More Urgency Now for ‘Band Played On’

TV or not TV. . . .

PRIORITY: Maybe the Magic Johnson case will hasten HBO’s plans to bring the landmark book about AIDS, “And the Band Played On,” to TV.

Randy Shilts’ prophetic opus should have been produced long ago. NBC had it, then dropped it. HBO has pledged itself to the project, and the worldwide impact of Johnson’s disclosure that he has the AIDS virus may provide the final impetus to get the production off the dime.

It’s too bad that it takes a celebrity case like Johnson’s or Rock Hudson’s to become a propelling factor in an ongoing story that has urgently needed telling for years.

You can still read Shilts’ book, of course. And the startling, emotional events of the last week--with Johnson’s revelations more devastating than any fiction--make one hope that HBO’s long-awaited version of “And the Band Played On” avoids dramatic embroidery that simply can’t match the force of the reality.

HELLO, MOLLY: We tracked down Blair Brown, the once and always “Molly Dodd” of television, in a Pittsburgh hotel the other night.

Brown informed us she was filming a new movie, “Passed Away,” with Bob Hoskins. And Wednesday night at 9, she also appears on KCET Channel 28 in “Lethal Innocence,” a true story about residents of a Vermont town who cut through government red tape to rescue a family of Cambodian refugees from a Khmer Rouge detention camp and welcome them to their community.

Well, as you can see, Brown has been working steadily since the demise of Lifetime cable’s “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd” earlier this year. But we felt it was about time she cleared up some things--came clean, as it were, about Molly’s fate, which left us, and others, a bit mystified.

We put it bluntly to her on the phone: “We all want to know what happened to Molly.”

“Me, too,” she said.

As “Molly Dodd” aficionados will recall, the finale of the classic series found her bumping into an old musician friend--a minor character, really--in a market. He had been on her mind. And the last frame left us with the distinct impression that they were definitely a match.

Well, wait a minute. We may never know Molly’s fate unless someone comes up with the money for a revival--which Brown would like, 13 weeks a year, a diary of a woman, open-ended.

But she does have her own thoughts about what really happened to Molly.

That fellow in the market, she says, was “not who (Molly) wound up with, but who she started up with next, to spend time with for a while, just the next step on her journey.

“I would say she’s with a different guy now. I think she ran off with Spalding Gray and she’s in the country now and perhaps started a small newspaper. I think Molly is one of those people who goes back to school and maybe becomes a doctor at 60.”

OK, now for “Lethal Innocence.” Says Brown: “I liked it because it’s so pragmatic and shows how people can do something.”

She also liked it because she was able to work with two fine, older actresses, Teresa Wright and Ruth Nelson: “I’m very drawn to people in my life now who are 70 and older. They tend to have an incredible sense of humor about the folly of the world and how to get through it all. It’s something people of my generation need.

“People who are interesting, by the time they hit 70 they have something to say. I think that was some of the attraction of ‘Driving Miss Daisy.’ Yet we have scrapped the notion of learning from people who are old and are just interested in managing them. But they cover a lot of bases. They can tell you an awful lot about sex, politics, everything.”

Catch you later, Molly.

FROM THE HOME OFFICE: We told David Letterman that some readers had noticed that his Top 10 lists had virtually disappeared in recent days.

“Oh heavens,” he said.

Doing his best to allay panic, he said it was only a respite, noting also that the lists have been seen in his Monday reruns.

Much of the talk about Letterman these days is the old question of whether ABC, long interested in acquiring his show, can somehow swipe him away from NBC to follow Ted Koppel’s “Nightline”--which would indeed be a dandy combination.

But Dave’s Top 10 lists are such a trademark--and so well-known beyond the show itself--that even if they returned tonight or in the next few days, their absence leaves a noticeable void in TV.

“It was like we felt, ‘Oh man, we’ve done these for a long time, let’s see what it’s like if we don’t do them for a while,’ ” Letterman said. “We thought, ‘We don’t need to do these every night.’

“I think we could double the life expectancy if we cut them down to the Top Five--ya know, just renumber them.”

Is he thinking of changing the show as he gets older? Asked his age, he replied:

“I’m 44. I’m looking tanned and well-rested. Please put that in there.”

Is he thinking now that, at 44, he shouldn’t act like 35?

“No, no. I’m thinking that at 44, I should act like I’m 14. We’re gonna add a girl singer to the show, that’s all I can tell ya.”

Well, actually, there is something else. His (and his writers’) latest literary endeavor, “An Altogether New Book of Top Ten Lists,” seems to be following in the successful path of last year’s first compilation.

Letterman writer Steve O’Donnell estimates the first book sold about 440,000 copies. As for the recent respite of the lists on the show, O’Donnell says: “I guess the idea was to make them more flavorful for their spareness.”

TURKEY TROT: Thanksgiving night is usually ratings death for the networks because of holiday dinners and gatherings. But CBS thinks it can change some habits this Thanksgiving by airing Steven Spielberg’s “E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial.”

PRO: Fred MacMurray worked with such deceptive ease that he was often overlooked as a wonderful all-purpose star. I could see him in “The Godfather.”

NO SHOW: Caught a bit of NBC’s new, wee-hours news program “Nightside.” Looks like it’s budgeted out of petty cash. CNN has nothing to worry about.

BEING THERE: “Teen-agers: God’s punishment for enjoying sex.”--Phil the Bartender (Pat Corley) on “Murphy Brown.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .