Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 238

I COVER STORY 5 'Long Hot steamy Sports Cable Movies 47 Radio 55 Sunday Listings 10 Monday Listings 16 Tuesday Listings 22 Wednesday Listings 30 Thursday Listings 36 Friday Listings 40 Saturday Listings 44 Local Cable Systems TV Week has listings for these cable systems: Apple Valley Rosemount Bloomington Columbia Fridley Hastings Lake Orono Spring Minneapolis North Circle Lake Park Center New New Canada St. Louis Park St. Paul South Washington Paul Grey Cloud Washington Park Heights White Bear St. Oakdale Township Published as a service to readers, at no charge to broadcasters. The Minneapolis Star and Tribune is not responsible for program changes by stations.

Closed captioned By Jay Bobbin Tribune TV Log It may be fall, but a mere change of season never stopped passions from smoldering in the deep South. That's especially true in the case of "The Long Hot Summer," the adaptation of William Faulkner's novel "The Hamlet," which also served as the basis for the 1958 movie that teamed Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward for the first time on screen, as well as a short-lived ABC series in the mid'60s. "Miami Vice" star Don Johnson and "'Moonlighting's" Cybill Shepherd now assume the lead roles in a new version of the steamy drama, airing Sunday and Monday on NBC. Johnson plays Ben Quick, a drifter whose arrival in Mississippi deeply affects the Varners, a powerful but troubled family. Patriarch Will (Jason Robards) desperately wants an heir to his estate, which his daughter Eula (Shepherd) and her husband Jody (Bill Russ) have been unable to produce.

Will hopes that his other daughter, schoolteacher Noel (Judith Ivey), will solve the problem by marrying Ben. who is being paid by Will to court her. Emotions quickly rise with the temperature as various complications ensue, including Ben's arrest for allegedly killing Wilson Mahood (Wings Hauser), Eula's quick-tempered extramarital lover. The cast of the new "Long Hot Summer" also includes Ava Gardner, and the project marks her reteaming with director Stuart Cooper, who also guided her in the recent miniseries "A.D." Though an American, Cooper has worked for many years in England. His appreciation for the miniseries structure has brought him back to TV on this side of the ocean.

"Things open up differently in this format," Cooper reflects, "and it's quite interesting. My heart is in feature films, which I intend 1 to go back to; on the other hand, there are stories both historical and contemporary where you need more than two hours to get them told. In that way, miniseries are ideal. I guess I'll always be a candidate for this Don Johnson sort of special event." Cooper saw director Martin Ritt's 1958 film "a long time ago, as a boy," but claims he was "too frightened" to review it before starting his version. "I remember it as being a good film, but I wanted to avoid all that paranoia that surrounds remakes, and what you should and shouldn't do.

Just taking the four-hour screenplay that was in front of me, which is very intense, my instincts tell me that ours is a much stronger piece. It's certainly hotter, that know for a fact. Even with the constraints of television in mind, we've got a very sensual piece. The combination of Don Johnson and Judith Ivey is especially Ivey, the acclaimed stage and screen actress who recently won a second Tony Award for the Broadway hit "Hurlyburly, will have her broadest exposure to date through "The Long Hot Summer." Like her director, she also stayed away from the original film before shooting began: "I probably saw it when I was younger, but I didn't remember it." Still, she did watch the earlier edition after finishing the new one. "Ours has different plot lines added," Ivey reports.

"There are several stories going at the same time. The other film had that quality, but there's even more of it in ours, so it alters it enough to make the two versions Though her television work has been limited, Ivey says she was drawn to "The Long Hot Summer" because it offered "a wonderful story, a wonderful script and a wonderful role. That's not something you turn down." The actress professes not to have a firm aversion to working in TV, stating that she looks mainly for "a good script and a good role, and possibly actors and directors that I want to work with. I don't really care which medium it is." Ivey's movie presence is currently underscored by the comedymystery "Compromising Positions," and she's now at work on the screen version of Neil Simon's play "Brighton Beach One thing is certain about the new "Long Hot Its cast and crew didn't have to use much imagination to place themselves in the story's sweaty atmosphere. The filming took place on location during the most sweltering time of the year, and as Judith Ivey laughs in retrospect, "It was so hot, it also seemed long, even though it really wasn't.

We encountered every insect conceivably possible. Every time we changed location, a different bug haunted us. At one point, it was mosquitoes, then it was red ants which are called 'fire ants' down there. It was one of those situations that makes you wonder, 'What's so glamorous not even comparable." about this business,.