TV REVIEW : Feel-Good Night With Rogers’ ‘Christmas,’ ‘Julie and Carol’

Two feel-good specials arrive tonight. The first, with Kenny Rogers, is synthetic, but the other one actually lets you feel good without feeling guilty.

The second and more successful of the shows is “Julie and Carol: Together Again” (10 p.m., Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42). Taped in June at the Pantages Theatre, it has no particular connection to the holidays. Yet any day is a holiday when Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett get together.

An undemanding, anxiety-free holiday, that is. “Julie and Carol” doesn’t offer biting comedy or sensational music, but it’s greater than its parts. The stars are so likable that their glow warms up the coldest TV tube.

This is the duo’s third televised outing, following shows at Carnegie Hall (1962) and Lincoln Center (1971).

They do a middle-aged rap routine, “Mama’s All Right,” which shows off their dexterity--and their legs. Then they sit down for tea in Bob Mackie’s frilliest dresses--a scene that soon degenerates into raucous slapstick, allowing them to poke fun at the image of their undying friendship that’s so evident in the rest of the show.

Next up is a once-over-lightly medley of tunes from the last two decades, followed by a parody of “Phantom of the Opera,” country & Western style. Burnett is as funny as ever in the dual roles of a country diva with a towering hairdo and the mysterious Phantom.

The show’s opening and closing use Stephen Sondheim’s rousing “Old Friends,” from “Merrily We Roll Along,” without giving credit. Minus the medley tunes, the rest of the music was written by producers Ken and Mitzie Welch. Jeff Margolis directed, with musical numbers fluidly staged by Kevin Carlisle.

Preceding “Julie and Carol” is “Christmas in America: A Love Story” (9 p.m., Channels 4, 36 and 39), which is like a glossy, hourlong camera commercial (though in fact the sponsor is K mart). A photographer (Kenny Rogers), on the eve of a museum showing of his work that happens to coincide with the Christmas holidays, recalls his past pivotal Christmases.

The first flashback takes him to boyhood, when his father finally started to act like a father--with the gift of a camera. Next, he recalls how he courted his future wife by taking pictures of her.

Then we see how she died while he was away shooting pictures (OK, maybe this chapter wouldn’t fit so well into a camera commercial). Finally, he reconciles with his own son (Kenny Rogers Jr.), after the young man--himself a new father--finally goes to see the photo exhibit, which includes family pictures.

To his credit, Rogers Jr. performs his underwritten role well, and the show has a professional sheen. Eric Till directed from a script by Earl Hamner Jr. (“The Waltons”) and Donald Sipes.

Yet the Christmas connection is extremely tenuous. The production isn’t much more than a chance for Rogers to show off his son and his photos.

At least he doesn’t try to play himself in his first two flashbacks. Nor does he sing, except in a Dolly Parton-written title tune over the closing credits.