SUCCESSFUL ACTRESS, SINGER : LISA HARTMAN CHASES--AND CATCHES--HER DREAM

Lisa Hartman has tried to avoid it, but she finds herself involved nonetheless.

It’s a chase. A chase between the 30-year-old actress/singer’s career insecurities and her desire to overcome them.

Her biggest concern? “That it (a scene, a song) is never good enough, or that I’m not good enough. But that happens to everybody.”

So begins the chase, the desire to re-shoot a scene or record a song yet again--to try constantly to improve what may already have been improved.

“It’s real important not to do that,” said Hartman, relaxing in jeans and cowboy boots the other afternoon. “You can chase something and never catch it, or have caught it and not realized it. You’ve got to stop chasing it.”

And Hartman has--at least long enough to put the finishing touches on a new album and to complete a four-hour miniseries, “Roses Are For the Rich,” airing Sunday and next Tuesday 19 from 9 to 11 p.m. on CBS. Hartman stars with Bruce Dern, Betty Buckley, Joe Penny and Morgan Stevens.

“This movie is action-packed,” she said, describing the “Roses” rags-to-riches story in which she plays a young girl driven by revenge. “I enjoyed the role (of Autumn) so much. She was someone I really wanted to play.”

Working with actors such as Dern also helped, she said.

“I learned a lot from all of the people involved,” Hartman continued. “I became more and more comfortable in front of the camera. And working with Bruce--well, it’s like playing tennis against someone better than you: The better they are, the better you are. I found myself listening and talking to him. Reacting instead of acting.

“I’ve gone from here to here,” she said, gesturing with her hands the extent of the role, one that allows Hartman to explore 10 years of one character’s life. She goes from a poor teen-ager experiencing first love to a professional woman on trial for murder.

Filming began on location in a small coal-mining town in Alabama. Hartman found it a “humbling” experience to work with real coal miners, many of whom had been unemployed for more than a year.

“They were so helpful,” she said. “They had a great attitude, a real pride about their work.”

Meawhile, Hartman’s fourth album (her first for Atlantic), a pop, R&B-flavored; collection, should be released this summer, after which she hopes to tour.

“I’m really back into the music,” Hartman said. “I’m not attracted to another series idea right now. I’m reading scripts, and thinking about the album.”

Hartman’s two careers have always gone hand in hand.

It was as a singer, with a record deal in one hand and big dreams in the other, that the Houston native originally came to California in 1975.

“Yeah, I wanted to be the next Olivia (Newton-John),” said Hartman, laughing at the recollection. “I wanted to be huge. I wanted to cut the LP and get the Grammy. I never thought about other things.”

Other things involved waiting for the release of the album (in 1976) and developing more material for a follow-up.

“I didn’t just want to play tennis while I waited,” she said. So, with a desire to act--she had studied and performed in children’s theater back home--Hartman became a witch in the short-lived series “Tabitha,” a “Bewitched” spin-off.

“It was a real shock to get that,” Hartman said. “I came out to make records and tour. I never really thought about a series. But the album came out and didn’t really happen, and the series did pretty well. Other offers started coming in.”

Premiering in the middle of the 1977-78 television season, “Tabitha” ran for 13 episodes. Hartman said that were it not for continual bumping by “guys like Rudolph and Frosty,” the show might have had a better chance.

“After all, it was a hit in its time-slot during summer reruns,” she said.

But, she quickly added, the show’s abbreviated run was perhaps a sign that it was not meant to be.

“I’d still be wiggling my nose,” she mused. “I believe things happen the way they do for a reason, whether it be in your professional or personal life.”

Every project, then, becomes another rung on the ladder Hartman continues to ascend. Whether it be a TV show, (“Knots Landing,” in which Hartman played two different characters over a three-year span), a feature film (“Where The Boys Are ‘84”), an album or a miniseries such as “Roses Are For The Rich,” the attractive and perceptive Hartman always hopes for one thing: that people like what she does.

“Everything I do I hope is better than my last,” she said. “It’s the way I look at it all. That’s why I’m hard on myself.”

Despite being her own worst critic, Hartman said she sees herself growing and expanding because of it. She also feels “blessed” because of the support she has received from her family, which she fondly discusses with as much excitement as she would her next role.

“I get together with my mom and sister and niece and we just sit and dish (talk) and laugh so hard,” said Hartman, who still has a hint of a Texas drawl. “We have a great time.”

Hartman’s father is still in Houston, where he is a singer.

“I had a wonderful, normal childhood,” she continued. “I played ball, but I also played the Supremes and acted like I was Diana Ross.”

Singing and acting, then and now.

“When acting, you get to play someone else; your choices are endless,” she said. “With music, I get to deal with more of myself and project what’s really me.”

And so the chase continues . . . whether it’s to improve a scene or a song--something she said she’ll be wanting to do until she’s 90 years old--or to find the right role or the inspiration for the next album.

In contemplating the future, Hartman said she isn’t sure where she sees the chase leading her.

“I just hope I’m a lot smarter, a lot wiser and maybe a bit taller,” she said, smiling. “I just want to continue learning and surrounding myself with as many things as I can that will inspire me.”