The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 101

Talk Snows Big, Purple Dinosaur Barney charms kids, not adults pi i 1 v. i i -i i 1 THURSDAY (4 8LJK 8 ThisMorning TheOscarluncheon; editor Judson Hale Old Farmer's 40 Good Morning America Robert DeNiro Boy's former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft. Whoopi Goldberg Ozzy Osbourne. (R) 11 :00 a.m. QW) Maury Povich Cher.

7:00 p.m. (NSH) Crook and Chase Linda Davis; RebaMcEntire. 10:35 p.m. (10Q)(10R The Tonight Show Jay Thomas; Kathy Mat-tea; model Vendela.Q 11 :00 p.m. (NSH) Miller Company Moe Bandy.

11:35 p.m.Pl(J0l)(pR)(W3 Late Night With David Letterman Phil Hartman; James Brown. 12:05 a.m. Arsenio Hall Eddie Murphy; Iman; Jeff Cesario; musical group Silk featuring Keith Sweat. (R) FRIDAY This Morning Siskel Ebert's Oscar picks; Lisa Hartman; country singer Billy Dean. 7:00 a.m.

D) Q)(TOi)QW)0) Today Pain; JackieCollins Good Morning America James Brown; Aniel-ica Huston ('Family 9:00 a.m. CM)Q(6A) Regis Kathie Lee JackieCollins; Roger Eb-ert; Paula Poundstone. Preschoolers go bonkers over Barney. ton Post, John F. Kelly used such phrases as "Chinese water torture" and "until you want to put your head under a bus." TV Guide used the terms "condescending," "gooey" and "childish." Well, that's the fallout of success the Barney rubble, if you will.

"Oh, wonderful!" says Dr. Patricia Weissman, a cliild development specialist at the Merrill-Palmer Institute of Wayne State University in Detroit, upon hearing that other adults share her opinion of Barney. Wonderful, says Weissman, that I am a SUNDAY 7:00 a.m. (M) Today Authors David Heilbroner, Steven Kee-ney CM) Sunday Morning Trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison; pottery artist Michael Marcus. Business World Topic: world trade issues and the new Clinton trade policies.

Guest: Vice President Robert Hormats, Goldman Sachs Co. 11 :00 p.m. Whoopi Goldberg Michael Douglas; IceT. (R) Arsenio Hall George Wendt; Spinal Tap; comedian George Wallace; singer Bobby Caldwell. (R)Q MONDAY (6A) Good Morning America Bridget Fonda Point of No Whoopi Goldberg Don Rickles.

(R) 10:35 p.m. (M) QOR) The Tonight Show Musicians Michael Fein-stein, Kenny Burrell; comedian Carrot Top.Q 11 :00p.m.(NSH) Miller Company Riders in the Sky; Bill Gerick; Curtis Reed. 11 :35p.m. QlDlilDCir) Late Night With David Letterman Michael Jeter; band Arc Angels; children tell iokes. (R) Arsenio Hall Tony Bennett; Marisa Tomei.rj 12:35 a.m.

0j QEDCfOS LaterWith BobCostasAI Unser Jr. TUESDAY ThisMorning Spring gardening; Tracy Pollan.Q Today Pain; author William C. Rempel of a 7:00 a.m. QC Good Morning America Miranda Richardson; Mark Linn-Baker. Vicki! Diane Ladd; Brenda Vaccaro; Delia Reese; Edie McClurg.

11 :00 a.m. Whoopi Goldberg Barry Manilow. (R) 1 1 :00 a.m. Geraldo Performers from the New York stage: Maria Maples and Larry Gatlin, James Belu-shi, Mandy Patinkin, Lea Salonga. 8:00 p.m.(NSH) Nashville Now Marty Brown; Dean Miller; Porter Wagoner; Geechy Guy.

10:35 p.m. Q) QD The Tonight Show Denzel Washington; Elvis Costel lo and the Brodsky Quartet; Paula Poundstone. 11:35 p.m. PQ00D(l0R)CM)(O) Late Night With David Letterman Dolly Parton; actor Gabriel Byrne. 12:35 a.m.

QOQ) LaterWith Bob Costas Sports photographer Neil Leifer. WEDNESDAY ThisMorning Author E. Todd Williams; Irish music. 7:00 a.m. QD Good Morning America The Chieftains; Gabriel Byrne Point of No :00a.m.

Vicki! Osmond Brothers; Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. 10:00 a.m. Sally Jessy Raphael People who never see their grandchildren. Whoopi Goldberg Carol Burnett. (R) 8:00 p.m.

CNlS) Nashville Now Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass; Vicki Bird; Johnny Russell; Tommy Over-street. 10:35 p.m. The Tonight Show Bon Jovi; actors Dermot Mulroney, Jane Seymour. 11 :35 p.m. (TOQXfOfDQwjf! Late Night With David Letterman George Steinbrenner; Hothouse Flowers.

12:05 a.m. Whoopi Goldberg Carol Burnett. (R) 12:35 a.m. (10Q )i'lORj'13 LaterWith Bob Costas Dana Carvev. EEL 1 "Barney Friends Live I Aficionados can spend 2'j hours with the friendly dinosaur on the i IPT marathon today.

I Today, IPT at 10 a.m. I mother of two Barney groupies Tony, age 3, and Rosie, age 5 and I am a parent who cannot stand Barney. My husband and I roll our eyes at him. He makes us sick." As an expert, though, she understands Barney's appeal. It relates to the work of Jean Piaget, who studied how children think.

