The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 28

C-6 Town Talk, Alexandria-Pineville, Friday, December 2, 1983 Gilbert Sets Double Milestone in Film TV Tonight Today's top television shows, as previewed and selected by Steven H. Scheuer and TV Key's staff in New York and Hollywood: 7 p.m. ABC Benson. Benson inadvertantly plays cupid when the governor meets a high school cheerleader he once had a crush on, and the resulting romantic sparks set a new course for the state's chief executive. 8 p.m.

CBS Dallas. Watch Pam and Donna and Jenna ride the mechanical bull during a charity rodeo The trick is to make all that bucking look sexy, just what fans want. J.R. goes out of character momentarily to fume over Sue Ellen and beautiful Peter, then settles down with a nasty business scheme. 8 p.m.

NBC Movie. "Looker." (1981). A pretty good mystery yarn that isn't content to stay within its murder framework and gets too ambitious. In any case, youTl probably be intrigued by the connection of a group of models who have had their great faces made "perfect" by plastic surgeon, Albert Finney. Suddenly they start dying, one at a time.

Finney is good, as always, and Susan Dey (from the "Partridge is definitely a "looker" who can act 9 p.m. CBS Falcon Crest. There's a sexy new girl in town and she's about to make her presence felt It's Maggie Gioberti's sister Terry and her arrival has stirred things up and given villainess Angela more fodder with which to ply her menace. Terry is played by the gorgeous Laura Johnson and her introduction into the storyline should perk things up considerably. 9 p.m.

ABC Matt Houston. Matt enlists the aid of psychic Peter Horkos when a clairvoyant leads police to a kidnapped teenager for a $3 million reward i By Jerry Buck LOS ANGELES (AP) Melissa Gilbert, an actress since the age of 2, achieves a double milestone in her newest television film, "Choices of the Heart." It is the first completely adult role for Miss Gilbert and the first set in contemporary times. "I made the transition during 'Little House on the she says, "when I went from daughter to mother. I played my first love story in 'Splendor in the In "Choices of the Heart," Miss Gilbert plays Jean Donovan, an American missionary who was slain in El Salvador with three Catholic nuns on Dec. 2, 1980.

NBC will telecast the two-hour movie Monday. "We'd been looking for a script for a long time when this story came to us," says Miss Gilbert, who has her own production company. Half Pint Productions. "When a script comes to us, my manager, Ray Katz, reads it first Then my mother reads it Ray read this and called me and said, 'I won't tell you anything. Just tell me what you I read the script in half an hour and called Ray in tears and said it was perfect.

I said I wanted to play this even if I didn't get paid." The movie tells the story of Jean Donovan and the events that led her to a back road 15 miles from the San Salvador airport, where the church women were stopped and killed. Members of the Salvadoran National Guard have been implicated. The essence of the story, according to NBC, is "the evolution of Donovan from a carousing, man-hungry college student to a deeply committed lay Catholic missionary." A major influence on her is a charismatic priest she Lay missionary Jean Donovan (Melissa Gilbert, left), and Sister Dorothy Kazel (Pamela Bell wood) are two of the four American ehurchwomen who come to a tragic end in war-torn El-Salvador in "Choices of the Heart," to air on "NBC Monday Night at the Movies," next week. (NBC Photo) laughter all my life. I was brought up laughing and performing myself.

I was never shy. Shyness was never one of my outstanding qualities." Later, she admits, "I'm pretty shy when it comes to boys. But I'm learning." At 10 she began the role as Laura Ingalls Wilder in "Little House on the Prairie." She grew up on the show and after the departure of Michael Landon and Karen Grassle, who played her parents, the series was centered on her. "I always thought it was wonderful growing up in public," she says. "I enjoyed it immensely.

People stop me on the street and say, 'Hey, I watched you grow That makes me feel very well protected by my fans. A lot of child actors can't make the transition to adult roles. I made it because of the series. It carried me through those years and allowed me to produce my own movies. I think it would have been more difficult for me without the series." The Monday after "Choices of the Heart," Miss Gilbert stars in the first of three "Little House" specials.

