News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 105

These One-Time Child Actors Have Founcl New Direction In Their Careers In This Western With An Indian Point Of View By BETTY UTTERBACK Gonnttt Newt Service HOLLYWOOD There's no doubt about it. Child actors Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson have grown up. Russell, the perennial teenager of the Walt Disney stable, is now 25 and Matheson, who has been taking his acting seriously since age 13, is now 28. As they talk about their relatively painless teenage years, there is one possible conclusion. Maybe the best way to help teens through those difficult years would be to put them to work.

"I can remember wanting to go to Disneyland when I had to go to work," Russell said. "My Dad found I got out of hand sometimes when I was going to the public school. I'd get real cool. When I was working, I'd straighten up." "I was always working," Matheson said. "I was never heavily Involved in my school and I never resented it." Although Matheson got into acting by plan and Russell came to it as a second choice, they both talk seriously about their work and their hopes for their new fall series "The Quest." The lone Western on the new fall schedule can be seen on Wednesdays at 9 p.m.'onNBC.

In the pilot movie the two brothers are separated during an Indian massacre in which their parents are killed. They meet years later and join in a search for thier missing sister. Russell plays Morgan Baudine, who grew up among the Indians as Two Persons. Matheson portrays Quentin Baudine, who wound up in San Francisco where he had the advantages of an education. The premiere was a 90-minute episode to re-establish the theme.

"In television they seem to need some kind of thread," Matheson said. "I think that's the purpose of the search for the sister." "I'm not sure it matters," Russell said. "Like, I never knew Kung Fu was looking for his brother. I thought he was just wandering around having all these great adventures." In "The Quest," the two brothers will likewise wander around having a variety of adventures. "It's a Western with an Indianpoint of view," Matheson said.

"They've done Westerns for years but, hopefully, we can get away from that fantasy Western and look at the West from a 19th Century point of view." "In one show we're badgered by some bad guys and we really unload on them," Russell said. "There's a lot of back shooting." They can get by with a more realistic approach at Kurt Russell, left, and Tim Matheson star as brothers in the new Western, 'The Russell portrays Morgan 'Two Persons' Baudine, who was brought up by Indians, and Matheson plays Quentin Baudine. Together they search for their sister, who they believe is living with Indians 9 o'clock than they could have in the family hour. In fact, Matheson feels if their show had to be edited for family viewing it could come out as "Gunsmoke." Russell made his screen debut in 1963 with Elvis Presley in "It Happened at the World's Fair." That Turn To Page 13 SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 17 PAGE NEWS-PRESS TV ANTENNA.