Landon’s Charm Eerily Lives on in Infomercials

He addresses the screen from a classroom setting, boyishly charming in his sports jacket and tie while recalling his academic woes as a student and athlete. But isn’t he. . . ?

Such an eerie encore.

Yul Brynner, William Talman and John Wayne spoke to TV viewers posthumously. Now Michael Landon, the admired TV auteur who died July 1, is doing the same, as a salesman for educational seminars.

The continental Brynner and Talman, who played hapless prosecutor Hamilton Burger on the old “Perry Mason” series, were longtime heavy smokers who taped anti-smoking spots while dying of lung cancer. Talman died in 1968; Brynner in 1985. But their public service announcements outlived them, their haunting testimonies becoming a stunning indictment of the addiction they blamed for their plights.

Wayne also continued to speak to viewers after he died in 1979. However, his forum was not a public service spot but his familiar sales campaign for Great Western Savings & Loan, whose commercial spokesman he had been for years.

Costumed as a cowboy, Wayne in effect was in character as a bigger-than-life Western hero from one of his many movies available on TV. Thus, his commercials that ran after his death were not that startling.

Landon has a prominent TV afterlife in reruns of “Bonanza,” “Little House on the Prairie” and “Highway to Heaven.” Yet in intimately sharing his classroom troubles as a youth, he comes closest to playing himself in a half-hour infomercial that he taped in March, succeeding John Ritter as pitchman for a series of video and audio seminars titled “Where There’s a Will There’s an A.”

A commercial formatted along the lines of a documentary, the infomercial consists of endorsements of the product interwoven by Landon’s commentary as host. He taped it in March, shortly before learning he had inoperable cancer.

Chesterbrook Educational Publishers of Westbrook, Pa., which distributes the seminars, has the contractual right to continue using the infomercial until March 31, said Jay Eller, Landon’s longtime manager and now co-trustee of his estate.

It was Landon’s decision to allow the infomercial to be aired after his death, Eller said. “The issue was presented to him (by Chesterbrook), and he told them he was perfectly agreeable if they wanted to continue to run it.”

And so, in a sense, Michael Landon lives on. Where there’s a will. . . .

Who’s the Bad Role Model? What ever happened to due process? You know, we’re all innocent until proved guilty? Paul Reubens, alias Pee-wee Herman, is probably asking the same question.

Although Reubens has denied the indecent exposure charge pending against him in Sarasota, Fla., Disney-MGM Studios quickly pulled its Florida theme-park video starring Pee-wee and CBS aborted the remaining summer reruns of his acclaimed and innovative lame-duck kids series.

Disney-MGM and CBS insist they acted out of concern for children. Can’t have them watching old Pee-wee now. It could give them warts.

Oh, please. Spare us the corporate self-righteousness.

Disney-MGM and CBS are the guilty onces. By prejudging Reubens, they send a message to children far more obnoxious than anything he is alleged to have done.

Herrrrrre’s Parviz! Johnny Carson and Jay Leno will be in big trouble starting Monday. That’s when “Tonight With Parviz” debuts on international station KSCI Channel 18 at midnight, going head to head with the last half hour of “The Tonight Show” on NBC.

The host is Parviz G. Afshar, an Iranian-American who in pre-Khomeini days had his own TV show in Tehran and for the last 11 years has been the star of the KSCI morning show “Sima-y-Ashena.” That’s Persian for “Familiar Face.”

So how will “familiar face” be occupying his time between his present 7:30-8:30 a.m. show and midnight? By writing jokes, maybe.

On his new 30-minute late-night series, Afshar will interview English- and Persian-speaking guests following--what else?--his opening monologue.

Take the Turkomans. Please!

Take Parker Lewis: Gladly! That loose cannon of prime-time comedy--Fox’s exquisitely weird “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose!”--returns for its second season Sunday (7:30 p.m. on Channel 11), extending its irresistible high school odyssey of “buds and babes and tunes and curly fries.”

Its characters--from Corin Nemec’s ever-resourceful, heroically untamed Parker to Melanie Chartoff’s snarling Principal Musso--are curly fries.

Despite ratings that barely register by network standards, “Parker Lewis” remains on the Fox schedule, a gift to viewers who appreciate the tongue-in-cheek cleverness of its writing, editing, camera techniques and sound effects. Clyde Phillips is executive producer of this often-hilarious series that resembles no other on TV.

Martin Mull delivers a funny cameo Sunday as a business CEO seeking a “ruthless, ambitious and unmerciful” executive for his corporation. Naturally Principal Musso catches his eye.

Yet it’s Parker’s ingenious rescue of his “best bud” Mikey (Billy Jayne) from a dilemma that delivers a tender message about loyalty in addition to laughs. Says our teen hero: “Bo knows rehab, Parker knows people.”

And comedy.