TELEVISION - Oct. 15, 1993

ABC Ranks No. 1: ABC had six of the 10 highest-rated programs last week to win the prime-time ratings race, with “Home Improvement” and “Roseanne” topping the list, according to figures released Thursday. CBS had won the first two weeks of the season but fell to second last week with its heavy schedule of baseball playoffs. The A. C. Nielsen Co. said the final tabulation of all programs was not complete as of deadline, however. The Times will print the full list on Saturday.

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Rather: TV’s Not So Powerful: Don’t blame TV news for getting America embroiled in Somalia--it doesn’t have that kind of power, CBS anchorman Dan Rather says. In a letter to The New York Times responding to a commentary alleging that television pictures of starving Somalis won support for President Bush’s plan to send in troops, Rather wrote: “Reporters sometimes feel strongly about the stories they cover, and some may wish for the power to direct public opinion and to guide American policy--but they don’t have it. . . . If (the commentary was) right, there would be U.S. Marines on the ramparts of Sarajevo right now, defending the Bosnian Muslims.”

PEOPLE WATCH

Rose’s Court Woes: Rocker Axl Rose was back in a St. Louis court Thursday, shaking his head over the claim that he permanently injured a fan at a Guns N’ Roses concert. About 60 people were injured at a 1991 show when a melee broke out after Rose leaped off the stage because William Stephenson was taking photographs. Stephenson, 28, is suing Rose, claiming he’s still in pain from a back injury suffered in the encounter. Last year, Rose was given two years’ probation for misdemeanor assault and property damage convictions in the case. Stephenson’s lawsuit is the first of about 10 to go to court.

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Deja Vu for Jackie Mason: Comedian Jackie Mason drew the ire of critics in 1989 for using the word shvartze, a Yiddish word for blacks commonly considered to be a racial slur, in a reference to New York Mayor David Dinkins. Now, Mason is in trouble again for using the same word, this time while accepting an award from a New York Jewish police officers’ group. Although the group has issued an official apology to those who were offended, an angry Mason said: “I positively don’t apologize. I’m telling a joke here. I’m a civil rights crusader all my life. The color of a person’s skin means as much to me as the color of their jacket.”

THE ARTS

L.A. Artists Picked: Noted Los Angeles artists John Outterbridge and Betye Saar have been chosen to represent the United States at Brazil’s 1994 Sao Paulo Bienal, a prestigious international art exhibition scheduled for next October. Outterbridge, whose works are currently on view in a retrospective at the California Afro-American Museum in Exposition Park, and Saar are both recognized for their assemblages created of mainly found and discarded materials. Independent curator Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins will curate the exhibition, which will feature signature works by each artist dating from the 1960s, plus two or three new installations made for the Bienal from materials gathered in Brazil.

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Getting Ready for ‘Sunset’: The Shubert Organization has spent about $5 million to get its Shubert Theatre in Century City ready for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Sunset Boulevard,” according to Shubert chairman Gerald Schoenfeld. Permanent changes have been made during the last few months in the theater’s mezzanine: new seating four rows closer to the stage, continental seating (which eliminates center aisles but increases the space between rows) and box seats on both sides. Representing the first structural changes to the theater since it opened in 1972, the renovation creates about 1,800 seats for “Sunset Boulevard,” opening Dec. 9, and can be expanded to as many as 2,150 seats for future shows.

MOVIES

An American Film Fest in Russia: Twenty-seven classic Hollywood films, including “Gone With the Wind,” “Dr. Zhivago,” “Casablanca,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “An American in Paris” and “The Wizard of Oz” will be brought to Russian theaters for the first annual “Festival of American Film Treasures,” opening in St. Petersburg Oct. 28. Sponsored in part by Turner Entertainment Co., the eight-theater, four-day festival is part of a U.S.-Russia cultural exchange that will continue throughout next summer’s 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg.

QUICK TAKES

Mitch Miller, the 77-year-old conductor known for the 1960s TV show “Sing Along With Mitch,” has been appointed principal pops conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for a two-year stint starting in 1994. . . . ABC’s late-night music show “ABC in Concert” tonight will air footage from September’s Los Angeles stop of Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) Festival, with performances by Gabriel, PM Dawn, Stereo MC’s and Inner Circle. . . . Walt Disney Concert Hall Committee chair Frederick M. Nicholas and the late Sharon Disney Lund, former director of the Walt Disney Co., will receive the CalArts’ second annual Trustees’ Awards at ceremonies in Encino Sunday.