Soon at Your Public Library: The Best of PBS

Alistair Cooke, David Attenborough, Bill Moyers, Derek Jacobi, Sir Kenneth Clark, Dr. Jacob Bronowski, Robert MacNeil. Seven big TV stars.

OK, those names may not be as well known to the general television audience as, say, Michael J. Fox or Dan Rather, but to viewers who prefer PBS over other network fare, these are super -celebrities in their own right.

Now they’re also video stars . . . in a way. And you can have them all-- if you’re a public library . . . and if you have $6,000.

Thanks to the new John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation-supported Library Video Classics Project, that $6,000 will get a library every episode of 20 of PBS’ all-time best series, about 200 hours worth, on videocassette--including Cooke’s “Masterpiece Theater,” Attenborough’s “Life on Earth” and “The Living Planet,” Moyers’ “A Walk Through the 20th Century,” the Jacobi-starring “I, Claudius,” Clark’s “Civilisation,” Bronowski’s “The Ascent of Man” and MacNeil’s “The Story of English.”

Now a library card may get you a program from one of the above--or from “Great Performances,” “The Shakespeare Plays” or “Nova.” Some of the series are already partially or wholly available from home-video companies, including “Nova,” “The Jewel in the Crown” and “Life on Earth.” However, much of the material hasn’t been licensed to show up at your video store.

The two biggest problems with home video?

“How to deal with wide screen movies shown on your not-as-wide television set” is one. And “subtitles which are either too small or too faint to be read” is the other.

Who says so? Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert--two movie critics who have displayed little reluctance to spout off (and argue nastily, of course) on their syndicated, weekly “Siskel & Ebert” movie-review show.

Siskbert will offer these and other opinions about video--particularly films-on-tape--on this week’s edition of the program (airing Sunday at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 7).

“It’s as if the ends of a painting were chopped off because they didn’t fit on your wall,” Siskel will whine about video/TV’s inability to capture the full wide-screen image.

“After a while, it makes you dizzy and you miss the good stuff,” Ebert will claim about pan-and-scan, the method most commonly used to deal with the screen-size dilemma.

The critics will also complain about video stores that only stock big hits. But they won’t just be grousing. The much-parodied pair will also suggest some alternatives to the problems.

You’ve seen commercials show up on the movies you rent at the video store (the latest: IVE is considering one for “Rambo III”). Now get ready for public service announcements. When Nelson Entertainment releases “The Princess Bride” on March 30, the tape will feature (after the movie) scenes from the most recent “Comic Relief” concert and a pitch for donations to the organization which helps the homeless. It’s possibly no coincidence that one of Comic Relief’s most devoted participants is Billy Crystal, who also shows up in “The Princess Bride.”

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will present a one-day seminar on “Home Video--Getting in on the Action” at the Directors Guild Theatre, featuring top executives from RCA/Columbia, MGM/UA, Lorimar and Paramount home video companies, among others. Information: (818) 953-7575.