Next Mother's Day she will star with Maureen Stapleton and Stefa-nie Powers in "The Gladiola Girls," about three generations of women. She says, "They're all women on the threshold of change. They come together to pack up the old house and it's about the events that occur among them" In January she'll enroll at the University of Southern California, where she'll study literature and calculus. For years she had her heart set on becoming a doctor but now feels she cannot let all of her years of training as an actress go to waste. "I'm taking every day as it comes," she says.

"I'm waiting to see what fate has in store for me." She would like to do another series, "but I also want to do a comedy and a musical. I want to do everything. "I wouldn't mind a glamorous role if it's a substantial role, but not if it's silly. The glamor side isn't important to me. I like strong characters.

I don't like weakness." tmmtiinmiiifrm Sing aMerry Christmas meets while studying in Ireland. He is played by Martin Sheen. "She had everything in life, a good job and material possessions," says Miss Gilbert of the role. "But something was missing. We get to a point where we have to find something in ourselves that makes our lives worthwhile.

She began doing charity work, but that wasn't enough. She applied for missionary work and was sent to El Salvador. She finds that's where she belongs. Even when things got dangerous she wouldn't leave. Jean was doing what made her a ft 0 WITH oANTA ALL the Showbiz happy." Miss Gilbert is just back from a vacation in Europe with hef-moth-er, Barbara Abeles, and a stopover in New York to see her boyfriend, Rob Lowe Outsiders," She has long chestnut hair and at 19 is maturing into a lovely young woman.

She was about to begin work on a "Faerie Theatre" tale for the Showtime pay television network. She will play Gerta and Lee Re-mick will play the title role in "The Snow Queen." Miss Gilbert was born into a show business family. Her father, Paul Gilbert, starred in seven movies and the NBC series "The Duke" in 1954. Her mother is a former actress. Her grandfather, Harry Crane, was head writer of "The Dean Martin Show," and little Melissa was a frequent visitor on the set She says, "The way I am has to do with the way I was brought up.

I was around performing and 'Kennedy Earns NBC-TV Highest Ratings of Season BENNIE'S RESTAURANT Hwy.lSSN Ball, La. 640-9409 Friday Night share and "NBC Nightly News" had a 10.9 rating with a 20 share. The Top 10 shows for the week ending Nov. 27, according to the A.C. Nielsen 1.

The A Team (NBC) 2. 60 Minutes (CBS) 3. Dallas (CBS) 4. Tuesday Movie: "Kennedy," Part 3 (NBC) 5. Sunday Movie: "Stripes" (ABC) 6.

Monday Movie: "Kennedy," Part 2 (NBC) 7. Dynasty (ABC) 8. Sunday NFL Football Run-over (CBS) 9. Falcon Crest (CBS) 10. Simon and Simon (CBS) $725 SEAFOOD BUFFET Mon.

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NEW YORK (UPI) NBC, boosted by its "Kennedy" minis-eries, earned its highest ratings of the TV season last week to tie with ABC for second place in prime time. CBS was first for the sixth time in the nine-week-old season. The A.C. Nielsen prime time ratings for the week ending Nov. 27 gave CBS a 17.1 rating with a 27 percent share of the viewing audience, ABC a 16.8 rating with a 27 share and NBC a 16.8 rating with a 26 share.

NBC said the 16.8 rating was its highest of the season. Previously its highest rating was 16.3 for the week of Nov. 7-13. While Part 1 of NBC's "Kennedy" miniseries went almost unnoticed the previous week when it ran against ABC's nuclear war movie "The Day After," Parts 2 and 3 of the drama starring Martin Sheen and Blair Brown both were on the list of 10 most watched shows last week. The first part of "Kennedy" had only a 12 rating and a 17 share, while Part 2 had a 22.3 rating and a 34 share and Part 3 had a 24.3 rating and a 37 share.

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