TELEVISIONHeart-Stopping Sale: Turner Entertainment Group has acquired...

TELEVISION

Heart-Stopping Sale: Turner Entertainment Group has acquired exclusive off-network rights to the hit drama “ER” from Warner Bros. The series will become available to T.E.G. in September 1998, said Bob Levi, executive vice president, T.E.G. program administration and acquisition. Turner paid a record $105.6 million for 88 episodes, according to a Daily Variety story. A T.E.G. spokesman would not comment on how much the series cost, but said according to the agreement with Warner Bros., T.E.G. will acquire a minimum of 88 episodes for telecast for an initial term of four years. “We are extremely pleased to have acquired the No. 1 show on television,” Levi said. Edward Bleier, president, Warner Bros. domestic pay TV, cable and network features, said the company was also pleased with the deal. “We’re delighted T.E.G. will be able to provide such a high-profile home for the off-network telecasts.” The series, which follows the lives of overworked hospital residents, has as one of its stars George Clooney, who plays a charming, but womanizing pediatrician.

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Kids’ Programming Notes: PBS’ award-winning animated science series “The Magic School Bus,” starring Lily Tomlin as the voice of wacky “teacher extraordinaire” Ms. Frizzle, will expand from a weekly program to a five-days-a-week show starting this fall. . . . “Dexter’s Laboratory” a cartoon short from Hanna-Barbera and the Cartoon Network, will expand into a new half-hour weekly series that will air on three Turner-owned cable stations--Cartoon Network, TBS and TNT, starting April 28. The program, the first series to come from Cartoon Network’s year-old “World Premiere Toons” project, will be paired with a “Dexter’s Laboratory” spinoff, “Dial M. for Monkey.”

THE ARTS

Dancing Dangerously: “Break a leg” may mean something other than good luck to dancers in some of Broadway’s hottest hits. A medical study found the steeply sloped theater stages that help audiences see a musical’s complex choreography triple the dancers’ risk for sprains, strains and other injuries. The steepest stages are “like standing on a ski slope,” said Dr. Randolph Evans of the University of Texas, whose study appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Evans studied 313 Broadway performers in 23 shows, from “Les Miserables” to “Phantom of the Opera,” and found nearly 56% had suffered a performance-related injury. The current industry standard is that stages be sloped no more than 1 inch per foot of stage space. The hit “Miss Saigon” has that maximum slope--and had the highest percentage of injuries in Evans’ study, with 15 of the 17 “Miss Saigon” performers studied suffering injuries. “Cats” was the only other play to reach the maximum stage slop, and 16 of its 22 performers studied were injured. Most of the injuries were sprains or strains of the knees, ankles or feet.

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NEA Guidelines: The new National Endowment for the Arts guidelines will be explained at a public meeting Monday at 6 p.m. at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., in downtown Los Angeles. The agency’s new application process will be explained by A.B. Spellman, NEA director of office guidelines.

POP/ROCK

Concerts Postponed: AC/DC’s concerts at the Pond of Anaheim Monday night and the Forum on Thursday were postponed due to the death last weekend of singer Brian Johnson’s father. A spokeswoman for the band said Johnson will be spending this week at home in England, and that the Pond and Forum shows will probably be rescheduled for late February or April.

QUICK TAKES

Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Entertainment Group and Hyperion Books will publish this fall a health and fitness book by Bob Green, the exercise physiologist who helped the talk-show host lose 87 pounds. . . . Susan Sarandon and Harrison Ford were chosen Woman of the Year and Man of the Year by Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Sarandon will receive her Pudding Pot from the drama group on Feb. 12, while Ford will be honored Feb. 20. Sarandon stars in the movie “Dead Man Walking,” while Ford is in “Sabrina.”. . . Former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite is reportedly back on his feet after having his right knee replaced in a six-hour operation. The knee had been “agitated by tennis,” Cronkite, 79, told the New York Post. Cronkite is recuperating at his Manhattan home with his wife, Betsy, and is expected to be back to normal by April, the Post said. . . .Bruce Springsteen’s international solo acoustic theater tour will begin Feb. 12 in Frankfurt, Germany. The tour is expected to reach at least 24 cities in 12 countries, including, France, England and Spain. It will end in early April.