CNN ‘zines’ press ahead; Discover more about RFK; Tonys take the stage; more ‘Tales of the City’

Sunday

“NewsStand” / 10 p.m. CNN

The ‘90s have been a boom time for TV newsmagazines: multiple “Dateline NBCs,” three nights of “20/20” and rumors of a second “60 Minutes” next season. This week, CNN and three publications of its parent Time Warner corporation join forces under the umbrella title “NewsStand.” “CNN and Time” (with Jeff Greenfield and Bernard Shaw) will be seen Sundays and Mondays, “CNN and Fortune” (Willow Bay and Stephen Frazier) airs Wednesdays, and “CNN and Entertainment Weekly” (Judd Rose and Bay) rounds out the lineup on Thursdays.

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“The Cowboy and the Movie Star” / 7 p.m. Family Channel

Sean Young stars as an actress who’s probably been to lots of cattle calls, just not the literal kind. While on location filming a movie within this cable movie, she avoids a head-on collision between her car and a cow but ends off-road and unconscious. She happens onto a hard-luck cowboy (Perry King) who can’t leave his bovine charges to take her back to civilization. So despite their abrasive relations early on, she, he, his dog and the little dogies set off together.

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“Robert Kennedy: A Memoir” / 8 p.m. and midnight Discovery Channel

Author Jack Newfield adapts his book of the same name to a three-hour television remembrance hosted in segments by Glenn Close, former New York governor Mario Cuomo and Ving Rhames. Newfield and filmmaker Charles C. Stuart concentrate on the evolution of Kennedy’s politics and character, beginning in 1953 (when he was an investigator for Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s now-infamous committee) through archival footage and interviews with family members and colleagues. Newfield notes that Kennedy fearlessly “took on the darkest and most violent forces in American life”: the Mob, the Teamsters, the Klan, racists and the military establishment on Vietnam.

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“The 52nd Annual Tony Awards” / 9 p.m. CBS

Rosie O’Donnell, who starred in “Grease” in 1994 and remains one the most high-profile fans of Broadway, hosts the awards honoring the best stage productions of the year. Best play nominees include “Art,” “Freak,” “Golden Child” and “The Beauty of Leenane.” Competing in the musicals category are “Ragtime,” Side Show,” “The Capeman,” “The Lion King” and “The Scarlet Pimpernel.” Some of the awards will be handed out on “Broadway ‘98: Launching the Tonys,” airing at 8 p.m. on KCET.

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“Armistead Maupin’s More Tales of the City” / 9 p.m. Showtime

The sequel about the diverse characters whose lives intertwine in 1977 San Francisco (six weeks after the original miniseries left off) stars original cast members Olympia Dukakis, Laura Linney, William Campbell, Barbara Garrick and Thomas Gibson, as well as guest stars Swoosie Kurtz, Edward Asner, Paul Bartel and Parker Posey. You may recall seeing the original “Tales of the City” (before last week’s reprise on Showtime) on public TV. But PBS executives opted out of the sequel--not because of the heat they took over the themes of drugs and sex, they said, but because the price for the follow-up was deemed too high.

Monday

“Forgive or Forget” / 3 p.m. KCOP

Author, radio and television personality Mother Love takes daytime talk shows in a different direction. Instead of celebrities, anger or confrontation, this new daily show starts from the proposition that confession is good for the soul. With Mother Love’s support and encouragement, participants unburden themselves of past misdeeds, then wait for a moment of revelation: Is the aggrieved party waiting behind a door (ready to forgive)? If not behind the door, the victim is on videotape, telling why their attitude is “forget it.”

Tuesday

“Women’s Film Festival” / 9 p.m. Lifetime

Penny Marshall introduces four short films selected from scripts submitted to the American Film Institute and interviews the films’ directors. “Rituals” finds a jealous wife turning to voodoo against a wayward husband. “World Upon Her Shoulders” is the story of a little girl’s love for her manic-depressive mother. “Icebergs” focuses on a woman, her adult daughters and the noisy old refrigerator that echoes the women’s conflict. In “Seed,” a female cop undergoes artificial insemination, then learns the donor may be a suspect in one of her cases.

Wednesday

“Great Performances: Swan Lake” / 9 p.m. KCET

Choreographer Matthew Bourne stages an edgy version of “Swan Lake” that stormed Los Angeles in a well-received premiere last year. The taped-for-TV performance is sure to ruffle more feathers of die-hard ballet traditionalists. This “Swan” is set in 1950s London with themes more reminiscent of “Jerry Springer” than of the family holiday classic. Young Prince Siegfried is too attached to his mother the Queen (while she finds her son an embarrassment), jealous of her young lovers and troubled by his recurring visions of swans. (Here’s another twist: The swans are not dressed in tutus--and they’re not female.)