Sugary Musical ‘Polly’ to Be Aired Just Before ‘Night Stalker’ Drama

NBC follows a happy-talk musical about a glad little girl with a dark drama about the hunt for Night Stalker Richard Ramirez next Sunday in one of the oddest couplings of TV programming.

“Polly,” a sugary musical version of the Walt Disney movie with an almost all-black cast, airs Sunday, 7-9 p.m., to be followed by “Manhunt: The Search for the Night Stalker,” from 9 to 11 p.m., which details the case of the worst serial murderer in California history.

The programming rationale behind this bizarre duet goes like this. CBS has won the ratings race every Sunday night of the new television season, with the high-rated “Murder, She Wrote” providing the CBS Sunday movie with a great lead-in and a built-in advantage.

Now if NBC could pull in the viewers at 7 p.m. for a two-hour movie, that would cut down on Angela Lansbury’s audience and provide a valuable lead-in for NBC’s Sunday movie.

The problem is that the 7-8 p.m. time period is set aside for either children’s or public affairs programs. In the public affairs arena, CBS has the champ, “60 Minutes.” That means NBC and ABC go the kidvid or family route.

NBC’s solution is to air “Polly,” family entertainment with a vengeance. Then along comes “Manhunt,” which sets a new record for incompatibility.

“Polly” is pleasant light fare that never touches down with reality. Keshia Knight Pulliam (Rudy Huxtable on “The Cosby Show”) arrives by bus in Harrington, Ala., in 1955, an orphan going to live with her aunt, played by Phylicia Rashad, who normally plays her mother on “Cosby.”

The music is pleasant, the choreography shows the deft hand of director/choreographer Debbie Allen, and the whole show is so slight it could blow away.

“Manhunt: Search For the Night Stalker,” deals with Richard Ramirez, who terrorized Californians in 1985 and last September was found guilty of 43 felony counts, including 13 murders, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries.

Richard Jordan and A. Martinez play the detectives who head the investigation into these crimes that spread terror even into the detectives’ own families.