A Gangbuster’s Strategy for Sunday Night

TV or not TV. . . .

THE UNTOUCHABLES: Call it Robert Stack Night. Or Eliot Ness Night.

Three decades after Stack played Ness, the famous gangbuster, in the indelible TV series “The Untouchables,” NBC is counting on them to carry an entire evening of the network’s November sweeps programming.

Here’s the idea:

NBC’s series aren’t very competitive on Sundays. So on Nov. 10, a Sunday, Stack will first do a special edition of his “Unsolved Mysteries” series--usually seen on Wednesdays--profiling the crime-fighter.

Immediately following that, Stack will re-create his 1959-1963 Ness role in a two-hour TV movie. It’s called, logically, “The Return of Eliot Ness,” and the story finds him emerging from retirement “to clear the name of a murdered police investigator accused of being on the take.”

The show is set in post-World War II Chicago.

Can’t wait.

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE: NBC’s attempt to patch up its Sunday lineup with a new, one-hour country-music series, tentatively titled “Hot Country Nights” and debuting Nov. 24, must be raising eyebrows in the TV industry.

Country music is hot, all right, but NBC built its dominance in the 1980s with distinctly urban shows, from “Cheers” to “Hill Street Blues.”

What’s more, the last attempt at a prime-time, network country-music series, “Dolly,” starring Dolly Parton, fizzled in the 1987-88 season.

Maybe NBC thinks now is the time to go against the grain, but the Sunday move seems like an act of desperation--and on TV’s most-watched night of the week.

COFFEE BREAK: Leave the dishes in the sink Thursday at 5 p.m. and tune in TNT’s showing of the classic Judy Holliday movie “Born Yesterday.” There aren’t many funnier performances on film.

But why are Ted Turner’s two movie channels canceling each other out? At 5:05 p.m. Thursday, Turner’s other cable outlet for films, TBS, offers a competing knockout entry, “Bonnie and Clyde,” with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

ENTER LAUGHING: The New York Museum of Television and Radio, a treasure trove of broadcast lore, is getting into the act itself.

On NBC Thursday, the museum offers its first network special, “Funny Women of Television,” a 90-minute program that features some of the medium’s finest comedy performers, including Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, Candice Bergen, Gilda Radner, Lily Tomlin, Jean Stapleton and Imogene Coca.

The show has one of TV’s best lead-ins: “Cheers.”

PATTERNS: All five of last week’s highest-rated series star distinctly liberated women: “Roseanne,” “Murphy Brown,” “Cheers,” “L.A. Law” and “Designing Women.”

HOMEFRONT: All right, the short wait is almost over. “China Beach,” the terrific Vietnam drama with Dana Delany that only recently departed ABC, begins daily 7 p.m. reruns on Lifetime cable Nov. 4.

ABC apparently believes these days that dramas have a hard time holding on to viewers in the age of TV zapping. Right--and no one zaps away from lousy comedies, huh?

PURSUIT: Ted Koppel says his two-part interview with Oliver North that concludes tonight is the result of three meetings that totaled more than eight hours. One Koppel judgment about the Iran-Contra figure: “He’s a great communicator in his own right.”

MEMOIR: Michael Landon’s longtime publicist and friend, Harry Flynn. and his wife Pamela have written a book recalling the late star, with the input of the actor’s show business friends. It’s called “Michael Landon: Life, Love & Laughter” (Pomegranate Press). The photos are by veteran Hollywood lenser Gene Trindl.

ONE MAN’S OPINION: Our three favorite TV channels are all cable: CNN, C-SPAN and American Movie Classics.

FAST COMPANY: Big-time move for pay TV’s Showtime channel--it signed a four-picture deal with Charles Joffe and Jack Rollins, who’ve produced Woody Allen’s films.

NORTHERN EXPOSURE: Up in Lacey, Wash., the folks at the Panorama City retirement community have noted that Johnny Carson will retire from “The Tonight Show” in May, and they have an idea.

Any time he wants, he can be permanent guest host of the community’s closed-circuit TV system for its 1,200 residents, says Mrs. Cay Thomas, director of Panorama City Television.

The invitation also extends to Ed McMahon, says Thomas.

LITERATI: David Letterman’s Top 10 list for bookstore pickup lines includes this: “Who’s your favorite Karamazov brother?” Also this: “Have you seen a copy of ‘Tax Tips for Billionaires?’ ”

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Jay Leno, noting the “good old days” appeal of Eugene McCarthy as a presidential contender, observes: “You remember the good old days. That’s when the Democrats used to lose only 30 states.”

BEING THERE: “Cartoons don’t have any deep meaning. They’re just stupid drawings that give you a cheap laugh.”--Homer Simpson on “The Simpsons.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .