CNN: ONE OF TV’S RARE LIVE WIRES

Relishing TV’s worlds . . .

One of them is Cable News Network, Ted Turner’s mite that became mighty.

When there’s a show in Washington, there’s usually a show on CNN. This week, for example, CNN offered live coverage of Acting CIA Director Robert M. Gates’ confirmation hearings.

What’s on the tube today, honey?

Oh, the usual. “The $25,000 Pyramid,” “Sale of the Century,” “A.M. Los Angeles” and the acting CIA director being grilled by a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Even allowing for the usual posturing for the camera by politicians, the televised sessions added another chapter in CNN’s ongoing live-TV civics lesson: “How the Federal Government Operates.”

There was Gates Wednesday, accused by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) of “dissembling” about his own role in the “skimpy, scanty, uninformative and really misleading” testimony of Gates’ ailing predecessor, William J. Casey.

Specter was prosecutorial, Gates elusive. Tense moments, indeed. The camera has now become the ultimate snoop. That’s the way it should be when it comes to events that are legitimately in the public arena, in contrast to live TV theater a la Geraldo Rivera.

Speaking of theater, that’s what viewers of CNN’s “Cross Fire” got again Wednesday night. One guest was conservative columnist Ben Stein, generally credited with first advancing the idea for ABC’s “Amerika” miniseries, which depicts an America under Soviet control in 1997. The other guest was Turner, whose WTBS cable superstation has been countering “Amerika” with “pro-peace” programs.

It was an amazing half hour that had Turner being attacked by his own employee, co-host Robert Novak, as well as Stein.

As always, Novak huffed and puffed, co-host Tom Braden blubbered and the debate was typically high brow.

Turner: I didn’t interrupt you, so don’t interrupt me.

Stein: I didn’t interrupt you. You interrupted me.

Turner: You interrupted me first.

Let me interrupt both of them to praise ABC’s “Our World.”

With so much media focus on the generally downward Nielsens of “Amerika,” it’s easy to get caught up in TV’s own major criteria for success. Ratings, ratings and ratings.

TV’s least-watched prime-time show, though, is also one of the worthiest. And worldliest.

Week after week, ABC’s “Our World” ranks last in the Nielsen ratings, while the NBC shows it airs against from 8 to 9 Thursday nights--”The Cosby Show” and “Family Ties”--rank 1 and 2.

Last week was typical. The NBC duo led the pack with almost six times the viewers of “Our World,” which was gasping and wheezing in 72nd place with an audience of about 6 million homes (“Shell Game,” the CBS competition in that time period, was no smash either, ranking No. 71.)

Six million homes? Bill Cosby probably owns that many himself.

According to some reports, low production costs make “Our World” a profit maker for ABC despite its disastrous first-season ratings.

It’s still the best-kept secret in prime time, though, an often smart, literate and charming hour that is unlike anything else on TV. After being confronted daily by the threat of AIDS and nuclear destruction, it’s a relief to occasionally drift back to a time when world crises had softer edges. Softer, at least, through 1987 eyes.

More than anything, “Our World” is a rare, blissful TV union of words and pictures. Much of the script is written by co-hosts Ray Gandolf (he’s the one with the white beard) and Linda Ellerbee (she’s the one with the wisecracks), TV’s reigning heckler, a peerless smart aleck and word mama deluxe. She’s just terrific.

Produced by Anthony Potter, “Our World” departed a bit from its usual format Thursday by dwelling mostly on an event in history instead of a segment of time. That event was the making of “Gone With the Wind,” David O. Selznick’s 1939 classic movie version of Margaret Mitchell’s romantic Civil War novel. What a whopping tale.

Ellerbee boiled Mitchell’s obese book down to TV size:

“ ‘Gone With the Wind’ is the story of a woman who survives her upbringing, her way of life, two of her husbands and all of her illusions. Other things happen, too.”

What a rosy, cheery, fun-infested, nostalgic, wistful, irresistible hour, one filling the screen with clashing tones and images. As Selznick prepared to make his epic about the Civil War--and tried and tried to find a Scarlett O’Hara to play opposite Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler--real war loomed ominously over Europe.

Olivia De Havilland recalled Thursday the “distressed and melancholy” mood of her fellow cast member, Leslie Howard:

“I think it may have had something to do with the fact that he was playing Ashley. Ashley knew that the war between the North and the South would break out and feared that the South would lose. Leslie Howard, an Englishman, feared that war would break out between England and Germany and England might lose. And indeed, we were still doing retakes when the war did break out.”

The hour had nooks and crannies, like Butterfly McQueen recalling hating her demeaning role as the air-headed slave, Prissy, and how she drew the line at eating watermelon and being slapped for the camera.

All of this may have been old news to students of film, and this film, in particular. For some of us, though, it was like digging through a musty attic and making wonderful discoveries.

There was old footage of star actresses auditioning for Scarlett by smooching with a lucky stand-in for Gable, and of Vivian Leigh, who won the role.

There was gossip. Selznick’s assistant recalled that Leigh hated kissing Gable because--was it possible?--he wore false teeth.

There was everything you’d want.

Burdened by its micro-ratings, “Our World” may be gone with the wind itself after this season. Too bad. Scarlett’s final plea to Rhett applies: “If you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?”

What would the four-legged set do without champions like Bob Barker, whose world is animal rights?

Oh, yes, in his spare time, Barker hosts “The Price Is Right” on CBS and and emcees such occasional specials as the Miss USA Pageant on CBS.

He almost didn’t emcee Tuesday night’s pageant telecast, threatening to walk out because the evening was to include contestants modeling furs. Animal rightists believe that it’s wrong to kill animals for their fur.

The pageant finally caved in and agreed to put the contestants in fake furs. Score a big one for Barker. Yes, he’s one of the privileged few with enough money to choose his ideals over a big payday. However, he’s also one of the privileged few with the spine to act on his convictions.

Thumbs up.

A possible “Amerika” spinoff: ABC captures and reprograms NBC and CBS as part of its evil global plan to render all TV viewers comatose.