The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 31

C-7 Town Talk, Alexandna-PineviUe, Thursday, October 2. 1930 Home Renovation Series Begins on PBS Tonight GRAND OPENING This Weekend! WHISKEY RIVER By Daniel Q. Hanev LIVE ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY, SATURDAY SUNDAY by Kirby Clark and Carlton Basco FISH FRY AND DOOR PRIZES SUNDAY AFTERNOON nv: Jkjhfcr CINEMA A- ir as I ill i 5 I At "Ai I v3s? At krfm ''I 1 Pp732- showing a universal picture 5 I A i- HELD OVER! 7:00 9:00 BOSTON (AP) In 13 hectic, beat-the-clock installments, a TV how-to show bought, ripped apart and rebuilt a decrepit old house, and each week, proudly displayed the progress on the air. The result is "This Old House," a program that falls somewhere between the controlled frenzy of a cooking show and the razzmatazz of a believe-it-or-not publicity stunt. The show, filmed last winter in Boston by station WGBH, goes on the air nationally tonight on many Public Broadcasting Service stations.

(The show airs locally on Channel 13, WLPB, Monroe at The first 13 half-hour episodes document the agonies of transforming -a ramshackle, 120-year-old Victorian ark in the city's blue-collar Dorchester, neighborhood. In the next 26 parts, still being put together, the show ambitiously turns an abandoned suburban estate into condominium apartments. And unlikely as it sounds, a home remodeling show manages to build suspense as it rolls along from demolition to decoration. "It's an adventure story," says Russell Morash, the producer. "We wonder what's going to happen week to week.

Will they solve this or that problem? That's enough to keep you interested. But it ain't hard-core how-to. No, no. For that, you'll have to turn to an encyclopedia." The series is narrated by Bob Vila, an energetic Boston builder. Each week, he conducts a tour of the house and chats with the subcontractors as they nail siding, install water pipes, lay flooring and spread paint.

With the camera in pursuit, Vila bounds up and down ladders and zips over staging to explain the basic steps involved in making an old house sound and livable. For people adventurous enough to try this kind of thing them- STARTS FRI. 9:15 TERROR TRAIN Starring Ben Johnson and James Lee Burtis TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX Bob Vila stands in a decrepit, aging house such as the one that is bought, ripped apart and rebuilt in a 13-week PBS series which begins tonight. Vila, a Boston builder, narrates "This Old House," which was filmed by WGBH In Boston last winter. The message which comes through each week is to "expect disaster" in the adverture of rebuilding.

(AP Photo) selves, one message comes through each week- Expect disaster. At their latest project in suburban Newton, the TV people are fixing' up a rambling wooden building complete with servants' quarters, stables, a ice house and assorted wings, turrets and out-croppings. An engineer estimated that because of rot, they would have to replace 15 percent of the sills, the wooden beams on which the house sits. But when they tore into the job, they found they had to rebuild 80 percent of the sills. Morash, who produced two other notable PBS how-to shows "The French Chef and "The Victory Garden" got the idea for "This Old House" while rebuilding his own farmhouse.

When the first series was shown in Boston early last year, it was the most popular local show ever aired by WGBH. And the venture turned out to be at least financially agreeable, if not a'big money-maker. The station bought the Dorchester house for $17,000. It spent $26,000 on repairs, including a new kitchen and bathrooms, and sold it at its annual fund-raising auction for $55,000. TV Previews Murder Parody Hii sonal problems 8:00 (Channel 13) Sneak Previews.

Co-hosts Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel open their third season as PBS's resident reviewers with candid critiques of five newly-released films. 8:00 (Channel 13) This Old House. This series focuses on the rehabilitation of two very different kinds of houses. In the first episode, host Bob Vila tours a dilapidated house in Dorchester, that will be completely ment. 8:00 (Channels 5, 7) Movie "The Great American Traffic Jam." (Made-for-TV 1980).

Remember those multi-plotted disaster movies set in airplanes? Well, transfer the plots and characters to a series of car accidents which create a huge traffic jam on the Los Angeles freeway Presto! You're got this movie. The various wrecks give the star-studded cast, including John Beck, Desi Arnaz Howard Hesseman, and Vic Tayback, a chance to reflect on their per will appreciate this first-rate series. 8:00 (Channels 8, 9, 10) Movie. "Fast Break." (1979). Gabe Kaplan made his movie debut in this fast-paced comedy about a New Yorker who dreams of becoming a college basketball coach and finally gets his chance.

The college is an obscure Southern school, so he enlists some unusual players, including a girl who looks like a boy. It's fun all the way with Kaplan offering a suitable blend of nervous energy and wide-eyed bewilder PAfiAMOUNI PICTURES PRESENTS A SIEVE TISCH JON AVNET PRODUCTION A JOSEPH SARGEN1 FILM ITOBERT BLAKE TON CANNON COAST TO COAST DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY MARIO TOSI. A.S.C. EXECUTIVE PRODUCER TERRY CARF. WRITTEN BY STANLEY WEISER PRODUCED BY STEVE TISCH AND JON AVNET DIRECTED BY JOSEPH SARGENT A PARAMOUNT PICTURE PG PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED i SOME MATERIAL MAT NOT BE SLOT ABLE El -A vi A PTC CD in ft llW Mflf MirVfllnnr MNF.MA Features: 7:00 9:00 $1 en first matinee tWwSTrPr M.TW! SH0WINc only Last Day! dmdt Dtrvum ne A 7:00 (Channels 8, 9, 10) Movie.

"Corvette (1978). Part II. Concluding hour of this fast-moving, implausible, but amiable comedy about a high school student (Mark Hamill) and his search for his stolen Corvette Stingray. 7:00 (Channels 2, 3) Movie. "Murder By Death." (1976).

A whimsical, breezy, enormously entertaining parody of murder mysteries by master-marksman Neil Simon. It's based on a story about five of the world's most legendary detectives spending a weekend together at an isolated country house, and watching them go through their paces concerning a murder at midnight. Sir Alec Guinness, Peter Falk, the late Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, and Nancy Walker star. 7:30 (Channel 13) From Jump Street: "Jazz Vocalists." (Premiere) An excellent 13-part entertainment and information series about our black musical heritage, hosted by the multi-talented Oscar Brown Jr. Tonight's entry explores the world of jazz vocalists interspersing film clips of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington with performances by two great jazz vocalists of today: Carmen McRae and Al Jarreau.

After they sing, McRae and Jarreau talk about how they developed their individual McRae's classic ballad type singing and the freer contemporary improvisation of Jarreau. The producers say the program is aimed for the black teen, but everyone who enjoys good music JACKIE GLEASONW l-sT Ail III UADintJs. ttJLLER'fy hamiii THl Bl(r RID ROBERT PGl CARRADINE LiliJ nim STARTS TOMORROW! Beyond fantasy. Beyond obsession. Beyond time itself.

he will find her. PREGNANCY REFERRAL SERVICE "You're ISot Alone" CALL 487-4810 if if Features 7:00 9:00 Al CHRISTOPHER REEVE, deutsch a JEANNOT SZWARC "SOMEWHERE IN TIME; JANE SEYMOUR CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER 2:1 5.4:05-5:55-7:45-9:35 rAVCO EMBASSY PICTURE 9 GEORGE BURNS cod book ii.