TELEVISIONVCRs Are Humming: Viewers might grumble about...

TELEVISION

VCRs Are Humming: Viewers might grumble about what’s available on network TV but the season really isn’t that bad, according to Dorothy Swanson, founder-president of the nonprofit Viewers for Quality Television. “The really telling answer is that people’s VCRs are very busy,” she said. “I think they’re beginning to see that it is a pretty good season.” Two new fall shows that Swanson’s 3,000-member group especially likes are the hospital drama “ER” on NBC and CBS’ “Under Suspicion,” which features Karen Sillas as a lone female detective struggling to succeed in a male-dominated police precinct. In its semi-annual survey of members, which Swanson says drew about 1,000 replies, Viewers for Quality Television selected only those two shows for its “fully endorsed” list, where they join a dozen programs that were previously named. Dropped from the list were “Seinfeld” and “Sisters,” which now are given “qualified support,” meaning they have the potential to join the elite. New fall shows added to the qualified list are “Chicago Hope,” “Due South,” “My So-Called Life” and “Party of Five.” The viewers’ group, based in Fairfax Station, Va., gave its full endorsement to five NBC series, five CBS series, three on ABC and only one--”The X Files”--on Fox.

MOVIES

Sundance Lineup: Sixteen documentaries and 18 dramatic films have been selected for showing at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival Jan. 19-29 in Park City, Utah, it was announced Monday. Among the documentaries: “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times” (directed by music producer Don Was, about former Beach Boy Brian Wilson), “A Litany for Survival: The Life & Work of Audre Lorde” (Michelle Parkerson) and “Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter” (Deborah Hoffmann). Dramatic entries include “Angela” (Rebecca Miller), “The Brothers McMullen” (Edward Burns) and “The Wife” (Tom Noonan). The festival is sponsored by the Sundance Institute, which was founded in 1981 by Robert Redford.

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Together Again?: Meanwhile, Paul Newman says he and Redford would like to make another movie together. “We’ve been looking for a script we want to do for 20 years, and we’ve never been able to find one,” Newman told New York Newsday. The two were paired in “The Sting” in 1973 and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” in 1969. Newman will next be seen in “Nobody’s Fool,” in which he plays a ne’er-do-well construction worker who rents a room from Jessica Tandy, her last screen role. The movie is to be released Christmas Day.

STAGE

Yankee Heads to Long Beach: Luke Yankee has been named producing artistic director of Long Beach Civic Light Opera, replacing producer Barry Brown, who resigned earlier this year. A former artistic director of Struthers Library Theatre in Pennsylvania and assistant to Harold Prince on the Broadway production of “Grind,” Yankee recently staged the Florida premiere of “Oleanna” at Coconut Grove Playhouse and is directing a workshop production, “Swanson on Sunset,” scheduled to open at the Cinegrill in Hollywood next week. Yankee will start his duties Dec. 8, but Brown will produce the first two shows of the coming season, “Can Can” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’.”

MUSIC

A Homecoming for Mehta: Conductor Zubin Mehta said he waited “for more than 30 years” to bring the Israel Philharmonic orchestra to his native India. On Sunday, the wait was rewarded when Mehta and his musicians won the cheers of a New Dehli audience of 7,000. It was the first time an Israeli orchestra had appeared in India--the two countries did not have full diplomatic relations until 1992. Mehta has been music director of the group since 1977 and formerly conducted the New York and Los Angeles philharmonic orchestras. Sunday’s event was billed as a “Concert for Peace” to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the birth of independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi.

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Upgrading the Bowl: In the first phase of a renovation now under way at Hollywood Bowl, the seating area directly below the stage, formerly called “the pool section,” will be newly configured, and will offer larger boxes, wider seats and personal valet services, the L.A. Philharmonic Assn. announced. Charter memberships in the Pool Circle are available to patrons who wish to become Hollywood Bowl Benefactors. Membership includes a season box for four, with VIP parking and other benefits. Patrons may subscribe to one or more series, or to the entire summer season. The Pool Circle will also be wheelchair accessible. According to Philharmonic Executive Vice President and Managing Director Ernest Fleischmann, the Pool Circle is expected to provide much-needed revenue for the Bowl and for the orchestra, both of which have suffered severe funding reductions in recent years.