TV REVIEWS : ‘Giving Thanks’ Before Turkey Day

What can you make of a show that proclaims its aim is to give the audience a “head start on counting your blessings” the night before Thanksgiving when the only blessing to be derived will be from skipping this turkey?

“48 Hours: Giving Thanks” should have been a nice change of pace from the CBS newsmagazine’s frequently dismal turf of crime, drug abuse, malpractice and the like as well as a pleasant diversion the night before you-know-what. Instead, Dan Rather & Co. deliver a look at altruism that is irritating when it isn’t jerking your tears.

Lack of focus is the problem. “Giving Thanks” mixes up feel-goodism with dabs of real journalism to the detriment of both.

The show starts with the obligatory “48 Hours” star search, in this case Rather interviewing Elton John about his AIDS foundation, serving up softballs for a solemn John to whack out of the park, taking John’s claims about the foundation at face value at the same time Rather takes an unanswered shot at Dionne Warwick’s foundation.

A segment on Michael Christensen’s Clown Care Unit comes closest to the show’s stated theme--Christensen and his troupe provide a heartwarming alternative form of medicine hard to resist. But the good feelings are dashed in the next segment about Dance Theatre of Harlem and the fierce competition for dollars; the spirit of giving is reduced to a contest to snag the wallets of New York’s elite.

Counting blessings? How about the segment on a Chicago boy who wins a scholarship and then gets murdered on a mean street? Gee, I felt good knowing that a foundation gave two scholarships in his name --especially after watching the open casket memorial service.

Give thanks for remote control.

“48 Hours: Giving Thanks” airs at 10:10 tonight on CBS (Channels 2 and 8). (The late start is due to “The Wizard of Oz” running long.)