TELEVISION - Oct. 8, 1993

Winfrey Airs Jordan: Talk-show host Oprah Winfrey has scored the first interview with basketball superstar Michael Jordan since the announcement Wednesday of his retirement. The hourlong chat, Jordan’s first in-depth interview since the slaying of his father in July, airs Oct. 29 on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

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Buckskin Gladiators: “Wild West Showdown,” a new Western-themed action series from the creators of “American Gladiators,” is set to premiere next fall. The syndicated show features male and female competitors challenging its “Rough Riders,” professional cowboys, in events including high-speed races, shootouts, livestock challenges, Indian wrestling and perilous obstacle courses.

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Public Broadcasting Funds: House and Senate conferees have agreed on an appropriation of $312 million for fiscal 1996 for the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, $7 million of which is earmarked for the upcoming “Ready to Learn” preschool program. Passage by Congress is expected shortly. The amount is higher than the CPB’s respective 1994 and 1995 budgets of $275 million and $292.6 million, but less than the $360 million the CPB had requested.

MOVIES

Garland’s Oscar to be Auctioned: The 1939 special Academy Award that Judy Garland won for best juvenile actress in “The Wizard of Oz” will be auctioned off in New York on Dec. 18 by Christie’s auction house. The miniature Oscar is the star lot of an auction of memorabilia from Garland’s personal collection, including her official Oscar nomination for the 1954 “A Star Is Born,” a framed blowup of the “Wizard of Oz” stamp, scrapbooks, film contracts and telegrams. Christie’s expects the statuette to fetch between $70,000 and $90,000.

THE ARTS

Arts Center Planned: A consortium of Los Angeles arts groups has embarked on a yearlong community outreach and fund-raising drive for what is being billed as “the world’s first and only gay-identified arts center.” The group plans to open the Community Arts Center at a complex in Hollywood, featuring an art gallery, a live theater, performance space and office space for up to 14 nonprofit arts organizations. It would also house the Natalie Barney & Edward Carpenter Library, a large repository of gay and lesbian literature. Participating groups include the African-American Gay & Lesbian Cultural Alliance, Artists Confronting AIDS, the Gay & Lesbian Media Coalition, Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, International Gay & Lesbian Archives, Viva! and Words Across Cultures. The center’s first benefit, “The Artists Ball,” is slated for Dec. 10 at the downtown Glam Slam club.

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Festival Scaled Back: The Spoleto Festival U.S.A. in Charleston, S.C., will cut back its schedule next year. “Because of the economic slump that is everywhere, everybody is cutting down on things. I don’t think it is time for us to celebrate in an extravagant way,” said the festival’s founder and artistic director, Gian Carlo Menotti. “We can do a beautiful festival within two weeks. That way we can save an awful lot of expense. I’m just following the general trend to be very careful for one year.” The 1994 festival will run 12 days, from May 25 through June 5, instead of the 17 originally announced. Only one opera will be performed instead of the usual three.

LEGAL FILE

Jackson’s Attorney Sues: Entertainment attorney Bertram Fields has filed a $10-million lawsuit against the Globe tabloid, claiming he was defamed by a Sept. 8 story that said he drafted a document offering to pay “hush money” to families that have accused pop star Michael Jackson of child molestation. Fields represented Jackson in negotiating the singer’s multimillion-dollar deal with Sony. The tabloid story was one of many to appear in publications around the world after the father of a 13-year-old accused Jackson of molesting his son.

QUICK TAKES

Three Stooges fans will want to set their VCRs tonight for “100% Weird: All the World’s a Stooge,” a marathon of six Stooge films including “Have Rocket, Will Travel” (1959), “The Three Stooges in Orbit” (1962) and “The Outlaws Is Coming” (1965). The all-night marathon, airing on cable’s TNT, begins at 5 p.m. . . . Ice-T, along with Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Jazzy Jeff, Dinosaur Jr. and Del the Funky Homosapien appear on tonight’s “Arsenio Hall Show” for “Rap Night.” . . . Red Hot Chili Pepper bassist Flea turns journalist when he interviews members of veteran Los Angeles punk band X on tonight’s “ABC in Concert.” The program, hosted by singer Juliana Hatfield, also features a tribute to Patrick Lippert, the late founder of “Rock the Vote.” . . . A memorial for respected character actor Richard Jordan, who died Aug. 30 of a brain tumor, will be held at 11 a.m. today at the Mark Taper Forum.