TODAY’S NEWS, TOMORROW’S TELEVISION : On TNT, Leonard Nimoy plays a Holocaust survivor; KCOP will air the Doo-Dah; CBS sets a Lucy Schedule

MOVIES

Glenn Close and Christopher Walken begin production in Kansas this month on “Sarah,” a 40th-season presentation of “Hallmark Hall of Fame” on CBS. The story, based on the Patricia MacLachlan novel, “Sarah, Plain & Tall,” stars Close as a woman in the early 1900s who answers an ad to become a prairie bride.

Robert Culp, Robert Vaughn and Ken Kercheval have joined Raymond Burr in Denver to shoot “Perry Mason: The Case of the Deadly Deal.” In the latest NBC Mason movie, a 13-year-old girl persuades Mason to defend her father, who is accused of murdering an unscrupulous high-stakes gambler and political campaign manager.

Walt Disney Television has started production on “Polly-One More Time!,” a two-hour musical sequel to “Polly,” last season’s NBC movie recreation of the 1960 film “Pollyanna.” Returning are director and choreographer Debbie Allen and cast members Keshia Knight Pulliam, Phylicia Rashad, Dorian Harewood and Celeste Holm.

Stefanie Powers, Crystal Bernard and Katherine Helmond star as three women who meet in a divorce lawyer’s office and become friends, supporting each other through the pain and joy of separating and starting over, in “When Will I Be Loved?” The NBC movie is scheduled for the 1990-91 TV season.

Michael Gambon stars as a sinister stranger in WWII London who doggedly shadows Patricia Hodge after her relative’s funeral in “The Heat of the Day,” a PBS “Masterpiece Theatre” presentation Sept. 30.

Leonard Nimoy will executive produce and star in “The Promise,” a TNT filmmbased on the life of concentration-camp survivor Mel Mermelstein and his challenge by a Neo-Nazi group to prove the authenticity of the Holocaust. The movie begins production in Los Angeles in September for a January debut.

Patrick Cassidy plays a presidential press aide who is informed by a Nazi hunter that Hitler’s daughter is alive and will soon occupy the White House unless somebody stops her in the USA movie “Hitler’s Daughter.” The film, scheduled for fall, co-stars Kay Lenz, Veronica Cartwright and Melody Anderson.

TBS will hold an “Elvis Explosion” the week of Aug. 6 with 12 of the King’s most popular movies. They include: “Live a Little, Love a Little,” “Speedway,” “It Happened at the World’s Fair,” “Blue Hawaii,” “Girls! Girls! Girls!,” “Spinout,” “Kissin’ Cousins,” “Harum Scarum” and “Kid Galahad.”

SPECIALS

KCOP will premiere the first live telecast of “The 15th Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade” on Nov. 25, at 11:30 a.m. The first Doo Dah parade was a last-minute affair that began Jan. 1, 1978, when the Rose Bowl was switched to Jan. 2.

CBS is producing a TV biography about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The film will cover the comedy couple from the time they met in 1940 at MGM to the premiere of “I Love Lucy” in 1951. Shooting is expected to start later this summer.

The Bravo channel will examine the usefulness of Rauthenticity” as a method of musical performance, using the symphonies of Joseph Haydn in “Hogwood on Haydn.” The Aug. 23 program features conductor Christopher Hogwood recreating Haydn’s work with the period instruments of his time.

CASTING CALL

Kathleen Noone, who played Ellen on ABC’s “All My Children,” has joined the cast of “Knots Landing” on CBS. Noone will be a regular addition to the show in the role of Claudia, William Devane’s sister.

Ellen Burstyn has been cast to star with Fred Savage in the previously announced ABC movie “The Legacy of Michael Patrick Smith.” Burstyn will portray the head nurse who is unsympathetic to the changes the disabled Savage tries to make in the nursing home where he lives.

EDUCATION

CBS has announced a weeklong broadcast project focusing on the state of American education. The campaign, to begin Sept. 2, will consist of a two-hour news special, a national education conference and a televised forum linking teachers and students from across the country.