Jackie Robinson vs. Another Racial Barrier

TV or not TV. . . .

HISTORY: It’s called “The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson,” and it’s planned for Ted Turner’s TNT cable channel.

A drama about the star who broke major league baseball’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, it deals with an earlier military incident.

The story, scheduled to begin production in July, is based on what happened when Robinson, an Army lieutenant, refused to move to the back of a bus while stationed at Ft. Hood, Tex.

In his 1972 autobiography, “I Never Had It Made,” Robinson said that the Army had already barred this type of segregation, although it was hardly a racially enlightened era. He said the incident was an “attempt to frame me,” but “I was acquitted on all charges” by a 1944 tribunal.

Producer Julia Weitz says the two-hour film, planned for airing later this year, “is not a courtroom drama” and will flash back to other happenings that shaped the late, historic athlete.

Robinson said in his book that he was aware that black boxers “Joe Louis and Ray Robinson had refused to move to the backs of buses in the South.

“The resulting publicity had caused the Army to put out regulations barring racial discrimination on any vehicle operating on an Army post. Knowing about these regulations, I had no intention of being intimidated.”

Robinson had praise for a young Army attorney “who did a great job on my behalf. . . . And luckily there were also some members of that court-martial board who had the honesty to realize what was going on.”

In addition, Robinson said, black officers wrote to the black press, including the Pittsburgh Courier, which “gave the matter important publicity.”

In 1947, Robinson joined the Dodgers--and became the immortal No. 42.

STATION BREAK: How far has Fox TV come? This far: In May of 1988, “Married . . . With Children” ranked 80th in the Los Angeles ratings. In May of 1989, it was 21st. And for the recent week of June 4-10, “The Simpsons,” “Married . . . With Children” and “In Living Color” were the top three shows in L.A., airing on Fox-owned KTTV Channel 11.

AS TIME GOES BY: Why does Fox think “The Simpsons” can match up with “The Cosby Show” in head-on competition this fall? Here’s a clue: In the 1986-87 season, “Cosby” averaged a mind-boggling 53% of the audience each week. In the latest weekly rankings, it averaged 29%. It was a rerun--but even “Cosby” reruns used to get monster-size ratings.

ANCHORED: ABC’s Peter Jennings and his “World News Tonight” are making it simply a runaway against the competition. For the week of June 4-10, ABC averaged a 9.5 rating compared to 7.7 for the “CBS Evening News” and 7.4 for “NBC Nightly News.” That means ABC had a margin of 1.6 million TV homes over CBS, where Dan Rather is trying to get back into the ballgame, and 1.9 million homes more than NBC, where Tom Brokaw is having no better luck.

PLUGGED: When last we saw him, FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) was getting shot point-blank in the season finale of “Twin Peaks.” It was a terrible sight, as chilling as a Todd Donoho sports report. But there’s MacLachlan, scheduled for an outing Wednesday night with David Letterman. The world turns.

LIMELIGHT: Jay Leno, meanwhile, has a planned “Tonight Show” broadcast on Thursday with Deborah Norville, who’s taken a lot of heat since replacing Jane Pauley on “Today.”

MIXED MEDIA: So there’s Norman Lear’s good old satire “Fernwood 2-Night” being rerun on cable, and who do you think one of the producers was? Alan Thicke, now of “Growing Pains,” that’s who. Thicke also plays hockey and, for all we know, “King Lear.”

BOX SCORE: We’ve noted TV’s lack of black family dramas. What about other minorities, ask readers? OK: A few sitcoms such as “Popi,” “a.k.a. Pablo,” “Trial and Error” and “Viva Valdez” dealt with Latinos--and quickly vanished. Same with Anthony Quinn’s drama “The Man and the City,” about a Southwest mayor. Drama series about Latino family life draw network yawns. As for family dramas about Asian Americans--there has never been one, says the Assn. of Asian Pacific American Artists. TV executives better start looking out the window.

MONEY MARKET: No matter what you think, the average salary of TV anchors across the country last year was only $34,400. That’s why they fight to get to a city like Los Angeles, where anchor wages ranging from $500,000 to $1 million a year are not uncommon. Nor is the incredible egomania that these fees create. Just ask co-workers.

TOP GUN: CNN’s Larry King has been tapped to anchor boss Ted Turner’s Goodwill Games, which run for 17 days on superstation TBS starting July 20.

BASIC TRAINING: He may be Dick Tracy today, but no real couch potato will ever forget Warren Beatty as Milton Armitrage in “The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis.” That was 30 years ago, and Milton and Dobie (Dwayne Hickman) were contenders for the favors of Tuesday Weld, who, of course, played Thalia Menninger, a material girl long before Madonna.

FIRING LINE: Bill Press, who lost the race for state insurance commissioner, thinks TV coverage was pretty sad--but that Century Cable “deserves kudos” as the only outlet to present all seven Democratic candidates. Right. And every major station in town should blush at the fact that Century’s public access shows with host Bill Rosendahl are the best in-depth political reporting on Los Angeles TV.

CASTING: Sinatra should do a “Columbo.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .