TV & VIDEO - Oct. 12, 1988

James Bellows, the peripatetic newspaper editor and former “Entertainment Tonight” chief, is back in TV--as managing editor of the much-criticized, low-rated “USA Today: The Television Show,” starting next month. Bellows’ past includes stints as editor of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and associate editor of The Times. He’ll take over the day-to-day editorial operation of the syndicated “USA Today” show, whose executive producer, Steve Friedman, announced Bellows’ new job Tuesday. Bellows, managing editor of “Entertainment Tonight” from 1981 to 1983, later worked for ABC News, where among other things he produced the pilot for a newsmagazine show that never got a series commitment. Since 1986, he has been director of editorial development at Prodigy, a home computer telecommunications service.