The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 33

I- I KJ Comics-TV 7D I li Friday, November 7, 1 980 Viewers Ask, 'Who Shot J.R.?' 'Dallas' Continues With Mystery By BILL HAYDEN Gannett News Service There comes a time when any sensible television network would. take one look at the competition and decide to go to not putting any programming at all on the'air. Or at the very most, provide nothing more than an interlude of organ vn ED2I Television i 1 1 to quit hitting the bottle and battle her husband's efforts to get rid of her by sending her back to the sanitarium. Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval) planning his own revenge against J.R. Thus, the stage is setting for the gunning down of J.R.

in his darkened office at the close of the episode. Just in case the audience doesn't remember the finer points and needs refreshing on the clues to the identity of the assailant, the network is rerunning this particular episode of "Dallas," tonight at 9. Then, pausing only for breath and station identification, it plunges right into the new season's first episode of "Dallas," tonight at 10. As J.R. is wheeled into an ambulance on his way to the hospital intensive care unit, the Ewing family reassembles at the Southfork home, of patriarch Jock Ewing (Jim Davis) and his wife Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes).

There, the clan awaits news of J.R.'s fate and the police search for clues and suspects in the shooting. Probably against their better judgement, the family members hope for J.R. to regain consciousness because of the possibility he might shed some light on the culprit's identity. J.R., however, is kept melodramatically hovering between life and death. He must then undergo a second critical operation On the concluding half pf this season opener of "Dallas," CBS, Sunday night at 10.

While J.R. is under the knife, Jock turns the running of Ewing Oil over to Bobby and Sue Ellen begins to think she may have been the one to pull the trigger while in a drunken stupor. Meanwhile, the cops pick up Cliff Barnes for the shooting, but don't bet on his being the culprit. We won't know until next Friday's episode. music.

Even if that time comes during the all-important November ratings' sweeps. That time has come. This is the weekend that if not all America, then a huge chunk of it has been waiting for since the end of the last, television season. It is what CBS is modestly calling "Dallas time for unraveling the mystery that sparked as much if not more carefully nurtured conversation over the long summer months as the presidential election. Millions upon millions of viewers will tune in to find out who shot J.R.

The fact that the Hollywood actors' strike postponed the satisfying of this national curiosity and CBS' planned a big splash to start its new fall season has proved a blessing in disguise for the network. By the time the cast returned to work and production got cranked up on the series, the earliest the new season episodes could be delivered for broadcast was now, which just happens to be in the midst of one of the national ratings services' sweeps periods. Now, what more of a blockbuster can you ask for than the long-awaited new episodes of a show that placed ninth, in the national ratings' ranking last week even in rerun? LARRY HAGMAN PLAYS VILLAINOUS J.R. EWING 'Dallas' will start new season tonight Free Press Special Photo ILLUSIONIST ANDRE KOLE LEVITATES his daughter Robyn assists him World of Illusion If you remember, as we left this high-powered, high-priced prime-time soap opera of the oil-and-cattle-rich Ewing clan at the end of last season, all hell had broken loose. The villainous J.R.

Ewing (played by Larry Hagman) sold off Ewing Oil's Asian off-shore drilling lease before news of the fields' na tionalization is made public, wiping oil the fortunes the companies' business associates in the process. This cute business ploy by J.R. so disgusts younger brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy) that he and wife Pamela (Victoria Principal) pack up and decamp the family ranch of Southfork. In a related move, J.R.'s wife Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) decides Three Masters of the Blues Will Perform in Lane Series ing room facilities. Refreshments will be served in the Recovery Room.

The tours are designed to familiarize ages 4-14 and their parents with aspects of the surgical experience and to reduce fears associated with a hospital. Gripping Tale The Colchester High School drama club will present "Frankenstein" today and Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Colchester High School Auditiorum. A gripping tale, the plot centers on a young scientist who fears revenge from the blood-thirsty monster he created from the oodies of dead men. Tickets are $1 for students and $2 for adults.

