For the Best Election Coverage, Skip the Big Three

TV or not TV. . . .

STRAIGHT TICKET: This is the kind of night--election time--when it pays to zap past the Big Three networks.

Yes, Jennings, Brokaw and Rather will deliver.

But the best places to be for a story like this are CNN and C-SPAN--and local TV for close-to-home issues.

CNN and C-SPAN will start continuous coverage earlier--by late afternoon--and end later than the Big Three.

And what’s fun about a night like this is seeing how TV has changed, as names like CNN’s Bernard Shaw and C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb pull away network viewers for deeper and more rounded coverage.

Invariably, too, old pros like ABC’s David Brinkley get the nighttime spotlight again and radiate wistful reminders of the genesis of network news.

Nothing is more riveting on C-SPAN than its live, viewer phone-in segments. They’re often the best thing on TV for snap indications of how the nation regarded a political debate or presidential speech--or election measures.

And C-SPAN says that once again, during tonight’s coverage: “Viewers are encouraged to call in and voice their opinions on the evening’s events.”

GONE WITH THE WIND: With ABC now the dominant news network, day in and day out, behind such names as Ted Koppel, Jennings and Brinkley, it’s mind-boggling to think of the bench strength that CBS allowed to get away: Roger Mudd, Bill Moyers and, most lately, Charlie Rose.

BLOODY SUNDAY: There’s a real network shoot-out this Sunday: CBS’ movie “Fatal Attraction” goes up against NBC’s miniseries “The Big One: The Great Los Angeles Earthquake” and ABC’s film “Call Me Anna,” an autobiographical drama with Patty Duke. It’s network strategy for the November ratings sweeps, and the viewer be damned.

THE NATURAL: CBS is crazy if it doesn’t yank “Uncle Buck” from the 8 p.m. Monday slot and replace it with Burt Reynolds’ new sitcom, “Evening Shade,” which was strong in a tryout there last week. It’s a perfect fit for CBS’ women-oriented Monday lineup of “Major Dad,” “Murphy Brown,” “Designing Women” and “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill.”

ALL THE WAY: NBC keeps throwing everything it has into trying to make a big hit out of “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” which was beaten last week by “Evening Shade” and “Major Dad” despite airing a special one-hour episode. Latest ploy: a nationwide radio promotion contest for “Fresh Prince” starting this week, with KIIS-FM (102.7) taking part. NBC has bet the bank on “Fresh Prince.”

PEAK INTEREST: The truth is, we missed most of last week’s outing of “Twin Peaks”--but as a friend of ours says, how could you tell? In any case, if the ratings-troubled series doesn’t get a shot in the arm from this Saturday’s episode--in which Laura Palmer’s killer is supposedly revealed--will ABC start contemplating a memorial service for this wondrously subversive adventure in weekly TV? Aw, let it run the season.

THE LONG RUN: For better or worse, the Ed O’Neill-Katey Sagal series “Married . . . With Children” has become one of the most influential shows in TV history--putting Fox Broadcasting on the map and changing standards in taste on the home screen. It’s often funny, sometimes terrible--and enormously popular with young, big-city audiences whose impact on network thinking is tremendous.

TWO FOR THE ROAD: Week in and week out, Kristy McNichol and Dinah Manoff, playing emotionally conflicting sisters in “Empty Nest,” are as likable, witty and talented as any comedy performers on network TV. For a long time now, “Empty Nest” hasn’t needed the lead-in of “The Golden Girls.”

THE PEACOCK NETWORK: There, in Entertainment Weekly, is Brandon Tartikoff, chairman of the NBC Entertainment Group, draped in an NBC towel, wearing a grin--and nothing else visible. More formally, Tartikoff said the other day that he’ll use another Danielle Steele best-seller against CBS’ college basketball championships April 1, just as he used a Steele miniseries against CBS’ World Series. This is serious business.

THE TOUCH: What a smashing directing job by Diane Keaton in last Saturday’s Vietnam War drama “China Beach”--a flashback tale in which Dana Delany, as Colleen McMurphy, simply sizzled in depicting her love-hate relationship with her mother. “China Beach” continues to be a splendid series, and Keaton and Delany took it to a level not often seen in weekly TV.

TURKEY DAY: Not very flattering for the next “Face to Face With Connie Chung” special to be scheduled by CBS for Thanksgiving--when audience tune-in is notoriously low because of the holiday dinner.

MARATHON MEN: Yes, indeed, Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone” will return for its annual Thanksgiving Day marathon on KTLA Channel 5. And hats off to viewers who doggedly tracked the Nick at Nite channel’s “Alfred Hitchcock” marathon last week for that Bette Davis episode that was listed for Wednesday when the cable service actually meant early Thursday.

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME: Century Cable executive Bill Rosendahl has passed show No. 200 in his lively series of political specials--the best in town. There’s no connection, of course, but I’d feel even better if my monthly Century Cable bill hadn’t gone up $3.

GOOD NEWS: The American Movie Classics channel finally goes around the clock Dec. 1. It’ll start with a Marilyn Monroe marathon. For those who may not know, films on the AMC channel are unedited, and there are no commercials.

BEING THERE: “Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?”--Robin Williams, “Mork & Mindy.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .