Networks Put Faith in Mini Miniseries During Ratings Sweeps

TV or not TV . . .

SWEEPS: Long miniseries like “War and Remembrance” and “Lonesome Dove” are out during this November ratings sweeps. NBC’s “Cross of Fire,” a Ku Klux Klan tale that ends tonight, is just four hours. Then Farrah Fawcett arrives Sunday in another four-hour entry, ABC’s “Small Sacrifices,” as a mother accused of shooting her three children. And the longest mini, Judith Krantz’s five-hour “Till We Meet Again”--following three women from before World War I through the mid-’50s--bows in on CBS Nov. 19. Can’t wait.

NO SATISFACTION: Unfortunately, “Small Sacrifices” and NBC’s “Manhunt: Search for the Night Stalker”--with Richard Jordan and A. Martinez as detectives who worked the case--go up against each other. Guide for the bedeviled: Watch “Night Stalker” Sunday and then catch the second night of “Small Sacrifices.” After all, it’s not like choosing between Rembrandt and Matisse.

WORD-OF-MOUTH: Despite the obvious interest in the Night Stalker tale, some NBC officials say the network’s finest single hour during the sweeps may come in a regular episode of “Midnight Caller” Nov. 14, when guest star Kay Lenz concludes a much-talked-about story of a woman with AIDS.

YOUNG GRINGO: Caught Gregory Peck (“Old Gringo”) with Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday” on the Disney Channel--and if they weren’t the handsomest couple alive . . . well, they just were.

NEWS BREAK: Jerry Dunphy finally debuts on KHJ tonight, on the 8 and 9 p.m. half-hour newscasts, as the one-time doormat station tries to show muscle during the sweeps under its new Disney management. But KHJ’s delay of its touted, three-hour nightly news from January to March may rob the anchor of his stardust by keeping him in the old, undistinguished format for four months instead of two.

RAW: They don’t make videos much more sensual than John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Let It All Hang Out,” and MTV proves it again and again. The rural setting and black-and-white filming have a kind of wild Erskine Caldwell-”Tobacco Road” flavor.

NEW AGE: Yes, those were real gang members on NBC’s “Amen” Saturday night as the sitcom used its prime-time forum to do a little preaching against neighborhood violence. “Amen” co-star Clifton Davis played a minister who refused to be threatened, and the gang members accepted his invitation to drop by and visit. Not Shakespeare, perhaps, but prime time has a mass impact that works in mysterious ways.

THE BATMAN COMETH: The release of the “Batman” movie video Nov. 15 may upstage network sweeps programming as the month’s biggest TV event. The video costs $24.98, and it’s expected to outsell “E.T.” On Friday, by the way, you can catch “Batman” on KTTV at 8 p.m. No, not the new movie but a feature-length version of the old TV series, starring--who else?--Adam West and Burt Ward.

OUT OF THE PAST: Once upon a time, lest we forget, Zsa Zsa Gabor guest-starred in the “Batman” series. She played a villain named Minerva, deceitful owner of a spa that catered to millionaires.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Candice Bergen (“Murphy Brown”) recalls in the December Playboy that her father, puppeteer Edgar Bergen, “made me suspicious of beauty. He said all the beautiful women he knew ended up committing suicide or being failures as human beings. He said I should always cultivate everything in spite of it.”

AGE BEFORE BEAUTY: Wonder if TV news directors, who generally think women anchors and reporters over 40 are ancient, noted the death of Dorothy Fuldheim in Cleveland at age 96. She was something. Broke into TV when she was 54--and the medium was in its infancy--and became a kind of legend as a newswoman. Wouldn’t it be terrific to see a Los Angeles woman anchor of, say, 65? What’s so funny--when you consider that Jerry Dunphy was recently hired at age 68 for about $1 million a year to head KHJ’s news team? But of course there’s no sexism or ageism in TV. Of course not.

BENCHED: No surprise that the U.S. Supreme Court refused again to allow TV cameras into its chambers. C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb, who’s been pressing the court for access, says the justices don’t like the idea of TV excerpting snippets of their proceedings for news broadcasts. Well, you can trust C-SPAN to present the oral arguments in full. But you do have to wonder how L.A.’s TV stations--none of whom even have a Sacramento bureau--would respect and handle this kind of news. It might come out like “People’s Court.”

COOL: Sally Jessy Raphael definitely goes her own way. While other talk-show hosts rush to Hollywood to pump up their sweeps ratings, low-key Emmy-winner Raphael sets up shop today at the Scottsdale Princess resort near Phoenix for a week of taping. The shows will be broadcast next week at 2 p.m. daily on KHJ.

BEING THERE: “Well, I certainly don’t believe God’s a woman, because if He were, men would be the ones walking around wearing high heels, taking Midol, and having their upper lips waxed.” Who said it? Julia Sugarbaker (Dixie Carter) in “Designing Women,” as we’re reminded by the delightful book “Primetime Proverbs.”

Say good night, Gracie . . .