LIVE TV: THE PURE STUFF IS A PERFECT DOSE OF HISTORY

Suddenly you’re an eavesdropper, a peeping Tom, a snooper through a 21-inch window.

Live TV is exciting and wonderful when it’s legitimate and not used merely as a come-on to snare viewers or as a gimmick to build a false sense of excitement. When CNN gave America live coverage of Friday’s “Twilight Zone” verdict, that was no trick. Nor is live coverage of the Iran- contra hearings on PBS and CNN a ruse to inflate an audience. Ditto ESPN’s live coverage of the French Open from Paris.

Watching such events, you have the feeling you are watching history unfold, with TV giving you a front-row seat.

CNN’s telecast of the “Twilight Zone” verdict was evidence anew that a TV camera inside a courtroom is not intrusive, but merely another set of eyes bringing sight to the sightless. The few minutes that CNN spent inside the courtroom were intense, suspenseful and pure, with nothing coming between the viewer and the clerk announcing those 15 not-guilty verdicts. It was such a perfect scene that when she’d finished, you half expected to hear a director yell, “Cut!”

As the identical verdicts were read, finally dropping a curtain on this volatile, high-profile, 10-month trial, the camera at times studied Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino from the rear. She seemed almost stiff, except that if you looked closely, you could see her head move from side to side, ever so slowly, as if she were repeating to herself, “I can’t believe it.”

The camera also lingered on observers in the courtroom, moving in tight on the linked hands of families and friends of the five defendants acquitted of involuntary manslaughter concerning the 1982 chopper crash that killed actor Vic Morrow and two children during filming of “Twilight Zone: The Movie.”

CNN ended on a note of incompleteness by aborting its live coverage before Judge Roger W. Boren discharged the defendants, and John Landis and some of his family and supporters broke into applause.

In any event, the atmosphere differed markedly from CNN’s earlier live coverage of a verdict being read at the April 22 conclusion of the Billionaire Boys Club trial. On that occasion, the camera caught Joe Hunt--who was convicted of first-degree robbery and murder--in a rare display of emotion--flinching at the verdict of guilty .

You could show that on tape, but it would be different, the edge gone, the spontaneity softened, the moment lost. Live TV--when used to record events in their purest form rather than to color or distort them--brings the unexpected and unpredictable.

That has already happened in the Iran- contra hearings, where headlines are made while you watch on PBS or CNN. The historic surroundings . . . the tensions . . . the sharp verbal duels between some of those testifying and Senate committee chief counsel Arthur Liman . . . the occasional unguarded moment or emotional outburst . . . the revelations, both large and small. What an eclectic, electrifying mix.

It’s far too soon to know if these televised proceedings will even approach the importance of the Watergate hearings, but listen closely and you can almost hear a faint drum roll building in the distance. How strange, and perhaps sad, that America’s troubles should make such intoxicating TV, live and alive, a spectacle at once rehearsed and uncharted. Why some can resist it is a mystery.

In a more specialized way, ESPN’s live coverage of the French Open--the second tennis grand-slam event of 1987 is played on the dusty red-clay courts of Roland Garros Stadium--has been almost as rewarding. The appeal is in knowing that you and a French audience are watching the same action simultaneously.

You have to be an early rising, dedicated, almost maniacal fan to take in most of these matches, if only because of the awkward times: 6 to 11 a.m. They ran from May 25-30 and continue this week through Friday’s semifinals. That adds up to 55 hours.

The inconvenience is worth it, though, for live tennis coverage is one of the things that ESPN does best, and telecasting for such a relatively narrow audience fulfills the true potential of cable.

The ESPN pictures from French TV are generally good, but no better than the ones that the French supplied for last Sunday’s taped coverage on NBC.

Why is ESPN’s French Open coverage so superior?

It’s not because of host/play-by-play man Roger Twibell, who is very average. Nor is commentator Virginia Wade the reason. The former British star is adequate, but still sounds hesitant and uneasy behind the mike and is no match for her ESPN predecessor, Mary Carillo.

But then there is ESPN’s Cliff Drysdale, the one-time South African player who combines knowledge and easy chat as TV’s best tennis announcer. Tony Trabert is very good on CBS, but Drysdale has no peer when it comes to conveying insights about players, shot making and strategy. He is forthright but not shrill or overbearing. And he doesn’t hog.

Drysdale is especially effective in tandem with Fred Stolle, the droll former Australian champion, with whom he sometimes gently bickers. They’ve been a splendid team throughout their association on ESPN.

With Drysdale and Stolle, especially, ESPN has gathered the right people for a style of telecast that falls midway between the dry tennis coverage of the BBC and the talky flamboyance of NBC.

The environment makes a big difference. Drysdale is not nearly as proficient, for example, in his other job as second banana to the relentlessly drab and monotonous Arthur Ashe on ABC’s tennis coverage.

Meanwhile, NBC returns with more French Open action at 9 a.m. Saturday with Dick Enberg, Bud Collins and Anne Russell teaming on a delayed telecast of the women’s singles final (Channels 4, 36 and 39), followed by live coverage of the men’s final at 6 a.m. Sunday. Live --the magic word.