More Drama Off the Screen in ‘Heat of Night’

TV or not TV. . . .

WITCHING HOUR: There’s more drama off screen than on in Tuesday’s regular 9-to-10 p.m. network series. First, Carroll O’Connor of NBC’s “In the Heat of the Night” had heart bypass surgery, but recovered quickly. Then his co-star, Howard Rollins, was hospitalized with chest pains last week, but was released after tests proved negative. Over at ABC, Jackie Mason’s “Chicken Soup” was canceled. But CBS remains nice and dull--its 9-to-10 p.m. entry, “Wolf,” with Jack Scalia, got a full-season pickup despite a low tune-in. Well, give CBS some credit on that. It says it believes in Scalia. Or maybe it has nothing on the shelf.

TWO FOR THE SEESAW: O’Connor says of his relationship with Rollins, “We’re very fond of each other. You may have had the experience of meeting someone where it’s just as if you’ve known the guy for years. You seem to understand what one another is talking about, and you laugh at the same things.”

‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE WARY: Yes, it’s the ratings sweeps, as if you didn’t know from reading the ads for TV shows. KABC-TV’s “Eye on L.A.,” in its never-ending search for undiscovered parts of the female anatomy, promises that Thursday’s show will offer “lounge acts with almost no material.” It’s about a sailboat cruise, and the come-on is a photo of a sexy woman reclining in a deck chair, making sure she gets a very complete tan.

THE BEAT GOES ON: Then there’s the ad for “Sexy TV” this evening on KNBC’s “Entertainment Tonight.” There’s a guy passionately kissing the neck of a young woman who seems to be enjoying it. Now that’s the kind of promotion you want from an information show. And, oh yes, over at KCBS, a TV spot plugged a report on “the drug of the ‘90s--Ice . . . Channel 2 wants you know about it now .” Of course now --it’s the sweeps.

‘ROUND MIDNIGHT: Rick Dees’ representatives say he has just signed with ABC to host a pilot for a show called “Into the Night.” The idea, says Dees’ announcement, is “to put this new entry in the running to fill the time slot after ‘Nightline.’ ” Right. Ted Koppel followed by Rick Dees. Very compatible.

WEEP NO MORE: Amazing how the CBS soaper “Knots Landing” keeps hanging in there with almost no lead-in help. You don’t have to be a fan of teary serials to note that “Knots Landing” for years has been the best-written, best-acted of CBS’ prime-time soap operas, superior to both “Falcon Crest” and “Dallas,” even when J.R. was getting all the print.

THE HIGH ROAD: In May, CBS broadcast an Ollie North miniseries almost simultaneously with a jury deciding his fate in real life. On Sunday, NBC’s “Night Stalker” drama aired shortly after the verdict and almost immediately after the sentence. Does that mean NBC will have another drama at the ready if there’s an execution?

TREAT: TV and baseball aficionados can have a swell time tonight over at UCLA. “The Archive Television Theater,” a monthlong feast that runs through Dec. 5, offers Paul Newman, John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart in TV baseball dramas. Newman stars in “Bang the Drum Slowly,” Wayne in “Rookie of the Year” and Stewart in “Flashing Spikes.” The screenings are at Dickson Auditorium, starting time is 7:30 p.m., but check first: (213) 206-FILM.

ONCE IN A LIFETIME: Caught Liberace’s old TV show the other night on cable’s Nostalgia Channel. He was singing and playing “The Yellow Rose of Texas” with a backup chorus and a map of Texas behind him. Look, I don’t make this stuff up. Anyway, I caught good old Lee another night, and he was singing “The Rock and Roll Waltz” as a middle-age couple danced in the background. Screamingly funny.

LORD KNOWS: There on TV was one of those evangelist shows, and a guy was telling how he found God, and would you believe a TV camera was there at the very moment it happened in his car? “The Lord say, ‘Hey, come to me today,’ ” the man explained. Never knew God had such command of slang. Live and learn.

REMEDY: Matt Frewer (“Max Headroom”) is pretty funny as an eccentric young physician in “Doctor, Doctor,” which CBS has added to its Monday night all-comedy lineup. Trouble is, except for “Murphy Brown,” “Designing Women” and “Newhart,” CBS keeps making cute, broad sitcoms that aren’t about anything--and “Doctor, Doctor” is no different. The lessons of NBC’s “Cheers” and ABC’s “The Wonder Years” don’t seem to have registered on CBS.

PROGRESS: Just a few years ago, blacks were all but invisible as hosts on mainstream, commercial national TV. Now there’s Oprah Winfrey--she really broke it wide open. And there’s Arsenio Hall. And next year Jesse Jackson gives it a shot with “Voices of America,” a proposed weekly talk show that would be co-produced by Quincy Jones and distributed by Warner Bros.

GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS: If ABC’s planned sitcom for Dr. Ruth--in which she’d play a psychology professor--makes it to the air, will she able to use the blunt language she brought to her TV talk show? Even in today’s free-swinging prime time, words like orgasm and ejaculation , common on her program, are not exactly staples of network TV dialogue.

FUTURE PERFECT: When I grow up, I want to look like Howard Keel of “Dallas.” A whole generation of kids is watching TV not knowing he was one of the great musical stars of movies. Every time I catch Keel and Kathryn Grayson on TV in “Show Boat,” hitting those high notes in “You Are Love,” it just knocks me out.

SUDDEN THOUGHT: You watch Cary Grant flit by on TV, impeccably dressed, elegant, debonair in “The Philadelphia Story” and “To Catch a Thief,” and you wonder: Did he clip his toenails like everyone else?

BEING THERE: “You don’t understand Country & Western music. It’s about the real things in life--murder, train wrecks, amputations, faucets leakin’ in the night--all stuff like that.”--Charlie Haggers in “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .