TELEVISIONChanging Charlies: Charles Kuralt bid goodby to...

TELEVISION

Changing Charlies: Charles Kuralt bid goodby to CBS’ “Sunday Morning” on Sunday. “Time for us to part, you and I,” said Kuralt, 59, who is retiring from CBS News after 37 years. “I aim to do some traveling and reading and writing, and to watch this program the civilized way for a change--in my bathrobe, while having breakfast.” He kept his sign-off to a tight 60 seconds, including the recitation of a poem by Clarence Day that goes, in part: “Farewell, my friends, farewell and hail; I’m off to seek the Holy Grail. . . . Tiddly-widdly-toodle-oo.” After the final fade-out, Kuralt was met with cheers from 50 current and former colleagues. Charles Osgood will succeed Kuralt as anchor of the program beginning this week. Osgood, 61, shares a reputation with Kuralt as one of the best writers in broadcasting. He anchors and writes “The Osgood Files” on CBS Radio and provides commentary for “CBS This Morning.” Osgood joined CBS News in 1971 and anchored the network’s morning news show from 1987 to 1992. CBS News President Eric Ober said that Osgood will continue his work on CBS Radio and that the format of “Sunday Morning” will remain the same.

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No April Fool’s Joke: ABC’s “Home” show, which last month deleted comments by a guest who criticized alcohol advertising, had to go to the editing machine again Friday when movie reviewer Nora Fraser abruptly halted her assessment of “Clifford” and spoke out against the mistreatment of farm animals. Her remarks were carried live on the East Coast but were deleted for the tape-delayed broadcast in the West--including her giving out the phone number for the Humane Farming Assn. A spokesman for the San Francisco-based animal rights group said it received hundreds of phone inquiries after the broadcast. ABC could not be reached for comment. “Home” is going off the air Friday, a victim of low ratings.

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The Magic Touch: New coach Magic Johnson isn’t only trying to inspire the Lakers’ performance in the NBA, he’s also helping the team’s television ratings. Thursday’s 95-92 loss to Seattle--the Lakers’ first game on a Los Angeles TV station with Johnson as coach--drew a 7.4 rating for KCAL-TV Channel 9, the highest of the season, according to figures compiled by A. C. Nielsen Co. The previous best was a 6.8 for a 109-102 victory at Orlando on Dec. 21. By comparison, the Clippers-Phoenix Suns telecast that began half an hour later Thursday on KCOP-TV Channel 13 had a 1.3 rating. Each local rating point represents 50,064 households.

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Lawsuit: Soap opera star Brian Patrick Clarke, who plays Storm on “The Bold and the Beautiful,” is suing the Los Angeles Police Department, claiming he was roughed up when he complained about his car being towed. Clarke sued Police Chief Willie Williams and the two officers who arrested him last summer, Darren Holst and Samuel Huizar, in L.A. Superior Court on Friday seeking unspecified damages for alleged assault and battery, negligence, false imprisonment and civil rights violations. Clarke claims that he left a movie theater to find his car towed and that when he asked the officers about it he was sprayed with a disabling cayenne pepper solution.

MOVIES

Home Run: “Major League II,” the baseball comedy from Warner Bros., slid into first place at the box office during the Easter weekend. The movie took in $7 million, according to early industry estimates. Another sports movie sequel was next: Walt Disney Pictures’ “D2: The Mighty Ducks” grossed $6.6 million. In third, Universal’s “The Paper” with $5.6 million, and in fourth, Paramount’s “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult” with $5.3 million. Universal’s “Schindler’s List,” was still a force in fifth place with $4 million.

STAGE

South Coast Line-Up: South Coast Repertory will present Cheryl L. West’s “Jar the Floor,” Nov. 4-Dec. 4, and “God’s Heart,” a new play by Craig Lucas, March 3-April 2, 1995. Another production of “Jar the Floor” is currently at the Old Globe in San Diego. Lucas’ “Blue Window” and the premieres of his “Three Postcards” and “Prelude to a Kiss” were previous South Coast successes. One additional new play for the coming season is being announced today--Margaret Edson’s “Wit,” slated for March 17-April 16, 1995.

POP/ROCK

Tickets Fly Away: “Welcome Back Eagles, We’ve Waited Long Enough,” read a banner outside the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Saturday where thousands of fans crowded the parking lot waiting to buy tickets to the Eagles reunion concert. But many Eagles fans will still have to wait to hear the mellow band. The 60,000 tickets for the originally scheduled four shows on May 27, 28, 29 and 31, plus 15,000 tickets for a fifth show added June 1 to meet the demand, sold out in just 90 minutes. Fans who arrived at the amphitheater as early as 5:45 a.m. did not have an advantage--to control the crowd, numbers were given out at random to those who showed up before 7 a.m. Each person was allowed to buy up to eight tickets. There were also lines of up to 500 people at Ticketmaster ticket agencies in the Southland. And countless others tried to get through to the Ticketmaster phone lines. The tickets for the Eagles concert set for June 2 at the Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion in San Bernardino also sold out briskly.

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Murder, They Wrote: Two new books claim Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones was murdered in his swimming pool in 1969, a month after he split with the band. A coroner ruled at the time that 27-year-old Jones drowned in the pool at his Sussex, England, estate “while under the influence of alcohol and drugs.” Both books--”Paint It Black: The Murder of Brian Jones” by Geoffrey Giuliano and “Who Killed Christopher Robin?” by Terry Rawlings--claim the pop star was murdered by London builder Frank Thorogood, who died in November. The books were excerpted in London tabloid newspapers on Sunday. Sussex police said they would look at any new evidence.