TV REVIEW : Homage to Adlai Stevenson on PBS : Documentary: The Democratic standard bearer of the ‘50s is profiled as enormously influential and principled beyond reproach.

One of my more vivid childhood memories is the day that I--and fellow members of my second-grade car pool--was picked up soaking wet during a fierce rainstorm, then treated to a scorching assessment of one Adlai Stevenson by the parent/driver of the day. The language and delivery was hot enough to dry us off. I was stunned that anyone could be so passionate about a person not found on any of my baseball cards.

I can only hope that my friend John’s father doesn’t watch “Adlai Stevenson: The Man From Libertyville,” airing tonight at 8 on Channels 28 and 15 and at 9 on Channels 50 and 24. He’d have a heart attack.

“Libertyville” is a 1 1/2-hour homage, an adulatory paean to this man who would be President. Seldom is heard a critical word.

Even so, the program manages to capture (if not quite explain) some of the liberal Democrat’s appeal and qualities. Consider it a political reminder of the ‘50s--not a primer.

“Libertyville” does best when covering Stevenson’s run for the presidency after Harry Truman backed out in 1952, a race Stevenson had little chance of winning. This segment captures issues that reverberate today, particularly its examination of television’s impact on presidential politics.

Oddly enough, it’s the Republicans who seize the viewer’s attention. Dwight D. Eisenhower comes across as a tough-minded, tough-talking politician, not the smiley-faced golfer of old newsreels. Richard Nixon is, well, Richard Nixon: still smarmy after all these years, and fascinating to watch. Stevenson’s bruising battles with redbaiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy illustrate Stevenson’s commitment to principle--and sum up the tone of the era.

“Libertyville’s” producer-writer-director, Andrew Schlesinger, makes much of Stevenson’s influence on the policies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, but the only concrete example he offers is his anti-nuclear testing stance.

What does comes through is Stevenson’s basic decency, his plea for moral responsibility as the underpinning of any national political platform. Notable qualities in a lifelong politician.

Even with its tone of preaching to the converted, a glimpse of those rare characteristics is reason enough to tune in “The Man From Libertyville.”