“The Burning Bed” was a TV movie...

“The Burning Bed” was a TV movie for NBC that told the story of a woman who killed her abusive husband. Now ABC is preparing a TV movie called “Right to Kill,” about two teen-agers who murdered their abusive father. Frederic Forrest plays the father, Karmin Murcelo is his wife and Christopher Collet and Justine Bateman portray the children.

Wife abuse is the subject of “Death on a Day Pass,” a TV movie that’s being filmed for CBS. It stars Candice Bergen and Jurgen Prochnow (who played the U-boat captain in the movie “Das Boot”) in the story of a Polish couple whose marriage is disrupted when the husband becomes mentally disturbed and begins beating his wife.

NBC White House correspondent Chris Wallace is preparing an hourlong report on First Lady Nancy Reagan. The program is due to air June 24. It will feature interviews with Mrs. Reagan, President Reagan, their children and the First Lady’s 88-year-old mother.

Lucille Ball will portray a bag lady in “Stone Pillow,” a TV movie for CBS. Lucy, once the queen of TV comedy, will be playing it straight as an elderly woman who lives on the streets of Manhattan.

If it’s a ratings sweeps period, then the local magazine shows must be on the road. Channel 2’s “2 on the Town” (at 7:30 p.m.) will be taking viewers on a tour of India this week (Monday through Wednesday), then of Nepal (Thursday) and on to China for two nights next week. Meanwhile, Channel 7’s “A.M. Los Angeles” visits Hawaii this week (at 9 a.m.).

Anthony Hopkins and Lesley-Anne Down play lovers in the war-threatened Paris of 1939 in “Arch of Triumph,” a TV movie due to air on CBS May 29. Hopkins portrays a German doctor who escaped from a concentration camp and fled to France. Down is an unemployed actress. The cast also includes Donald Pleasence and Frank Finlay.

NBC has allotted two of its prime evening broadcast hours on May 20 for the heavyweight championship bout between Larry Holmes and challenger Carl Williams. Holmes is 47-0 while Williams sports a 16-0 record.

KCET will be looking at refugees in two quite different ways. Its news department is preparing a documentary called “Asylum,” dealing with the plight of Central American refugees who have asked the United States to grant them political asylum because of the warfare in their homelands. On the entertainment side, the public TV station is producing “Paper Angels,” a drama for “American Playhouse” about Chinese refugees arriving in San Francisco in 1915.