TELEVISIONABC, CBS Set Saturday Lineups: ABC will...

TELEVISION

ABC, CBS Set Saturday Lineups: ABC will add three new half-hour series, plus a quarterly slate of original 90-minute children’s movies, to its fall Saturday morning children’s schedule. The new series, which will premiere Sept. 10, are “Free Willy,” an animated adventure series from the producers of the feature film; “Reboot,” a computerized series about a living personal computer, and “Bump in the Night,” a clay animation and puppetry program about toys that come to life when children aren’t looking. A fourth series, “Fudge,” based on the children’s book by Judy Blume and produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, will debut in January. The first of the “Saturday Morning Matinee” film series, an animated, musical adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden,” will air Nov. 5. . . . At rival network CBS, four new series, including “Disney’s Aladdin” and “Beethoven,” both half-hour animated versions of the box-office hits, will join the Saturday-morning lineup this fall. Other new additions are “Skeleton Warriors,” a high-tech animated fantasy show, and “WILDC.A.T.S.,” based on a best-selling comic book about two alien races fighting to rule planet Earth.

* ‘Sesame Street’ Goes Prime Time: Barbara Walters hosts a newsmagazine, a fictitious “25/25,” as part of “Sesame Street’s 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever,” a prime-time special airing on ABC May 18. Walters offers a “shocking” report on what appears to be the end of the road for the venerable “Sesame Street” when greedy real-estate tycoon Ronald Grump (played by Joe Pesci) plans to demolish the quaint street to build a luxury complex. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Rhea Perlman, Danny DeVito, John Goodman, Rosie O’Donnell and Rick Moranis also appear in the special, which includes highlights from the past 25 years of the award-winning children’s program.

MOVIES

Snipes Cited in Florida Chase: Actor Wesley Snipes, who was recently placed on unsupervised probation in Los Angeles after pleading no contest to carrying a loaded weapon, has had another run-in with the law. The actor was cited for reckless driving after a 120-m.p.h. police chase in Jupiter, Fla., that ended with Snipes being thrown from his motorcycle when it was bumped by a patrol car, authorities said. The actor wasn’t seriously hurt and refused medical treatment at the scene. Police said that Snipes threw something on the road during Monday night’s chase, which lasted for 30 miles. A package of marijuana was later found near the site, but no drug charges were immediately filed. A spokesman for the actor, who was in Florida filming the movie, “Drop Zone,” said that Snipes, 31, was speeding but not trying to elude police. “Contrary to rumors of an intentional high-speed chase, Snipes was unaware of the patrol car trailing him,” the spokesman said.

* ‘Casablanca’ Redux: A Hollywood sequel is in the works to the 1942 film classic “Casablanca.” Warner Books, the Time Warner subsidiary that published “Scarlett,” the 1991 “Gone With the Wind” sequel currently being produced as a TV movie, has hired authors Gerald Petievich and Gabrielle Humphreys to write what’s currently titled “Casablanca, the Sequel.” Daily Variety columnist Army Archerd, who reported that the book will also be turned into a TV miniseries, suggested a different title: “As Time Goes By.”

THE ARTS

MOCA to Reopen TC: Two years after closing its popular Temporary Contemporary exhibition space to make way for a city building project that still hasn’t gotten off the ground, the Museum of Contemporary Art has announced plans to reopen the TC. CalArts students this month will use part of the building to substitute for campus facilities damaged during the Northridge earthquake. MOCA Art Auction ‘94, the museum’s biennial fund-raiser, will take place at the TC on June 3, with the works to be auctioned on public view at the space May 21-June 2. Next year, “Action Occupation,” a series of shows by Elizabeth Streb and her company, Ringside, will inaugurate the TC’s performance programming Feb. 22-March 4. The space’s first major exhibition, an examination of conceptual art called “1965-1975: Reconsidering the Object of Art,” is slated to open May 7, 1995.

* High-Powered Acting School: The Actors Studio and the New School for Social Research in New York are creating a new graduate program in acting, directing and playwriting at the New School. The new MFA program will be developed and taught by members of the Actors Studio, who include Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Arthur Penn and Sydney Pollack. The plans were announced by Paul Newman, the group’s president.

POP/ROCK

‘Lollapalooza’ Cast Set: With Nirvana no longer the planned headliner for the “Lollapalooza ‘94” tour, organizers announced Wednesday that the fourth edition of the alternative-rock caravan would, as expected, feature Smashing Pumpkins, the Beastie Boys and the Breeders. Also scheduled are George Clinton & the P-Funk Allstars, a Tribe Called Quest, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, L7 and the Boredoms. No other headline-level band will be brought on to replace Nirvana, which has pulled out of negotiations for the tour because of lead singer Kurt Cobain’s health problems. The tour will begin July 1, with exact dates and locations to be announced later.