TELEVISIONMoriarty Blasts Reno: “Law & Order” star...

TELEVISION

Moriarty Blasts Reno: “Law & Order” star Michael Moriarty blasted Atty. Gen. Janet Reno on Thursday, charging her with strong-arming television networks into taking violence off the air. During a press conference in New York, Moriarty, flanked by representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union, compared Reno to the late anti-communist zealot Sen. Joseph McCarthy and likened her efforts to the strict Cultural Revolution in China. “She’s disgraced the entire tree of criminal justice,” said Moriarty, who plays a district attorney on TV. Moriarty was among several TV figures who met with Reno in Washington last month, but he contends she was uninterested in their point of view.

Beard’s Parting Shot: In an open letter to the management of KNBC-TV Channel 4, departing anchor John Beard criticized some of the station’s news policies. In a six-paragraph memo that was circulating in the Burbank newsroom Thursday, Beard offered several pieces of advice, including: “First, and most important, if you call it news, make sure it is. (Example: 16 minutes of Michael Jackson at the top of the show isn’t.)” Beard left the station Wednesday after 13 years; he’ll begin anchoring KTTV-TV Channel 11’s 10 p.m. news Monday. KNBC news director Mark Hoffman declined to comment on Beard’s letter.

Plot Parallels Reality: Television fiction turned to reality in Vancouver, Canada, this week during shooting of Brian Dennehy’s upcoming ABC series, “Birdland.” While filming a scene in which a guest character contemplates suicide by jumping off a bridge, the cast and crew heard a scream and a splash of a real would-be suicide victim who leaped from the bridge nearby. Police were able to rescue the jumper, thanks to the production crew, which quickly called for help and turned their strong lights onto the water to illuminate the area.

New Projects for Parton, Gossett: Country star Dolly Parton is set to star in the CBS comedy series “Dixie Fixin’s,” set to premiere next fall. Parton will play Dixie Mason, the host of a Chicago cable cooking show who becomes involved in a series of romantic adventures and mishaps off the set. . . . Louis Gossett Jr. is set to star in a recurring series of NBC TV movies about a San Francisco private investigator who also owns a cash-strapped bar and restaurant.

FX Launch Date Set: FX, Fox’s new basic cable network will launch March 1. Seven hours of live original programming are planned each day, including a morning show, hourly news and weather reports, a “Nightline”-like evening show, an exercise show, a pet show and a “Garage Sale” show offering belongings from a different family each day. FX, based in New York, has committed $100 million to its first year’s programming.

THE ARTS

Like Father, Like Son: Famed conductor Zubin Mehta will conduct the American Youth Symphony at Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theater on Sunday, replacing his 85-year-old father, Mehli Mehta, who is recovering from laryngitis and will miss the concert on doctor’s orders. The elder Mehta founded the orchestra--which features 110 16-to-25-year-old Los Angeles musicians--and has been its musical director and conductor for 29 years. Considered one of the world’s top conductors, the younger Mehta is musical director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He will fly in from Israel to fill his father’s shoes on Sunday.

RADIO

KPWR Delays Explicit Lyrics Decision: KPWR-FM (“Power 106”) has decided to delay a decision on whether it will delete certain lyrics from rap songs and instead is going to encourage wider debate on the issue today with a forum, 6 to 10 a.m. Community leaders, performers and record company executives are being invited onto the radio station to discuss the effectiveness of deleting offensive words. Earlier this week, a coalition of concerned listeners asked the station to drop such words from rap songs as a way to combat violence. KPWR officials said they will make a final decision on the request sometime later this year or early next year.

QUICK TAKES

Director Oliver Stone will receive the annual Career Achievement Award from the Writers Guild of America during a Dec. 15 tribute in Beverly Hills. The event includes a preview of Stone’s new film, “Heaven & Earth” . . . Salsa music queen Celia Cruz and eclectic rocker David Byrne were scheduled to share a stage in Mexico City Thursday night to raise funds for Mexico’s first hospice for people with AIDS. The show is the first benefit concert of its kind in Mexico. . . . A public preview of a Hollywood memorabilia auction that includes Judy Garland’s Oscar for “The Wizard of Oz” (valued at $70,000 to $90,000) will be held today at Maxfield’s, 8825 Melrose Ave., from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. All items will be auctioned Dec. 18 at Christie’s East in New York. . . . The Glendale Symphony Orchestra announced Thursday that it will leave its longtime performance site at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion after the close of the current season. The symphony will move to Glendale’s city-owned Alex Theatre for its 1994-95 season, starting next fall. The symphony will also perform as part of a New Year’s program launching the newly renovated theater.