MORNING REPORT - News from Dec. 23, 2000

TV & RADIO

Peacock Plans: “Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot,” NBC’s two-part, four-hour drama about the Kennedy wives with Jill Hennessy as Jackie Kennedy, has been moved from early February, out of the key ratings sweeps period, to March 4 and 5. It will be replaced on the Feb. 4 schedule by “Semper Fi,” an unsold pilot about the Marines, produced by Steven Spielberg. Also in February: Derek Jacobi (“I, Claudius”) will be a guest on an episode of “Frasier” as a hammy Shakespearean actor. Another British veteran, Patrick Macnee (“The Avengers”), will also be a guest on that program as the thespian’s womanizing father. And on Feb. 18, the network will carry “Best of West Wing,” two episodes chosen by viewers based on results from an online poll.

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‘Sex’ and ‘Oz’: New installments of HBO’s “Sex and the City,” which goes into production in March, will be curtailed from 18 to 12 episodes in anticipation of separate threatened strikes by the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America this summer. The cable channel’s prison drama “Oz” will begin a run of eight new episodes on Jan. 7, airing in a new Sunday slot at 10 p.m. Former “Beverly Hills, 90210” star Luke Perry will play a recurring televangelist character serving time for embezzling from his congregation.

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Here Comes . . . .: Judge Jerry Sheindlin is leaving “The People’s Court,” to be replaced on the syndicated TV show by Marilyn Milian, who resigned from the Miami Circuit Court this week. Cases with Milian, the first female judge to appear on the long-running program, will air in March.

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Doing Dickens: In a Christmas Eve tradition, KNX-AM (1070) will broadcast “A Christmas Carol” Sunday at 9 p.m. Lionel Barrymore stars as Ebenezer Scrooge in the one-hour program originally heard on the CBS Radio Network and KNX in 1934. KABC-AM (790) will carry a 1939 “Campbell’s Playhouse” production of the story Monday at 6:05 a.m. and 2:05 p.m.

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Albom Covered: KABC-AM (790) will begin airing the syndicated “Mitch Albom Show,” hosted by the sportswriter and author of “Tuesdays With Morrie,” next week. The program, which debuts late Wednesday night will air weeknights from midnight to 2 a.m.

MUSIC

Pearl Jam Follow-Up: Investigators say poor sound quality was the “most important reason” for the tragedy at Pearl Jam’s ill-fated June performance at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, where nine fans died and 43 others were injured. A new 24-page report from Danish investigators states that poor sound in the rear of the venue prompted many of the 50,000 fans to surge forward and, with muddy ground beneath them, some audience members fell and were suffocated or trampled. The report criticized concert organizers for indecision and a slow response once the crisis began to unfold, but investigators said no charges will be filed in the matter. Meanwhile, the Roskilde Festival Web site says the concert will return in November and details new safety measures to be put in place.

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Bad Vibrations: The Beach Boys and their former record company are suing each other, both claiming they own “Surfin’ Safari” and some of the band’s other early recordings. The suits involve six records made in 1962 at the home of the late Dorinda and Hite Morgan, founders of Deck Records. Their son, Bruce Morgan, filed a $5-million suit in federal court Wednesday claiming the Beach Boys broke a 1962 agreement involving the records, which include “Surfin’ Safari.” Lawyers for surviving band members Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine have filed suit against Deck Records and Surf’s Up! Records. The band claims they own the material and Morgan had no right to license Surf’s Up! to sell their songs over the Internet. The Beach Boys want royalties on past record sales, estimated at $80 million.

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Philly Friendly: The Philadelphia Orchestra will create a permanently endowed chair for its music director with a $10-million gift from Walter H. Annenberg and his wife, Leonore. The gift, announced Thursday, is the largest single donation made to the orchestra’s endowment, which is currently about $80 million. Wolfgang Sawallisch, the orchestra’s music director, will be the first to occupy the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Music Director Chair. The orchestra is searching for someone to replace Sawallisch, 77, who wants to retire from the position.

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More From Merv: Fifty years after his hit “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts,” Merv Griffin is releasing a new album. Griffin’s “It’s Like a Dream” will be released March 15 by Pat Boone’s Gold Label, which is geared for the over-50 crowd. The new Griffin CD features 10 selections, including “My Funny Valentine,” “The More I See You” and “You Stepped Out of a Dream.”

QUICK TAKES

This weekend’s “CBS News Sunday Morning” (6-7:30 a.m.) will air a rare interview with artist Yoko Ono on the occasion of “Yes: Yoko Ono,” a retrospective of her work on view at the Japan Society in New York. . . . Thanks in large part to the protracted presidential election, NBC’s “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” attracted an average of 6.8 million viewers last week, the program’s largest audience since Christmas week of 1999. . . . Joy Philbin hosts “The White House Christmas 2000,” a half-hour special airing today at 7 and 10 p.m. on cable’s Home & Garden Television channel. “At Home With . . . ,” a new series also hosted by Philbin, will premiere in April. . . . The art-house hit “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” has been named best film of the year by the Toronto Film Critics Assn. . . . Fox has ordered an additional 18 episodes of the animated series “Futurama.”