Today’s News, Tomorrow’s Television : George C. Scott is a tragic Everyman on ABC; Claudette Colbert is a legend revived on AMC

MOVIES

George C. Scott has been cast to star in the ABC drama “Mittleman’s Hardware,” set for broadcast during the 1990-91 season.

Scott will play an aging businessman whose personal and professional life are slipping away. Hector Elizondo co-stars.

Patty Duke, Joan Van Ark and Steve Dorff are in Vancouver, British Columbia, filming “To Cast a Shadow,” a CBS drama about a young man who, after discovering he was stolen from his birth family at age 2, leaves his affluent urban life in search of his birth mother.

American Movie Classics is paying tribute to the Oscar-winning Claudette Colbert with a week-long film festival that kicks off Nov. 15 with the 1933 drama “I Cover the Waterfront.” Other vintage Colbert films include “Imitation of Life,” “Maid of Salem” and “Gilded Lily” (which marks Fred MacMurray’s film debut).

AMC will also expand to 24 hours on Dec. 1. SERIES

NBC’s “L.A. Law” has won the only Entertainment Television prize in the annual Maggie Awards competition, sponsored by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The award-winning episode, “Captain Hurt,” telecast Nov. 9, 1989, dealt with attorney Victor Sifuentes (Jimmy Smits) helping the retarded office messenger, Benny (Larry Drake), buy condoms.

Mary Page Keller, late of Fox’s “Duet” and “Open House,” is joining the cast of ABC’s “Life Goes On.” She’ll play Gina, Libby’s (Patti LuPone) younger sister, who moves in with the family when Libby experiences difficulty with her pregnancy. Keller’s episodes will begin airing in late November or early December.

Beginning Nov. 28, Bravo’s BBC Showcase series will present the American TV premiere of “War of the Roses,” a 10-part series combining two Shakespearean plays, “Henry VI” and “Richard III.” Performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, “War of Roses” features Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Philip Brack and Donald Sinden.

Production has begun on “Rock Chronicles,” a new syndicated 30-minute reality-based show that investigates and exposes the behind-the-scenes mysteries of rock ‘n’ roll legends. The 13-part series will premiere next year. SOAPS

CBS’ “As the World Turns” has cast former teen idol Rex Smith to play Darryl Crawford, Margo’s long-ago school friend. Smith, who appeared in the Broadway and film versions of “The Pirates of Penzance” and starred on TV in “Streethawk” and “Solid Gold,” is currently on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning musical “Grand Hotel.”

Katherine Kelly Lang of “The Bold and the Beautiful” and her husband, Skott Snider, welcomed the birth of their son, Jeremy Skott, in early September. Lang has been on maternity leave from her role of Brooke Logan.

Greta Lind has joined the cast of ABC’s “All My Children,” in the newly created role of Katie Kennicott.

Katie, fresh from her family’s farm in New Hampshire, comes to Pine Valley to finish her nurse’s training and to get her college degree. SPECIALS

Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel and Quincy Jones will receive the 1990 Grammy Legends Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences Inc., during the second annual “Grammy Legends Tribute,” which will be taped Dec. 5 in New York for future broadcast on CBS.

John Goodman takes time off from his duties on ABC’s “Roseanne” to host “Tom and Jerry’s 50th Birthday Bash,” airing Nov. 30 on TBS.

Included in the salute to the beloved cat-and-mouse movie team are highlights from their debut short, “Puss Gets the Boot,” clips from seven Academy Award-winning Tom and Jerry films and a look at Jerry dancing with Gene Kelly in the 1945 film “Anchors Aweigh.”