James Arness and Ricardo Montalban will star...

James Arness and Ricardo Montalban will star in another version of the battle at the Alamo, this one for NBC. The three-hour drama, called “The Alamo: 13 Days to Glory,” casts Arness (formerly of “Gunsmoke”) as Jim Bowie and Montalban (formerly of “Fantasy Island”) as Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez Santa Anna.

CBS plans to deal with the issue of nuclear weapons in a children’s special next season. Martin Sheen and Annie Potts will play a couple whose marriage is jeopardized over their conflicting views in “My Dissident Mom,” an hourlong drama that will be broadcast under the “CBS Schoolbreak Specials” banner. Alexandra Powers and Lukas Haas co-star as the couple’s children.

Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith will host “The Kraft All-Star Salute to Ford’s Theatre,” an hourlong special due to air on CBS June 25. Among the performers set to appear are Joel Grey, Paul Anka, Victor Borge, Fernando Bujones and Sandy Duncan.

There will be two “Ghostbusters” cartoons on TV this fall. One, “Ghostbusters,” is a syndicated series about two men and a gorilla who battle supernatural phenomena; it’s based on a live-action children’s series that ran on CBS’ Saturday morning schedule in 1975-76. The other is “The Real Ghostbusters,” which will be based on the movie “Ghostbusters”--complete with the hit theme song by Ray Parker Jr.--and will air Saturday mornings on ABC.

George McKenna, the principal at George Washington High School in South-Central Los Angeles, will be the subject of a TV movie on CBS next season, showing the success he’s had in turning students away from violence and back to education. Starring in the title role of “The George McKenna Story” will be Denzel Washington, who plays Dr. Phillip Chandler on NBC’s “St. Elsewhere.” And speaking of elsewhere, guess where this film about Washington High School is being filmed: Houston.

Home Box Office has set dates of June 21, 24, 27 and 30 for televising “Bob Dylan in Concert.” The program, taped in Sydney, Australia, last February, features Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as Dylan’s backup band.

After actress Theresa Saldana was attacked and nearly killed, she played herself in a movie about the experience for NBC, “Victims for Victims.” Now another actress is going to play herself in an NBC movie. “The Ann Jillian Story” will deal with the blond star’s bout with breast cancer.

The Annenberg/CPB Project to develop television courses for college credit has allotted nearly $4.5 million to new telecourses dealing with history and archeology and to the pilot for another program about chemistry, “The Chemical World.” “Master Teacher: Western Civilization” will feature 26 hourlong programs based on the lectures of UCLA professor Eugen Weber. “New Directions in Archeology” will include an eight-part TV series.