ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTS FROM THE TIMES, NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS.

TELEVISION

The New TV Season, Round 1: NBC’s “Deadline” and CBS’ “Yes, Dear” posted respectable starts as the fall TV season got underway Monday, while the fifth-season premiere of “Everybody Loves Raymond” scored the highest rating ever for that series. Despite poor numbers for the NBC sitcoms “Daddio” and “Tucker” preceding it, “Deadline,” the new drama starring Oliver Platt, climbed to a solid 14.3 million viewers in Nielsen estimates, versus a record audience of 22 million watching the hourlong edition of “Raymond.” “Yes, Dear,” a new sitcom sandwiched between “King of Queens” and “Raymond,” was also widely sampled, with 14.6 million viewers. Among other returning shows, NBC’s “Third Watch” kicked off its second season well, rebounding from its lead-in deficit to beat CBS’ “Family Law.” Fox’s “Sexiest Bachelor in America” special, meanwhile, ran a weak fourth for the night, with just over 8.3 million viewers. The program attracted about half the audience of Fox’s last take on a beauty pageant, “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?”

*

No Takers: The Oscar that James Cagney won for his role in “Yankee Doodle Dandy” went unsold at a Pax TV and Internet auction last week. “The international audience of bidders was completely silent when Cagney’s Oscar was offered in the sale,” said auction house Doyle New York, with Chairman Kathleen M. Doyle noting Tuesday that bidders apparently “respected the [Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’] view that the real value of the Oscar is in its professional distinction, and therefore no profit should be made by its sale.” Cagney’s Oscar was awarded in 1942; since 1949, Oscar recipients have had to sign agreements promising not to sell their awards without first giving the academy the chance to buy them back for $1 each.

MOVIES

Park Force Isn’t With Him: A film center that “Star Wars” director George Lucas is planning for San Francisco’s former Presidio military post is running into resistance from the National Park Service. Lucasfilm’s Digital Arts Center is too big and too modern for the 224-year-old former base and may not conform to federal laws intended to preserve historic areas, said Park Service regional head John Reynolds. Jim Meadows, president of the nonprofit organization that governs the Presidio, said that some modifications will be made to accommodate Reynolds’ concerns, but the idea will not be scrapped. The proposed $250-million center is the first major Presidio project since the former base was put in civilian hands six years ago. Plans for the film center include a ring of Greek columns, an artificial stream, a dining area and two water walls.

QUICK TAKES

Cable’s CNN will air the debate between New York’s U.S. Senate candidates, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rick Lazio, on Sunday at 7:30 a.m. The hourlong debate and a half-hour post-debate wrap-up will repeat at 5 p.m. . . . Carol Kane, Phylicia Rashad and Kimberly Williams will star in the second Los Angeles cast of “The Vagina Monologues,” appearing from Oct. 31 to Nov. 19 at the Canon Theatre. (Julie Kavner, Julianna Margulies and Rosie Perez star in the production Oct. 13-29). . . . Pasadena’s Armory Center for the Arts has won a $1.2- million grant from the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund. The grant, which supports efforts to encourage broader, more diverse audiences for the arts, will be doled out over four years. . . . Barbara Walters will do an exclusive sit-down interview with Barbra Streisand--their fifth together--on Nov. 3 on ABC’s “20/20.” . . . Singer Paul Anka’s wife, Anne, has filed for legal separation after 37 years of marriage, claiming irreconcilable differences. The couple have five daughters. . . . Colburn School of Performing Arts President Toby E. Mayman is retiring after 20 years with the downtown Los Angeles institution. The board plans a search for a new president.

*

Kudos: Filmmaker Sydney Pollack will receive the Artists Rights Foundation’s annual John Huston Award for outstanding commitment to artists’ rights at the second annual Directors Guild of America Honors taking place Dec. 10 in New York. . . . Three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (“Apocalypse Now,” “Reds,” “The Last Emperor”) will receive the American Society of Cinematographers’ annual Lifetime Achievement Award on Feb. 18. . . . Filmmaker Charles Guggenheim, a four-time documentary Oscar winner, will receive the 2000 International Documentary Assn.’s career achievement award Oct. 27. . . . Actors Billy Dee Williams, Jimmy Smits, Halle Berry, Omar Epps, Diane Ladd, Greg Kinnear and James Coburn, and directors Todd Solondz and Miguel Arteta will be honored by the Multicultural Motion Picture Assn. on Oct. 23 for their efforts to bring diversity to film and television. . . . Comedians Richard Belzer, Kevin Pollak, Al Franken, Alan King and Brett Butler will roast Rob Reiner on Friday at the New York Friars Club annual Celebrity Roast. Cable’s Comedy Central will televise a one-hour edited version of the event on Nov. 1.