TODAY’S NEWS, TOMORROW’S TELEVISION : Look who’s hired: Julia Duffy on ABC’s ‘Baby Talk,’ and Bauer on CBS’ ‘Wiseguy’

SERIES

Julia Duffy of “Newhart” fame has been signed to star in ABC’s new, half-hour comedy series “Baby Talk.” Plans for the sitcom, based on the hit film “Look Who’s Talking,” were delayed last month when star Connie Selleca left the show. Telecast plans for “Baby Talk” will be announced at a later date.

Steven Bauer has joined the cast of the CBS drama “Wiseguy,” now in production for the network as a midseason replacement series. Bauer will play a disbarred federal prosecutor working for the feds who infiltrates the operation of a Cuban-American drug kingpin.

“Frontline” begins its ninth season Oct. 2 on PBS with a special report by Bill Moyers on what the news program calls America’s newest industry: the international export of toxic waste. The episode, “Global Dumping Ground,” reveals how toxic exports have become big business, spurred by closing dump sites and soaring U.S. disposal costs.

In response to requests from national public television audiences, executive producer Bill Einreinhofer has assembled 30 encores of his informational series “Innovation.” The programs, which will begin airing nationally Oct. 14 on PBS, cover cutting-edge science and technology.

Comedian Jackie Mason, who failed last year on ABC with his ethnic sitcom “Chicken Soup,” will get another try on HA! in mid-December. Mason is now planning a half-hour television talk show that will be broadcast weeknights from the Ed Sullivan Theatre on Broadway.

MOVIES

When Lee Horsley experiences a nasty mountain-climbing fall in the CBS thriller “The Face of Fear,” he suffers an unsettling side effect--psychic powers. Detective Bob Balaban and homicide psychologist Pam Dawber put Horsley to work tracking down a serial killer, until the killer starts stalking Horsley. The movie, based on Dean Koontz’ novel, airs Sept. 30.

When Rue McClanahan marries younger man Patrick Duffy, she hopes that the “Children of the Bride” don’t scare her dashing suitor away. The CBS movie, airing Oct. 5, co-stars Kristy McNichol as a doubting nun, Jack Coleman as a noncommittal businessman, Conor O’Farrell as the black sheep of the family and Anne Bobby as a two-time divorcee.

Rock star Roger Daltry has landed a cameo role as the head of research for Amnesty International in “Forgotten Prisoners: The Amnesty Files,” a TNT movie scheduled to premiere Nov. 19. In the film, Daltry assigns star Ron Silver to find the whereabouts and condition of 17 political detainees. Daltry was lead singer for The Who.

SPECIALS

Country superstars Reba McEntire and Randy Travis are set to host “The 24th Annual Country Music Association Awards,” a CBS special that airs Oct. 8 from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. Presenters and performers for the special have not been announced.

The TBS special report “A Place of Skulls” covers the escalation of elephant hunting in Zimbabwe, where a guerrilla group known as Renamo has moved in with high-powered weapons, killing elephants and villagers alike in the hunt for ivory. The one-hour special, narrated by James Coburn, debuts Sept. 25.

TV FESTIVALS

American Movie Classics will pay tribute to Carole Lombard in a special weeklong film festival beginning Oct. 15. Among the films to be shown, all beginning at 9 p.m., are “In Name Only” with Cary Grant, the Alfred Hitchcock film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and the screwball comedy “Nothing Sacred.”