Barbara Hershey plays a loving mother, regular...

Barbara Hershey plays a loving mother, regular churchgoer and upstanding member of a small Texas community who is accused of whacking her best friend 41 times with an ax in the CBS movie, “Killing in a Small Town.” Defense attorney Brian Dennehy and psychologist Hal Holbrook reach into Hershey’s dark past for the truth on which to build her defense. The movie air May 22.

Shelley Long makes her dramatic television debut in “Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase.” The dramatic ABC miniseries is based on the book, “When Rabbit Howls,” which was written by a woman with multiple personalities as part of her psychotherapy. Also starring in the four-hour drama, airing May 20-21, are Tom Conti, John Rubinstein, Alan Fudge, Jamie Rose, Christine Healy, Ernie Lively and Frank Converse.

Kathleen Turner, who is currently starring on Broadway in a new production of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” will host “The 44th Annual Tony Awards” at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York, to be seen on CBS. The glamorous American theater awards show, which has been broadcast on CBS since 1978, takes place June 3.

John Ritter will host ABC’s “The American Red Cross Emergency Test,” a one-hour informational program to enhance the average American’s ability to survive and save lives during accidents and natural disasters. Helping Ritter depict emergency situations on the June 7 special will be Richard Dean Anderson, Julia Child, Patrick Duffy, Harry Hamlin, Don Johnson, Michael Landon, Joan Lunden, Phylicia Rashad, Alan Thicke and Betty White.

James Garner portrays a retired judge who delves into the mystery behind an elderly black farmer’s refusal to accept the Congressional Medal of Honor in “Decoration Day.” The TV movie, scheduled to air next season, will be the first “Hallmark Hall of Fame” presentation on NBC since “Love is Never Silent” aired in 1985.

John Sayles, the writer and director of such celebrated films as “Matewan” and “Eight Men Out,” has won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Television Feature from the Mystery Writers of America for his work on NBC’s “Shannon’s Deal.” Each year the Mystery Writers honor the best of mystery fiction, nonfiction, television and film.

Oprah Winfrey is set to emcee the “17th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards” June 28 on ABC. The awards ceremony will be telecast from the Broadway Ballroom of the Mariott Marquis Hotel in New York City. Winfrey won a 1987 Daytime Emmy Award for “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

After turning a comic strip into an animated TV show (“The Simpsons”), Fox Broadcasting will try and do the same with a live comic. Comedian Howie Mandell’s fictional 4-year-old character Bobby, a staple of his stand-up routine, will be the star of “Bobby’s World” for the Fox Children’s Network. The series received a 13-episode commitment for a September premiere on Saturdays.

Issues, events and ideas that have shaped modern Latin America, South America and the Caribbean are the subject of “The Other Americas,” an ambitious 10-part series now being produced for PBS to air in 1992. The series, which will be used as a 13-unit telecourse for some colleges, is guided by a large academic advisory board of anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, historians and economists.

Meryl Streep narrates the latest World of Audubon special, “Arctic Refuge: A Vanishing Wilderness,” which airs May 27 on TBS. The hourlong special investigates the natural threat posed by an oil development plan to drill on the virgin coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Christopher Plummer, who has been doing a lot of cable TV projects lately, will star in a new action series on USA tentatively titled “Counter Strike.” Plummer plays a wealthy man who seeks out and eradicates injustices worldwide with the crack help of his anti-crime strike team: an ex-policeman (Simon MacCorkindale), a French con-woman (Cyrielle Claire) and a soldier of fortune (Stephen Shellen). The series premieres on USA July 1.

Tarzan becomes a loin-clothed environmentalist when a new action-adventure series shooting in Brazil begins production in August for an unannounced cable channel. Tarzan’s rain forest habitat will be threatened by lumber companies, animal poachers, strip miners and drug traffickers. American First Run Studios, which produced the recent CBS movie “Tarzan in Manhattan,” expects to deliver 25 half-hour episodes by mid-fall.