Willie Nelson and Jack Elam are sidekicks...

Willie Nelson and Jack Elam are sidekicks in a humorous Western that is being made for CBS. The plot of “Where the Hell’s That Gold?!!?” has them trying to get out of Mexico to dig up some gold they buried in Texas. Joining them in the cast are Delta Burke of “Designing Women” and Gerald McRaney of “Simon & Simon.”

The Nickelodeon cable channel has sold another kids’ show into commercial syndication. Like “Double Dare” before it, the game show “Finders Keepers” will be seen both on cable and on broadcast stations, beginning Sept. 12. The Los Angeles outlet will be KTTV Channel 11.

Briefly noted: Len Cariou, who starred with Angela Lansbury in the Broadway production of “Sweeney Todd,” appears with her again in a July 24 repeat of “Murder, She Wrote” on CBS. . . . NBC has set Aug. 7 as the date for an encore telecast of “Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife,” a 1987 TV movie starring Melissa Gilbert, Joe Penny, Eileen Brennan, Tony Franciosa and Talia Shire. . . . The Academy Awards show will continue to be broadcast on ABC through 1995 under terms of an exclusive contract between the network and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Esther Rolle and Danny Glover have been cast in the leading roles of a new production of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.” The KCET production is due to be broadcast on PBS’ “American Playhouse” series in 1989, 30 years after the play debuted on Broadway.