‘Cable’s Best’ Festival Has Eye Toward Emmys : With an Eye Toward the Emmys, Cable Fest Will Air Year’s Finest

Subscribers to eight local cable-TV systems will have an opportunity to see some particularly fine programming from the past year as the Southern California Cable Assn. presents the second annual “Cable’s Best” festival over the next three weeks.

Although the showings will be available to anyone who receives one of the systems’ public-access channels, they are targeted to a specific audience: members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, who are submitting nominations for nighttime Emmy Awards this month.

Among the programs to be screened are the HBO movies “The Image” and “Tailspin: Behind the Korean Airline Tragedy,” Showtime’s “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” and “Super Dave,” and the Disney Channel’s three-part miniseries “Great Expectations.”

Also scheduled are several documentaries from the Discovery Channel, segments of CNN’s live coverage of last summer’s tumultuous events in Beijing, the Family Channel’s “Rin Tin Tin K-9 Cop” and “Zorro,” and Lifetime’s “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.” Other programs will come from CNBC, the Learning Channel, ESPN, TNT, TBS and USA.

This is the third year that cable programs are eligible for Emmys, and since many of the academy members live in Southern California and might have missed these programs when they originally aired, the Southern California Cable Assn. put this festival together to give voters another opportunity. Last year, cable programs received 16 nominations, only one more than they garnered the previous year without any such special screenings.

The cable companies participating in the festival are Continental Cablevision, Century Cable, Copley/Coloney, Jones Intercable, Cencom Cable, CalaVision Cable, Comcast Cablevision and United Artists.

The festival runs Thursdays through Sundays from 7-10 p.m. for the next three weeks, beginning today. Since each company will offer the festival on its own public-access channel, subscribers should call their cable operator for details on where and when to find these programs. The night-by-night schedule follows.

Today: “Last Train Home” (Family Channel); “Black Tide” (Discovery).

Friday: “Avonlea: Quarantine at Alexander Abrahams” (Disney); “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd” (Lifetime); “Steals and Deals” (CNBC); “Ivory Wars” (Discovery).

Saturday: “Rin Tin Tin K-9 Cop” (Family Channel); “Zorro: The Pride of Pueblo” (Family Channel); “Avonlea: The Journey Begins” (Disney); “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” (Showtime); “Super Dave” (Showtime).

Sunday: “Timeless Voices: The Gyuto Monks” (Discovery); “Lantern Hill” (Disney).

June 28: TBA (Learning Channel); “ESPN Specials” (ESPN); “The Image” (HBO).

June 29: “Mother Goose Rock n’ Rhyme” (Disney); “Tailspin: Behind the Korean Airline Tragedy” (HBO).

June 30: “Mickey Mouse Club Reunion” (Disney); “Live Beijing Coverage” (CNN); “Steven Banks Home Entertainment Center” (Showtime).

July 5: “The Treasures of Neptune” (Discovery); “The Return of the Child” (Discovery); “The Healing Sea” (Discovery).

July 6: “Great Expectations”--Part One (Disney); “Outrage at Valdez” (TBS).

July 7: “Great Expectations”--Part Two (Disney); “Bordertown” (Family Channel).

July 8: “Great Expectations”--Part Three (Disney).