Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 34

14 Section 2 Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, September 30, -1981 Ifempo NBC is adamant: 'Sidney' won't be gay! Tony Randall is adamant: Yes, he will! Texaco and The Ron Alridge TV-radio critio Metropolitan Opera present the first Met telecast of the season. YerdfeLaTraviata! executives get that kind of deal. Chicago has a new pay-TW After 10 days of testing, Spectrum officially came to life Tuesday afternoon on the new television station WFBN-Ch. 66. Like On-TV, the pay TV outfit that broadcasts nightly on WSNS-Ch.

44, Spectrum plans to sell a lineup of movies, concerts, and sports to people willing to pay $21.95 a month for a decoder to unscramble Channel 66's scrambled signal. With On-TV's subscription list already at the 100,000 mark, Spectrum is'faclng a tough fight. To sweeten Its sales offer, the company Is offering three of the first 12 months free, though not consecutively. And installation charges will run a flat $49.95, with the company absorbing any extra charges, such as the cost of lengthening customers' antennae. Spectrum general manager Bill Price says his company will offer more programming than On-TV.

Weeknight subscription service starts at 6 p.m., an hour earlier than On-TV's. And there'll be an adult movie every night, not just three nights a week, though the added fee of $5.95 a month is $1. higher than On-TV's. (SPECTRUM, INCIDENTALLY, maintains the standard pay-TV line about its adult movies; that all are rated as opposed to X. If so, the must stand for 'rfliinchy October movie titles for basic subscribers will Include "Airplane," "Coal Miner's Daughter," "Chinatown," and "Private Benjamin." On the adult side will be "Big Bad'Mama," "Bottom's Up," and "Young Lady Chatterly." Spectrum is a new company owned by Texas-based Buford Television and Clint W.

Murchison owner of the Dallas Cowboys. WFBN is owned by Focus Broadcasting of Nashville. Almost all of WFBN's broadcasting is devoted to Spectrum's programming. The station signs on at 4:30 p.m. with the hour-long "Sandy Freeman Report" by the former WLS-Ch.

7 personality who now works for Cable News Network. A half hour of "suburban news' comes next, followed by Spectrum's programming. Another pay TV service plans to premiere soon on yet another new station, this one using Channel 60. That channel is expected to broadcast coverage of several local sports teams, including the White Sox. And Chicago's WCIU-Ch.

26 has. been given federal approval to begin broadcasting a scrambled pay-TV signal, though there are no plans to do so as yet. DESPITE RUMORS AND reports to the contrary, NBC Insists it is not going back on its vow to remove the homosexual angle from its controversial "LSve, Sidney" series. The network's standards and practices department reports that the first two scripts for the half -hour sitcom are in and they contain no reference to the homosexuality of the main character, Sidney Shorr, played by Tony Randall. Furthermore, a network spokesman says, future scripts are to be equally sanitized, even though Randall has been loudly vowing to make Shorr's sexual leanings a major part of the series.

"Tony Randall has been saying one thing, and NBC has been saying another," one NBC source said, adding that the network, not the star, will prevail because "we're the ones responsible." Under present NBC plans, the only revelation of Shorr's homosexuality will come-in the movie "Sidney, Shorr," which airs Monday. In the film, Shorr Is an aging, middle-aged Jewish man who recently broke up with his male lover. He is snapped out of his depressed state by the arrival of an energetic young single woman who moves in with him and later has a baby by another man out of wedlock. THE REFERENCES TO Shorr's homosexuality are subtle, tasteful, and important to the story. The character is refreshingly non-stereotypical, neither swishy, nor afflicted with a lisp.

What's more, Shorr is one of the most morally conservative characters to appear on TV in years. For example, he opposes promiscuity and abortion and thinks raising babies is simply marvelous. Still, NBC is troubled by-the Idea of presenting a homosexual character, moral or not, at a time when religious fundamentalists are crusading against sex on television. The network has been squirming since word first leaked out it was never announced that Randall's character was homosexual. Last summer, as the controversy grew, NBC Entertainment Division president Brandon Tartlkoff stood on a tightrope and set forth the official network position.

The movie and the series, he explained, are two separate projects. The situations will differ somewhat. In particular, the series will not deal with Shorr's sexual preferences. Unless you see the movie, you won't know he is homosexual. Indeed, the movie and series have different titles.

And they'll air on different nights of the week. At one point, NBC considered putting more distance beteween the two by launching the series before televising the movie. Less skittish minds prevailed, and the series won't begin until Oct. 28, more than three weeks after the movie airs opposite "MASH" and "Monday Night Football." RANDALL HAS BEEN waging open warfare with the network to keep Sidney Shorr's homesexuality intact and in the series. By some accounts, he has threatened to quit if he doesn't have his way.

'He also claims to have been guaranteed artistic control. NBC says coolly that it can't give in to "the whims of talent." On a more heated note, the network emphatically denies that Grant Tinker, new NBC board chairman, has become personally involved, on Randall's side. It's all starting to sound like a soap opera. Will Sidney Shorr stay out of the closet? Has NBC caved in to the whims of the Moral Majority? Did Grant Tinker tinker? Will Tony Randall quit? Tune in again this fall. The proof will be in the airing.

The betting in TV circles is that recently deposed NBC chief executive Fred Silverman is going to launch his own production company, probably in association with 20th Century studios. You can bet he has a deal that requires NBC to buy a certain number of TV shows from him over a certain number of years. All fired TV With English subtitles; lames Levine conducts. Tonight at 8:00 PM on Channel 11. Sirnulcast in slereo on A pre-taped telecast of a live performance with: lloana nlnihac flsVlnlfttfl; Placldo Domingo as Alfredo; and Cornell MacNell asuermont.

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