks of a bunch of British oldsters in the 1950s. Maggie Smith, a relative youngster, is exceptionally good as a scheming housekeeper, and Renee Asherson is delightful as a once famous novelist pretending to be dotty in order to get her way. All the elderly actors appear to take great delight in their roles, none of which has been created for the had been quoted out of context in published reports, declined to comment, referring all questions to Tribune Co. senior, counsel Charles Sennet.

Sennet said that the law deliberately was generalized so stations would be encouraged to comply on their own terms, and that the great majority of their submissions lit the new law's guidelines. "As long as you meet the requirements, what's wrong with watching 'Leave It to Beaver?" he said. "Maybe the stations are being faulted for being over-inclusive for what they've put on their lists, but every station, WGNO included, has made a serious, conscientious effort to meet its obligation." Some in the industry were not so sure. "Trying to retrofit pre-existing entertainment programming into the educational framework seems to me a bit weaselly," said Geral-dine Laybourne, president of Nickelodeon, where children's programming holds sway. Laybourne's cable channel conducts 200 focus groups a year with children to craft educational series such as "Nick News W5," with Linda Ellerbee (current events), "Mr.

Wizard's World" (science) and "The Wild Side" (ecology). She admitted that television stations, which must have a much wider advertising base to survive, will have a hard time matching such a schedule. Laybourne said that under the federal Children's Endowment Act, $2 million in federal funds has been earmarked for development of educational children's programming, but there is a hitch. It must run on PBS before commercial broadcasters will have access to it a lag time of "about two years." Michael Hirsch, president of the Manhattan-based Nelvana which produces children's shows almost exclusively, said plenty of eaucanonai lare is avauaoie. ne added, however, that because it does demand a higher level of audience attention than an action-adventure drama, it never will draw equivalent ratings, which means broadcasters will lose money.

Hirsch said advertisers are equally responsible for short-changing children. "So much of television advertising in the children's area is generated by toys, and boy toys dominate," Hirsch "Advertisers aren't interested in girls and under-sixers, so what we're dealing with is not something that starts and ends with the broadcasters. The advertising community bears some responsibility as well. THE PROGRAM: Get motivated with Guest Herri Des Director of Community Relations talk-show host and recipient of er can(i( presentation will cover such topics as: linking the generations taking charge of our lives what kids will be faced with in surviving tough times Meet the Kidtas Editorial Staff Meet the editors and writers On television community, and "Not Just News" on WFLD-Ch. 32, news geared to young minds.

One station executive who asked not to be identified said fringe claims on appropriate children's programming were inserted over his objection in his station's renewal application at the insistence of company lawyers, who wanted the broadest possible agenda presented to the FCC. Charren, who will fold her 25-year-old ACT lobby group Dec. 31 and become a private consultant, was less generous. The lawyers, she said, "miscalculated and made themselves the laughingstock of the country, but the truth is, nobody gives a damn about the mandate of that law. They stations said, 'They'll never be able to make it stick; nobody's going to lose a Well, they're wrong." The watchdog group Center for Media Education thought so too.

At a recent news conference attended by Charren, the group blasted the stations, charging that they were trying to evade the law for the sake of ratings. WGNO, a Tribune Co. station, was not the only station caught in the storm. WBNA-TV in Louisville and NBC affiliate WLWT-TV in Cincinnati also were pilloried for submitting, respectively, the animated series "Widget" and a "Donahue" segment profiling teenage strippers and their moms. But "Widget," which stars a space alien who teaches environ-mentalism to children, has been cited by the National Education Association as an outstanding children's show, and even the much-maligned "G.I.

Joe" recently produced a two-part anti-drug program featured on the networks and in syndication. Guidelines under the new law range from vague to non-existent, depending upon who is examining the slate. When the law was under debate in Congress, lawmakers specified that not all children's programming on commercial television would be required to meet the standards. They even went so far as to cite such series as "The Smurfs," "Leave It to Beaver" and "Saved by the Bell" as having compatible "pro-social" themes. The message to broadcasters, filing for license renewal for the first time under the law, was that almost anything might pass muster.

But broadcasters were blindsided by the public outcry. WGNO station manager Bill Ross, saying he familiar with the section the first stages of creation types of research utilized look at the design, Join the Chicago VriSp1 Aw I a. wfi .0 For more information, please call the Chicago Tribune Educational Services Department at 312222-5177 EDUCATIONAL SERVICES bringing th world into the dtutnom. itmm -C For from KidNews make-up Rnonrl enmo Hma with itc nfforincy vniir Spend some time comments, opinions and suggestions! WHEN: Saturday, November 14 liH 1 1 i WW become learn about find out the get an inside and $2 WHERE: Tribune Tower. 435 N.Michigan Chicago Campbell Hall TIME: 8:30 a.m.

p.m. COST: $5.00 5thr8th grade teachers only. Seating is limited. features -Zip. to Chicago Tribune YES! Saw a spot fbr rm if th KIDNEWS EDUCATORS FORUM! Send in coupon and $5.00 check to: Chicago Tribune KidNews Educators Forum 43S N.

Michigan Room 504, Chicago, IL 60611 Name School School address City School phone Grade leveKs). Subject area(s) Check enclosed, payable 7' i. i.