Used Ski Sale A used ski equipment sale will take place from 9 a.m. 6 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m.-l p.m. Sunday at the Mater Christi School located on Mansfield Avenue, Burlington. Used ski clothing, downhill and cross-country skis and skates will be sold on consignment.

Hours for delivery are 6-9 p.m. Friday at Mater Christi. i People materializing, de-materializing, disintegrating, levitating it's all part of "World of Illusion," an unusual magic show today and Saturday at 8 p.m. in Ira Allen Chapel, University of Vermont. The colorful two-hour production features world renowned illusionist Andre Kole, who combines performing-, skill -with; extensive background as a psychic investigator and an inventor of magical effects.

Kole is assisted by his daughter, Robyn, one of the few female magicians today. Tickets are $4 at the door. Advance tickets are available at The Campus Ticket Office. Big Bird's Tour "Big Bird Needs an Operation" will be the theme of an open house sponsored by the Northern Vermont Chapter of the Association of Operating Room Nurses Saturday from 1-4 p.m. at the DeGoesbriand Unit of the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont.

Big Bird will give tours at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. beginning at the hospital entrance. The admitting office, laboratory and surgicare reception area will be tour stops before proceeding to the operat if WVSSi lilliirf i kCIs IliSp and Bill Wyman. He played on the sound track of the movie "Little Big Man," starring Dustin Hoffman. James Cotton is all over the stage, blowing the reeds right out of his Marine Band Harmonica.

It has been said that blues audiences don't expect to find anything new or original, but rather the reaffirmation of old truths. Not so with Cotton. He plays every variation on the basic blues form, leaning toward the looser jazzy side, the boogie element, rhythm and blues. Cotton learned the harp from the master; Sonny Boy Williamson, with whom he started playing when he was 9. Cotton played with' Muddy Waters until 1966v when he left to pursue a more upbeat sound with his own band, a young group of tight and expert musicians.

Tickets, $8.75, are on sale at the Campus Ticket Store and Bailey's Music Rooms. For general information, reservations and group sales, call 656-3085. Three giants of blues Muddy Waters, John Hammond and James Cotton will be presented by the University of Vermont Lane Series, today' at 8 p.m. in Memorial, Auditorium. Muddy Waters is probably the most imitated electric blues artist of all time.

His "Rollin' Stone" (also called "Catfish Blues'!) influenced Dylan's classic, "Like A Rolling Stone," and named the Rolling Stones rock group. With his "Mannish Boy" and "Got My Mojo Working," Muddy Waters continually captivates audiences. Singing in the old delta style (he was brought up on the Mississippi delta), his distinctive bottle-necking is still influencing younger musicians like John Hammond and Eric Clapton. John Hammond has been singing blues since 1962 when he was an art student at Antioch College. He picked up a guitar and was on the road in six months.

He has played with Mike Bloomfield, The Band, Dr. John Free Press Special Photo MUDDY WATERS IS BLUES MUSICIAN he will play at Memorial Auditorium Public Radio Station Provides Thoughtful Programs Cri CM 'rffi' 'X H'K The three of them picked their favorites two Thursdays ago, sitting in the restaurant of Burlington's Holiday Inn. It was an appropriate place for them to meet, because it was there in spring of 1975 the trio had gathered to discuss the possibility of bringing public radio to Vermont. Agitation in the letters page of The Burlington Free Press in favor of public radio had become so intense the three men were sure the demand was there. Two years later WVRP opened in Windsor but the fight continued to extend to VPR to all of the state.

Last Thursday, they knew their tough battle had paid off. But there was still doubt even then when exactly the Federal Communica imi Free Press Photos by ELAINE ISAACSON VPR officials are, from left, Ray Dilley, executive vice president; Ray Phillips, president; By JAMES LISTER SMITH Special to the Free Press Ten seconds before noon last Friday, chief engineer Jerome Erickson switched on the transmitter atop Mount Mansfield and Vermont Public Radio's new station, WVPS 107.9 made its debut in northern and central Vermont. "I couldn't believe it," exulted Ray Dilley, Vermont Public Radio's executive vice president. "It took me a couple of days to get over the shock." A few bugs remain, affecting the sound quality and reception. The station was not on the air Wednesday, but hoped to resume programming by today.

