‘Twilight Zone’ Fireworks on Fourth

TV or not TV . . .

BONANZA: Admirers of “The Twilight Zone” should be in seventh heaven this Fourth of July weekend.

The classic Rod Serling series, usually offered in a one-day holiday marathon on KTLA Channel 5, will be expanded into a virtual festival airing on July 3 and 4, with the station presenting 37 episodes.

Among the stars in the various tales are Carol Burnett, Mickey Rooney, Jack Klugman and Ann Jillian.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Cable’s TBS channel also goes nostalgic in a big way with a 10-week, two-hour Sunday-night series, “The Best of Television,” starting June 28.

Hosted by comedian Louie Anderson, the programs generally focus on one famous series each week, presenting episodes from such hits as “Gunsmoke,” “The Honeymooners,” “Happy Days,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “All in the Family,” “Bonanza,” “I Love Lucy” and “The Andy Griffith Show.”

The time slot is perfect for Sunday family viewing--7 to 9:05 p.m. And, no surprise, the premiere features “Lucy.”

NIGHTWATCH: You sure can’t blame Ted Koppel and ABC for warning the network’s affiliates that “Nightline” could be in jeopardy if more stations delay the series.

With late-night TV competition heating up since Johnny Carson’s retirement from “Tonight,” ABC isn’t happy that “Nightline” has live clearances in only about 63% of the nation.

Koppel has such an established franchise that it’s more than just a matter of surviving--it’s a chance to move ahead solidly against some of the lightweight, late-night talk shows.

Nonetheless, rumors persist of a domino-like scenario: David Letterman dumps NBC next year and joins ABC, with “Nightline” being scrapped, Koppel taking over David Brinkley’s Sunday series and Brinkley retiring.

Anything’s possible--but ABC says that there’s nothing to the ongoing Letterman rumor. And to even imagine the prestigious ABC News organization without “Nightline,” or without Koppel and Brinkley in their current roles, is unsettling.

SECOND BANANA: Well, maybe late-night TV sidekicks aren’t a thing of the past after all, despite Ed McMahon’s retirement from “Tonight” with Carson.

On the Letterman show, bandleader Paul Shaffer just gets better and better as the star’s favorite foil--and certainly qualifies as a bona fide sidekick who helps make this the classiest series on TV night after night.

And as for all that nonsense that Letterman is too off-the-wall for an 11:30 p.m. time slot, anyone who watched his fabulous interview and verbal interplay with Sigourney Weaver knows that he can go mainstream any old time that he wants.

Still, it sure would be nice to see Koppel and Letterman back-to-back on ABC: two guys who aren’t overly impressed with their guests and aren’t afraid to draw blood when they smell fraud or ineptitude.

TREASURY NOTE: Why is Jay Leno’s success as the new “Tonight” host an urgent matter to NBC’s parent company, General Electric? Well, the series reportedly returned annual profits of between $30 million and $50 million during the Carson years.

RUMOR DU JOUR: If you’re wondering whether “The Arsenio Hall Show” is going a little more mainstream with its musical artists, the gossip is that Paramount, which produces the show, is after what it perceives as a “floating” Carson audience now that Leno has taken over “Tonight.”

CAMPAIGN ‘92: We really meant to thank TV comedy writer Randy Johnson for reminding us a while back that the presidential election would be determined by the “Perotest vote.”

REEL LIFE: Producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (“Designing Women,” “Evening Shade”) is an Arkansas buddy of Gov. Bill Clinton. Her new fall CBS sitcom, “Hearts Afire,” stars John Ritter and Markie Post as aides to a conservative Southern senator. My, what opportunities.

ON BOARD: “Designing Women” couldn’t have done any better in choosing its new co-star: Judith Ivey, who was so memorable in the delicious film satire of suburban life “Compromising Positions.” She’s so good that she might add a year or two to the run of the series all by herself.

ALL THE WAY: Naturally, CNN will be offering prime-time, gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Democratic National Convention in New York from July 13-16--even though CBS, ABC and NBC won’t. And CNN confirms that its anchor team of Bernard Shaw and Catherine Crier will be holding down the fort for the channel during the main sessions at Madison Square Garden.

Must be rather embarrassing for the Big Three networks to be playing second fiddle to the Atlanta-based cable service right near their hometown headquarters.

GRAND SLAM: When you’re hot, you’re hot. Critics love “Northern Exposure.” The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is praising the show’s gay and lesbian characters. And the general public, presumably cutting through all kinds of social and political beliefs, is tuning in regularly in huge numbers, as the ratings attest. Maybe it’s because “Northern Exposure” is just plain magic--the most human and humane of human comedies.

TOUGH GUY: Do yourself a favor and watch the great Robert Montgomery in the minor but marvelous film noir classic “Ride the Pink Horse” Thursday night at 10 on the American Movie Classics channel. I can’t think of an actor today who can match Montgomery’s quizzical, sly, honest and almost humorous approach to these tough guy roles. Catch him, also, as Philip Marlowe in “Lady in the Lake” when it comes around.

SPORTING GOODS: The best local sports reports in Los Angeles are on radio, not TV. The radio stuff is much closer to fans and what they talk about. Our favorite, hands down, is Jim Healy, easily the most magnetic and entertaining broadcast personality in town.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Do you get the feeling that all three guys topping the presidential race would do well selling blenders, woks, cash-flow real estate courses and golden oldies in the wee hours on TV?

BULLETIN BOARD: If you missed Ken Burns’ historic documentary series, “The Civil War,” you have another crack at it when KCET Channel 28 reruns all 11 hours the weekend of June 26-28. No excuses this time.

BEING THERE: “Love stinks.”--Lou Grant (Ed Asner) in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

Say good night, Gracie . . . .