AN OVERVIEW OF A VIDEO MAGAZINE

While the other ex-Monkees indulge in rehashing the group’s past, Michael Nesmith is spending his time thinking about the future of home video. A pioneer in the field, Nesmith has most recently been putting together Overview, a monthly guide to video releases with added features. Unlike other video magazines, though, Overview will actually be on cassette itself.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about Overview, whose debut January edition should hit video outlets sometime in December, is its $3.95 price, which may be an all-time low for a videocassette. What makes this possible is that the tape will be advertiser-sponsored.

Nesmith has rounded up some impressive participants. Tom Shales of the Washington Post, whose commentaries are frequently printed in The Times, will review films on video. Los Angeles radio personality Deirdre O’Donoghue, who hosts an eclectic/alternative show on KCRW-FM, will cover music video. Michael Dare, who writes about film and other subjects for the L.A. Weekly, will take a regular look at miscellaneous and offbeat video programming.

Overview will also feature celebrity interviews, reviews (by children) of children’s videos, a serialized adventure and The Still Pages, a section at the end of the tape that will offer listings that can be read by using a VCR’s freeze-frame function. Viewers with home computers will also be able to print out hard copies of this information from an encoded data addition.

Nesmith’s magazine-on-tape is currently planned to be a two-hour program, 12 minutes of which will be advertising. If Overview works, Nesmith told the press at the recent Video Software Dealers Assn. convention in Las Vegas, he might follow it with other video publishing ventures. Among the possibilities: a women’s magazine, a comedy magazine and a sports magazine.

FIRST LIGHT: JVC is sending a fresh reinforcement into the raging video-camera battle that it has been fighting this year with rival Japanese company Sony. Representing the VHS side of the who’s-lightest contest between the VHS and 8-millimeter formats, JVC has just announced that in October it will begin to market an even smaller version of its VideoMovie model--though only Japanese consumers will see it at that time (no American debut date has been set).

The version of the VideoMovie that hit the American market earlier this year weighed in at about 3 1/2 pounds, about the same as Sony’s 8mm HandyCam. But JVC claims an amazing 1.7 pounds (750 grams) for its new GR-C9 Mini VHS VideoMovie, which incorporates HQ circuitry and, like its GR-C7 big brother, uses the VHS-compact cassette. That makes it the new lightweight champ of video camcorders--at least until Sony makes its next move.

SIDE BY SIDE: Who says music videos are dying? They’ll soon be combined with albums on Pioneer “compact laserdiscs” (CLDs). These CLDs put music videos and compact-disc-quality albums together. Since the LaserVision discs are encoded on only one side, the recording time is limited to only 60 minutes, so including an entire album means limiting the number of videos--to either two or three on the first five releases. Pioneer, the leading manufacturer of laser discs, has signed agreements with several major record companies, and initial releases will feature a-ha (the Norwegian group whose Steve Barron-directed debut video recently swept the MTV awards), Mr. Mister, Jefferson Starship, Chicago and Dream Academy.

MORE SIDE BY SIDE: Look for compact discs to start showing up at your local video store, if they haven’t already, according to the trade journal Video Insider. Video store owners are taking a close look at the advantages of adding CDs to their shelves. The philosophy behind such a move: The tech-oriented customer who either owns a compact disc player or is among the estimated 1 1/2 million people who’ll buy one this year probably already owns a videocassette recorder. But adding CDs will already cut into the typical video store’s limited shelf space, and there probably won’t be much room for a big selection. So the shop owner is going to have to decide whether his customer might prefer, for example, Mr. Mister or Mr. Previn.