Replacement parts are being installed to improve the station's stereo capibilities and adjustment made to improve remote control of the transmitter and operation at half power. It's an historic occasion: for the first time, Vermont is linked by public radio. Since 1977, Vermont Public Radid has been broadcasting out of Windsor to the southern part of the state on 89.S FM but now with the addition of WVPS public radio can be heard by 92 percent of Vermont's population. That's more than Vermont ETV can reach. Manchester's iffy, Bennington is hopeless because of the valleys, and sections of Rutland can't be reached but the rest of the state is now within the scope of VPR.

The reason why it took so long for public radio to find a foothold in northern and central Vermont could form the subject of a hefty tome. Because. 107.9 FM was the last re- tions Commission would give them the green light to throw the switch on Mount Mansfield. "I'm not sure I'm going to live through it," Dilley said, referring to this tense enforced limbo period. Dilley has been with VPR from its beginning.

Before that, he did free-lance radio work for CBC (he's i native of Canada), NBC and BBC along with a short spell in Tokyo with Japanese national broadcasting. He's intensely proud of what Vermont Public Radio has already achieved: The sale of more than 200 hours of locally produced programs, such as "Portrait Of A Symphony," an account of the time Aaron Copland conducted the Vermont Symphony; thes fact that people out of a potential audience of 150,000 listen on a Turn to STATION, Page 6D Howard Stearns, secretary completely by the financially successful and the very educated; not now, though. A tremendous amount of people from other 'categories' have discovered public broadcasting." Dilley considers public radio programs to be "thoughtful." Asked to name his own favorite program, Dilley who is also station manager in Windsor opts for opera and hates to miss the live broadcasts. Vermont Public Radio president Dr. Ray Phillips, agrees with him, but also enjoys "Prairie Home Companion," a folk music and comedy show.

Secretary Stearns, meanwhile, makes a point of turning to "Morning Glory" each day at 6 a.m. an hour of gentle music and views to ease one into the morning. 24 hours a day (except Wednesdays) without a single commercial. Listeners dissatisfied with two-minute news rdund-ups are sure to appreciate "All Things Considered," an hour and a half of analysis of current affairs. And those irritated with stations that regurgitate Diana Ross, Led Zeppelin and Kiss time after time will enjoy "Morning Pro Musica" from 7 until noon each morning when classical music in stereo is the order of the day, plus a sprinkling of interviews, news and weather.

Because of the accent on cultural programs, the public radio network is often accused of being elitist. "Absolute nonsence," replies an ad-. amant Dilley. "It was true in the beginning that it was supported of 36,000 until February. Still, WVPS' range extends beyond Vermont's boundaries to the Adirondacks, mid-New Hampshire and above Montreal.

Excluding Canada, the station has a potential audience of 600,000 much bigger than VPR's audience out of Windsor. The good news for those living within 50 air miles of Mount Mansfield is that they receive WVPS' "prime signal" the best sound, the kind VPR's Secretary Howard O. Stearns claims can be picked up on metal tooth fillings. But when all is said and done, what is really important are the programs VPR provides. Everybody suffering a hangover from the endless political ads is sure to love a station which manages to broadcast maining FM frequency available in northern Vermont, Vermont Public Radio advocates had to win the rights to the frequency from commercial radio entrepreneurs.

That meant innumerable legal jousts and grapples with bureaucracy, both at state and national level. Even when VPR captured the spot on the FM dial, other barriers had to be overcome. Satisfying environmentalists and the people of Stowe, for example, that the antenna on Mpunt Mansfield would not be an eyesore. One problem that remains: The Federal Aviation Administration recently found that WVPS 107.9 FM might possibly interfere with some equipment at Barre-Montpelier airport. So VPR's new station is having to operate on 18,000 watts instead mmj i e.

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