CBS Lets Sharon Gless’ New Series Fly Without a Pilot

TV or not TV. . . .

THE DEAL: Sharon Gless’ new CBS series goes straight into production--no pilot.

That’s the word from executive producer Barney Rosenzweig, who guided her old “Cagney & Lacey” show with Tyne Daly.

In the new drama, tentatively titled “Renewal,” Gless plays a divorcee re-entering the work force.

Of the no-pilot deal, Rosenzweig sums up the attitude of CBS Entertainment President Jeff Sagansky: “We know your work. We trust you. Go ahead.”

Rosenzweig says the commitment is for no less than eight episodes if the series debuts in February--or 13 if it makes the fall lineup.

“We’re back in business,” he says.

And CBS, which has been losing stars, wisely held on to Gless, one of its biggest--and a two-time Emmy winner.

The network also needs the kind of prestigious one-hour series it’s had over the years in “The Defenders,” “Lou Grant” and “Cagney & Lacey.”

RUSH HOUR: We sat in a CBS screening room Friday night watching arch-conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh sub for “The Pat Sajak Show.” Hecklers a-plenty, as expected. And fans, too. But the bottom line is that the hour looked like photographed radio, not TV. After a while, because of that, the repetition of Limbaugh’s well-known views simply got boring. Somebody even shouted, “We want Pat.”

FAREWELL: When I think of Rene Enriquez of “Hill Street Blues,” who died March 23 at age 58, I have vivid memories of the episode in which--at a banquet honoring his character, Lt. Ray Calletano--he unleashed his anger about the status of Latinos. In real life as well, Enriquez was a genuinely committed man.

COLLECTOR’S ITEM: Terrific episode of ABC’s “Columbo” last Saturday, with Helen Shaver as Peter Falk’s nemesis--a murderous, pathological real estate agent. A little gimmicky, maybe, using Lt. Columbo’s never-seen wife as a far-fetched ploy in the murder plot--but beautifully crafted and acted. Nifty dialogue about a $5-million house that’s a fixer.

DATEBOOK: You’ll finally get a look at the year’s most-talked-about pilot Sunday when ABC launches its Gothic soap opera, “Twin Peaks,” directed by David Lynch (“Blue Velvet,” “Elephant Man”). It’s set in a small town in the Pacific Northwest, and there’s major network interest in how viewers will respond to the quirky horror story.

REWRITE: How strange and misleading that ABC’s promos for “Capital News,” a newspaper series that debuts next Monday, are hyping it as a Lloyd Bridges vehicle. That’s really not the essence at all--at least in the pilot I saw. But he plays the editor, and ABC’s probably hoping for an Ed Asner/”Lou Grant” type of appeal.

HAPPY HOUR: If you get home early this evening, you can catch “The Bad and the Beautiful,” perhaps the best of all the films about Hollywood, on superstation TBS at 5:05 p.m. Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Dick Powell, the great Gilbert Roland and the dangerously enchanting Gloria Grahame. Oh boy.

MUSCLE: Good to know that many major sponsors reportedly are avoiding tabloid TV shows like “A Current Affair.” That’s what killed “The Morton Downey Jr. Show,” and let’s hope history repeats itself.

STAR: If there was anyone more beautifully dressed and coiffed--and with more presence--than Jodie Foster on ABC’s Oscar outing, I didn’t see her. Couple nights later, almost didn’t recognize her at first as the rape victim in “The Accused” while zapping by Cinemax. What an actress.

DUMB: Valerie Bertinelli is a highly identifiable star, so why isn’t her “Sydney” series leading off CBS’ Wednesday lineup to grab audiences instead of getting lost following the less familiar faces on “Normal Life”? Hey, guys, wake up.

TWO FOR THE ROAD: Really depressing watching CBS jam Whoopi Goldberg and Jean Stapleton into dreadful, cliche-ridden sitcom situations in Friday’s “Bagdad Cafe” debut. But there were a few quiet moments that made you think there could be magic with good writing. You watch a show like this, and you wonder how many assassins it got by.

WISTFUL VISTA: “Hello, Sis” . . . “Well, that’s a fine how do you do. . . .” It was, of course, Fibber McGee and Molly in “Heavenly Days” on the American Movie Classics channel. I never understood them.

ACTING 101: Katherine Helmond’s performance as Jessica Tate in those “Soap” reruns on KTLA Channel 5 is wondrous to behold. Sexy, funny, an underplaying scene-stealer of major proportions, she ranks right up there with Billie Burke and Zasu Pitts.

TWO-STEP: Arthur Murray, he of the dance studios and 1950s TV show, will be 95 years old Wednesday. He and his wife, Kathryn, who did most of the talking on the 10-year series--Murray barely uttered a peep--retired long ago to Hawaii. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard the old song “Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry.”

GUESS WHO’S COMING TO LUNCH: Gennady I. Gerasimov, chief press secretary for the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, addresses the Hollywood Radio and Television Society April 11. Among other things, he’s expected to discuss guarantees for U.S. entertainment executives who may want to invest in the Soviet Union.

BEING THERE: Hal Linden in “Barney Miller”: “I’m sure getting robbed at knifepoint and spending half the night up here wasn’t exactly what you had in mind when you decided to visit New York.” Woman: “Well, it was better than seeing ‘Annie.’ ”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .