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Gov. Mark White of Texas appears as...

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Gov. Mark White of Texas appears as himself in Friday’s episode of “Dallas” as the CBS soap opera celebrates its 200th show. And the fictional Ewing family will be doing some celebrating of their own at the annual Ewing rodeo. But watch out: Dusty rides again!

Is it time to think about Christmas already? It is if you’re a network executive planning holiday programming. NBC has an hourlong special in the works called “Andy Williams and the NBC Kids Search for Santa.” To be shot in Scandinavia, the show will star Williams and, among others, Soleil Moon Frye of “Punky Brewster,” Mindy Cohn of “The Facts of Life,” Alfonso Ribiero of “Silver Spoons” and Keshia Knight Pulliam, Tempestt Bledsoe, Malcolm Jamal-Warner and Lisa Bonet of “The Cosby Show.”

What is happening to the productions of Shakespeare’s plays that were done for public television over the last few years? They’re being repackaged as miniseries and will begin airing in weekly chapters on the Public Broadcasting Service in January as “The Shakespeare Hour.” The first season will last 15 weeks and will include “King Lear,” “Twelfth Night,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Measure for Measure” and “All’s Well That Ends Well.” Walter Matthau will host the series.

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Hawaii is the setting for “Blood and Orchids,” a four-hour drama in the works for CBS. It’s set in the 1930s and centers on rape charges being leveled against four Hawaiians for a supposed attack on a Navy man’s wife. The cast includes Kris Kristofferson, Jane Alexander, Jose Ferrer, Sean Young and Richard Dysart.

People: Lorne Greene and Michael Landon are teamed for the first time since they co-starred in “Bonanza” in the Nov. 20 episode of NBC’s “Highway to Heaven.” Landon is directing the program, which has Greene playing an actor in a Broadway show. . . . That same night, Betty White of “The Golden Girls” turns up on NBC’s “St. Elsewhere” as a White House doctor. . . . Two of TV’s most famous funnymen, Milton Berle and Sid Caesar, are starring in back-to-back episodes of NBC’s “Amazing Stories,” Sunday and Nov. 17 respectively. . . . Burt Reynolds directed Martin Sheen, Parker Stevenson, Marilu Henner, Robby Benson and Bernie Casey in Sunday’s installment of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” on NBC.

Patty Duke and Joseph Bologna will star as a married couple in “A Time to Triumph,” a TV movie for CBS that’s being shot on location in Columbus, Ga. The story concerns Duke’s efforts to keep her family together after Bologna’s character suffers a heart attack and is not able to generate any income.

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