Video Shows Set to Take on ’60 Minutes’

TV or not TV . . .

CHALLENGE: Television’s venerable “60 Minutes” faces a curious test this fall.

Two networks are tossing another kind of reality programming--video shows--against the CBS newsmagazine to try to weaken its hold. NBC will counter “60 Minutes” with the sensation-minded “I Witness Video,” and ABC is offering “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

NBC and ABC clearly hope that less discriminating viewers will be lured away from “60 Minutes” by the alternative reality of videos. Fox, meanwhile, has the only pure entertainment series in the Sunday hour--Robert Townsend’s new variety show.

“60 Minutes” has faced mostly entertainment competition in its 7-8 p.m. slot, from ABC’s “Life Goes On” to Fox’s “True Colors.” But it has also survived challenges by reality shows of the past, from ABC’s splashy “Incredible Sunday!” and “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” to NBC’s more traditional news presentation “First Camera.”

GOAL TO GO: With Joe Montana and Marcus Allen playing together for Kansas City this season, the Chiefs figure to be a terrific television attraction.

TRIBUTE: Superstation TBS airs a weeklong remembrance of the late Michael Landon starting June 28, with three-hour program blocks of “Little House on the Prairie” each morning--plus a nine-hour marathon of the series beginning the evening of June 30.

REACTION: Sam Waterston, who co-starred in “I’ll Fly Away” with Regina Taylor, thinks it’s “great news” that the canceled NBC series has been picked up by PBS for fall. Of the new, 90-minute PBS movie that will wrap up the story in October and lead into reruns of the entire series, Waterston says:

“It’s a more dignified end than just dropping dead. The final show will provide a last chapter to the novel.”

As for reruns of the program airing on PBS, he adds: “It’ll be a nice place for it, having the show seen without commercials.”

Waterston thinks PBS’ scheduling of “I’ll Fly Away” is “a big vindication of viewer participation. Obviously the bottom line is money in all this. But the fact about this coming back is that viewers who cared about it cared enough to take time out of their own lives to fight for that. I think it’s all because of the viewers.

“People should feel encouraged to participate more actively in what they care about on TV. I think the networks hear that, even when it doesn’t work out.”

ANCHOR: When Dan Rather was in the doghouse with former President George Bush, the CBS newsman was admirably flinty and independent toward the White House. But if he wants to retain credibility as an anchor, he’ll have to control the kind of effusive public praise he heaped on President Clinton at a recent meeting of CBS affiliates. Either that, or become a commentator.

MATCHUP: Once again, the prime-time Emmy Awards, which have slipped in popularity since moving to Fox for the last six years, face the embarrassing challenge of having to measure up to the ratings of the Daytime Emmy Awards.

It’s like this: The daytime prizes, which have become hot stuff as annual prime-time specials, ranked No. 1 in the ratings several weeks ago. The night-time honors will be given out Sept. 19. Both shows are on ABC this year.

BULLETIN BOARD: Walter Cronkite’s next documentary for the Discovery Channel deals with whether America should be the world cop. The title is “The Cronkite Report: Where Do We Fight?” It airs July 29.

The newsman’s production firm--Cronkite, Ward & Co.--will also launch a “Great Books” show this fall for the Learning Channel, with Donald Sutherland narrating the initial topics: Sir Thomas Malory’s “Morte D’Arthur,” about King Arthur; Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species.”

Another new Learning Channel program, “Concerto,” focusing on classical music and some of its performers, premieres Aug. 23, with Dudley Moore as host.

The gap between network television and cable grows wider and wider.

FUN READ: “Chris-in-the-Morning,” a paperback collection of the insights of “Northern Exposure” disc jockey and philosopher Chris Stevens (John Corbett), compiled and edited by Louis Chunovic for Contemporary Books.

INSIDER TRADING: Smart move by the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors to buy stock in TV and cable companies including Capital Cities/ABC, General Electric (owner of NBC), Time Warner, Viacom and Turner Broadcasting. The caucus notes that the purchase will permit it to obtain added information and “representation at shareholder meetings.”

DESSERT: Some humble pie, please, for inadvertently saying reprisal when we meant reprise in referring to CBS’ recent revival of “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

SLUGGER: Baseball great Ted Williams is the scheduled guest on tonight’s “Later With Bob Costas,” after the David Letterman show on NBC.

ANOTHER VIEW: A while back, we offered our all-time, prime-time TV lineup. A friend sent us his own, which is exemplified by the Monday schedule: “My Mother the Car,” “Petticoat Junction,” “The Pruitts of Southampton,” “The Adventures of Mark & Brian” and “Pink Lady.” Well, you get the idea. It’s hard to beat.

OPENING NIGHT: The new CBS newsmagazine “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung” debuts Thursday with an interview with First Brother Roger Clinton, a story about the “mysterious death” of a Marine colonel and a report on “sexual harassment in the classroom.” CBS hopes Chung’s appointment as Dan Rather’s anchor mate will juice the ratings.

BEING THERE: “Well, I’ll tell you; I tried just about every one of the lower 48, but--I don’t know--them and me, we just clash.” --Chris Stevens (John Corbett) in “Northern Exposure.”

Say good night, Gracie . . .