FIRST OFF . . .

The CBS television affiliate in Salt Lake City has decided not to run the network’s new series, “Dirty Dancing,” because it promotes “sex and immoral values,” according to the station’s general manager. Based on the popular movie of the same name, the series debuted across the nation last Saturday night. But KSL-TV Channel 5 in Salt Lake ran “Axing Taxes,” a special concerning Utah tax measures in next week’s election, in “Dirty Dancing’s” time slot. “It (the show) is an affront to me, personally,” KSL-TV general manager Bill Murdoch said this week. “The show excites the viewer into a thought process that I don’t think is good.” Murdoch, whose station and radio counterpart, KSL-AM, are owned by Bonneville International Corp.--owned in turn by the Mormon Church--said the show “is people having sex with their clothes on.” Mitchell Cannold, executive producer of the movie and co-executive producer of the TV series for Vestron, said the show and film “can be appreciated by men and women from 8 to 80 years old.” Cannold added that the film faced similar problems but wound up being a huge hit statewide in Utah. KSL has opted to carry specials, a weekend edition of the “USA Today” series and BYU football games in “Dirty Dancing’s” regular time period.