A Turning Point for Irrepressible Roy Firestone

TV or not TV. . . .

THE SPORTING LIFE: Roy Firestone is on the phone from Maui.

It’s suddenly peak season for television’s best sports interviewer.

Firestone, who turned 37 on Saturday, is marking the 10th anniversary of his daily ESPN series, “SportsLook.” And changes are in store for the show, which will sport a new name and a “more journalistic” approach right after the New Year, says Firestone.

He’ll also be the new co-executive producer: “We’re going to be able to do ‘Nightline’ kinds of things. What we’ve been missing is the technology to get out to everybody who’s making news, not just who’s in town.”

Firestone’s co-executive producer, Bob Seizer, says ESPN is trying to get title clearance for “Up Close” as the new name of the half-hour series.

But first, on Dec. 28, Firestone will say farewell to his past decade with an hour special of the “best moments from ‘SportsLook.’ ”

Firestone has long led a double life--performing as a comedian as well--and that career is also blossoming. He steps up in class starting Thursday by co-headlining with Lou Rawls at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas.

“This is the first time I’ve co-headlined,” he says.

HE AND SHE: Ken Olin has directed his wife, Patricia Wettig, before in “thirtysomething,” the ABC series in which they both star. But tonight’s episode is rather extra-special.

Titled “Guns & Roses,” it deals with how the cancer-stricken Nancy (Wettig) deals with problems as her therapy begins to have an effect on her relationship with her children.

Wettig has won two Emmys as Nancy.

And what was challenging about tonight’s show, says Olin, was how it “deals with the process of cancer and juxtaposes that with the details of everyday life. This woman’s a mother and wife, and you have to combine these things.”

Olin knows viewers are looking for clues as to “whether she’s going to live. But this show is a thematic point rather than a turning point in the plot. It’s about this character deciding that she’s going to take the risk to want to live. It asks: When you’re so sick, is it easier to not want to live?”

The next directing assignment for Olin on “thirtysomething,” possibly for a February air date, “is about Nancy’s second-look surgery,” he says. “I think there will be some traces of whether she’s going to be successful in beating the illness.”

Olin knows the answer, but won’t say.

THAT’S NEWS BIZ: Make a note: Carol Burnett’s “Carol & Company” has a wonderfully vicious episode Jan. 5 skewering TV news shows that take the entertainment route. Burnett plays an anchor. Her news director came from game shows and brings in a studio audience that decides, through boos and cheers, which stories are broadcast.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: After Madonna’s “Nightline” interview, the Jay Leno camp was wondering: “What’s next--a Persian Gulf special on the ‘Tonight’ show?”

CLOWN PRINCE: What a brilliant performance Mort Sahl gave on the Ha! channel--about a visit to the White House. It only made you aware, again, of the inadequacy of most of TV’s endless parade of stand-up comics, who know all the patter, all the moves, all the shtick--but have nothing to say.

TYPECAST: Really, Anita Morris is much too good to be stuck in another of those routine sex-bomb roles in which she turned up last week in CBS’ “WIOU.”

BEING THERE: “The meek may inherit the Earth, but it’s the grumpy who get promoted.” Father Francis Mulcahy (William Christopher) in “MASH.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .