TELEVISIONSexual Harassment Findings: Lewd remarks, suggestive touching...

TELEVISION

Sexual Harassment Findings: Lewd remarks, suggestive touching and other forms of sexual harassment are routine on network television, say University of Dayton researchers who studied sitcoms from ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. The study, which examined 26 sitcoms that aired on the networks in October and November of 1990 (prior to the confirmation hearings for then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas), classified 40% of the 307 incidents of sexual behavior shown on the programs as sexual harassment. The researchers based their findings on a legal definition of sexual harassment: unwelcome sexual behavior, which was manifested as sexual remarks, looks and gestures; kissing, touching or grabbing in a sexual manner; date requests and violations of personal space. “We were very surprised to discover there is a good deal” of sexual harassment on television, said Thomas Skill, an associate professor of communications. “More importantly, it is presented in such a way to make it seem acceptable.” All four networks declined to comment on the study.

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Going On Hiatus: ABC is taking its Sunday night comedy “On Our Own” off the schedule until March, at which time the show will return with a new cast member. Former “In Living Color” regular T’Keyah Crystal Keymah will play a “spirited contractor” who agrees to make repairs to the Jerrico family home in lieu of rent. The series, which has struggled in the ratings but nonetheless been picked up for a full 22-episode season, will have a special airing tonight at 8:30, then will return to its regular Sunday 7:30 p.m. spot in March. In the interim, ABC will air “classic episodes” of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” in that time slot.

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Station Switch: The hit weekday syndicated program “A Current Affair” and its companion weekend edition “A Current Affair: Extra” will move from KTTV/Fox Channel 11 to KNBC Channel 4 starting on Monday. Channel 4 will air “A Current Affair” (hosted by Penny Daniels) at 7:30 p.m., replacing the syndicated version of “The Price Is Right.” Meanwhile, Channel 11, which aired “A Current Affair” at 11:30 p.m., will fill the void with episodes of the 1970s series “MASH,” creating a two-episode block of the award-winning comedy on weeknights from 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m.

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Schedule Changes: KCAL Channel 9 is switching around several of its daytime talk programs. Starting Monday “The Marilyn Kagan Show” will move to 2 p.m.-3 p.m. weekdays, a change that is being previewed this week, when the show airs in both the old 9 a.m. and the new 2 p.m. time slots. Meanwhile, “Judge for Yourself,” which previously aired at 2 p.m., moved this week to the 11 a.m.-noon slot previously occupied by “Susan Powter” and the canceled “Jones and Jury.” Starting Monday Powter’s show will air at 9 a.m., followed by the comedy “227.”

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Miller Time: To Leslie Uggams, former TV star Mitch Miller is much more than the maestro of the sing-along. Miller discovered Uggams and stuck by her when times could have gotten tough. That’s why she’ll present him with the Congress of Racial Equality’s lifetime achievement award at a dinner in New York Jan. 16. A year after Miller saw Uggams as a game-show contestant, his “Sing Along With Mitch” went on the air, and he asked her to make a guest appearance. She became a regular on the show, which ran on NBC from January, 1961, to September, 1966, even though some stations in the South refused to air the programs with Uggams, who is black. “Mitch was told either I go or the show goes,” Uggams told the New York Times. “He said, ‘Either she stays or there’s no show.’ . . . To do that was heroic.”

POP/ROCK

Singing for Hunger Relief: Stevie Wonder will spend New Year’s Eve kicking off his national “Charge Against Hunger/Natural Wonder Tour” at Detroit’s Fox Theatre. The benefit concert tour, featuring Wonder backed by a 33-piece orchestra, includes a Jan. 14 performance at the Universal Amphitheatre. Wonder’s upcoming album, “Conversation Peace,” due in stores March 21, includes the song “Take the Time Out,” which is the anthem of Charge Against Hunger, a hunger-relief partnership formed in 1993 by American Express and Share Our Strength. Last year, Wonder’s efforts helped Charge Against Hunger raise $5.3 million.

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Music Video Screenings: “Ironbound,” a 22-minute short film inspired by Joe Jackson’s “Night Music” album and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, will be shown at United Artists’ Woodland Hills Theater in a three-day engagement starting Tuesday. The film will be screened twice daily, at 9 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. All screenings are free. “Ironbound” reunited Coppola and Jackson, who composed the score for Coppola’s 1988 film “Tucker.” The short film is scheduled to begin airing on cable’s VH-1 in mid-January.