"He said their thinking is qualitatively different from the way adults think." Piaget held that "somewhere around the age of 2," cliildren discover "the power of imagination. This is something that adults usually hold very little respect for," says Weissman. Imagining, said Piaget (and Weissman agrees), "is essential to how children think and learn. Barney is absolutely the only cliildren's show that I'm aware of that is based on that notion. Barney would not exist without the child's symbolic play." "Another reason why cliildren love it is there's such a strong sense of unconditional love," Weissman says.

"He's always turning to the camera and saying, '1 love You can never underestimate the child's need and right to feel supported and valued and loved," though to adults Barney may be "sweet and sugary to the point of being grotesque." "We're not talking about affiliates yet," says CBS spokesman Michael Silver when asked what percentage of CBS affiliates have signed on for a live or delayed Letterman. "We'll know as we get closer," adds Silver, referring to the launch date which ranges from mid- to late August, depending on how long the 1927-built theater renovation takes. Clayton Koehler, program director at KMEG, voices a familiar refrain, however. He says that "Cheers" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" reruns are doing extremely well in the late-night time slots they currently occupy. "It would be difficult to bring him (Letterman) on when 'Star Trek' is beating Leno in the demographics (high number of young viewers)," he adds.

KGAN station manager Bill Anderson says he'll stick with his station's late night line-up: "Cheers," "Married With Children," and "Night Court-Anderson considers his schedule a work-in-progress, but he says he'll be real surprised to hear from viewers who want Letterman instead of this agenda of popular sitcom reruns. "We do pretty well now," he concludes, "in competing against lA'ttcr-nian." Moines Svhw Itenw akch J'JIW 7-TV By MARTIN F. K0HN Knioiit-Riddbr Newspapers orky, sappy, dippy and lame? Friendly, happy, cuddly and cute? They aren't attorneys, and they aren't characters in a remake of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." The dueling epithets sum up how adults and youngsters, respectively, feel about the children's entertainment phenomenon of the year: "Barney Friends." You know, the TV show about the purple dinosaur. You don't know? No preschooler in your life, huh? A quick summation, then: Barney, created by Sheryl Leach and Kathy O'Rourke Parker, is a 6-foot-4 Tyran-nosaurus rex (one actor wears the costume, another provides the voice). He hit the PBS airwaves last April after four years of starring in a popular series of home videos.

Since then, Barney has attracted almost 1.7 million young viewers each weekday. And we haven't even mentioned all the Barney products that are out there. For every young viewer he charms, Barney seems to repel an equal number of older viewers. "The grown-ups don't like Barney," says Diana Huss Green, editor-in-chief of Parents Choice, the influential Massachusetts-based review of children's media. Bashing Barney has become a participatory sport.

For adults. Writing about the purple one in the Washing- Letterman LATE NIGHT Continued from Page 3-TV the fancy-smancy Ed Sullivan Theater the network just bought for $4 million and is remodeling in New York City, Letterman most likely will not be seen before 1 1 p.m. Central Time. Why? Because local CBS affiliates are making too much money with syndicated programs (they don't have to share ad revenues with the network). So why take a chance on even the decent Indiana boy, who has proved himself in 1 1 years as the TV host with the most glib? CBS has instructed its affiliates that they can tape-delay Letterman for only a half-hour, explains KCCI vice president of operations John Pascuzzi.

He states firmly: "We will carry Letterman." But Pascuzzi isn't sure yet if it will be live at 10:35 or tape-delayed at 11:05 p.m. (Airing presently are reruns of "Murphy Brown" at 10:35 and "Magnum P.I." at 11:05.) And although Pascuzzi says that' KCCI will make that decision based on "the best situation for our viewers," what he means is what will pull the highest ratings and, in turn, make more money for the Des Moines station. The better.the ratings, the better faces local competition 7:00 p.m. (NSHJ Crook and Chase Billy Ray Cyrus. 7:30 p.m.(iPD Wall Street Week "Treasury Notes Under the Clinton Adminis- if ft Dolly Parton is a guest on "Late Night with David Letterman," Tuesday at 1 1:35 p.m.

on NBC. trotion" Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas). 10:35 p.m. (60) The Tonight Show James Garner; band Screaming Trees; children's TV personality David Heil.rj Arsenio Hall Fred Savage; Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello); musical group Portrait.

SATURDAY 11 :00 a.m. (Ilfjjane Pratt Hip hop crosses over into the mainstream. 1 1 :35 P.m. Whoopi Goldberg Will Smith; Andrew Dice Clay. (R) the profits, especially when it conies to syndicated programing which stations make more from than when they have to share the pie with the network, as I mentioned briefly above.

And some other factors to keep in mind: Overall late-night talk show viewership declined 3 percent in the recent November sweeps compared to 1991. Only commentator Rush Lim-baugh and ABC's "Nightline" gained viewers. Then, too, sponsors are able to demand lower ad rates for late-night talk because the field is already crowded, and getting more so. Chevy Chase is readying a new talk show for Fox, and don't forget, there will probably be a Letterman replacement Jerome Risting, program director at KIMT, explains that his station is locked into airing "Cheers" following the local newscast, and "MASH" after that. "We pay for these shows whether we air them or not," he says.

Risting won't comment on whether KIMT is trying to negotiate some extra network compensation if it does air Letterman. But CBS Isn't likely to help out affiliates in Iowa, where the biggest TV market is Des Moines and that only numbers about 70th-largest in the nation. Des.