The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 39

The Orlando Sentinel Information for seniors Social Security E-3 Tuesday, March 4, 1986 There's a lot being said in teens' silence By Margot Slade NEW YORK TIMES I'l i 1 Noel Holston TELEVISION cTMP A 'Again' scheduling poor judgment ill Cosby has restored NBC's prime-time lineup as surely as Babe Ruth Research seems to bear this out. In a study of 350 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in Chicago's suburbs, for example, Anne C. Petersen, professor of human development at Pennsylvania State University, noted that the youngsters could generally describe the biological changes they were experiencing but not what those changes meant to them. "Perhaps it was too intimate," she said. "Or perhaps they really didn't understand." Other factors contribute to teen-agers becoming taciturn.

Petersen and her colleagues noticed that teens were intensely interested in relationships but uncertain enough about them to prefer dealing with them indirectly over a telephone or through letters to pen pals. "The kids were beginning to explore intimacy," Petersen said, "but found it safer at a distance." Autonomy is also an issue. "Teen-agers want more autonomy but don't know quite how to cope with it," she said. "Not talking to Please see SILENCE, E-4 It's called the silent treatment, the adolescent cold shoulder, the "Keep Out and This Means You, Mom and Dad" syndrome. Its symptoms are unmistakable: one-word answers to a parent's questions; glares in response to parental comments on dress or decorum; doors barred against prying parental eyes; silence on subjects that the adolescent discusses with friends.

"Even parents who thought they communicated well with their offspring can suddenly find themselves living with an inarticulate adolescent," said Leonard D. Eron, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who has studied parent-child interactions and aggression in young children. "During this period, usually between ages 12 and IS, many youngsters don't want their parents observing them," said Freda Rebelsky, a developmental psy- VIKI BRYANTSENTINEL is a time of body changes, she said, "and teen-agers may not consider many of these changes discussable; or they may not understand the changes and therefore cannot articulate how they feel about them, or they may not have the vocabulary to do so." chologist and professor of psychology at Boston University. "They don't even want a compliment because that means the parents are watching." There are many reasons for the silent routine. Eron suggested that the subjects adolescents want to talk about are often too embarrassing to talk about with their parents.

Or, he said, adolescents don't trust their parents as much as their peers to understand, to know what's current, to be able to advise. Rebelsky agreed. Adolescence Theater review The friend the town never knew By Michael Winerip 'Bathwater' is engrossing in spite of itself I' By Elizabeth Maupin NEW YORK TIMES SENTINEL THEATER CRITIC elen and John call themselves I VIZ' inconsistent. They may be understating the case. built Yankee Stadium.

And it would serve NBC right if Cosby decided to go hit comic four-baggers for another network. What a lowdown disservice NBC did Thursday night to Cosby and to the millions of children and adults who tune in his show, knowing that the jokes will be as tasteful as they are funny. NBC used The Cosby Show, the springiest springboard in prime time, to launch "throw up" might be the more appropriate term here a new sitcom called You Again. You Again is a British makeover starring Jack Klugman as a divorced man sharing his house with his formerly estranged son. NBC's "sneak preview" of You Again appeared in the p.m.

timeslot where Cosby normally channels its huge family audience to Family Ties. What the unsuspecting audience got Thursday was a shrill, stupid, smarmy sitcom that was as antithetical to The Cosby Show or Family Ties as The Ropers or The Newly wed Game. plot had Klugman's 17-year-old son, played by John Stamps, bringing home a girl to live with him in his room. Not just any girl. Christine was a reticent punk rocker with spiked hair, enough black leather and chains to outfit a biker gang, and horror-show makeup that made it possible for Klugman to refer to her as "the wicked witch of the West," "the bride of Frankenstein" and "Dracula's daughter." Then the show went from irritating to irresponsible.

Christine turned up pregnant, and son Matthew, convinced he was the father, wanted to marry her. "She's not ready for marriage. She can't even speak," Klugman bellowed. Tm helping her to get out of her shell," Stamos countered. "She looks like she came out of a coffin," Klugman howled.

"I'm not worried about losing a son; I'm worried about gaining a ghoul." Nobody discussed birth control, not unless you count Klugman's line about belatedly "getting the stallion out of the barn." Nobody mentioned the moral or even practical irresponsibility of the situation. Everybody, however, was relieved when it turned out that Christine's former boyfriend was the father. Well, everybody but Christine's father, who had come over planning to kill Matthew. You Again's "official" premiere Monday night at 8 was less distasteful. How could it have been otherwise? But You Again, pugh again, I say.

Klugman and Stamos make an obnoxious couple, not just an odd one. sneak-previewing this show right after Cosby was a gross betrayal of audience trust, but showing it anytime, anywhere is a dubious proposition. Hell Town saved: The programmers at CBN Cable Network, the rerun-showing, profit-making wing of the Christian Broadcasting, Network, are in heaven. They've landed rerun rights to Hell Town, the recently canceled NBC series that starred Robert Blake as a ghetto priest with a penchant for parables, bad grammar and busting heads. It's the newest second-hand show acquired to date by CBN, which typically furnishes its schedule with TV antiques such as Father Knows Best and Wagon Train.

A spokesman said that CBN, which now reaches about 35 percent of the nation's homes, has 14 Hell Town episodes, including one that NBC never televised. The series will take over CBN's Tuesday, 8-9 p.m. slot on March 11. PEQUANNOCK, N.J. When word of Miss Schaffs $105,000 kindness spread, townspeople here all had the same question: Who was Miss Schaff? Town officials could not say.

Miss Schaff left most of her estate to several groups in town: The rescue squad got Fire Engine Co. No. 2 also got the Pe-quannock youth recreation program got $15,000. "Our first reaction was we were very pleased," said W. Jay Wanczyk, the assistant town manager.

"Our next reaction was, we tried and tried to find out who Miss Schaff was. "We basically found out she was an old woman who lived alone in Pequannock," he said. "Few knew her face to face." Only one person really knew Miss Schaff a neighbor, Joan Codiroli. And this is what Mrs. Codiroli knows.

Miss Schaff Katherine M. Schaff left school at 13 and for 50 years worked as a jewelry polisher in a shop in Union, N.J., taking overtime whenever possible. She would leave her home on Madison Street here before dawn to catch three buses, returning after dark. In her 90 years, Miss Schaff never traveled out of New Jersey, and rarely left home except to go to work. As far as Codiroli knows, Miss Schaff only once took a pleasure trip to Asbury Park, for the day.

Miss Schaff lived her first 45 years with her mother, who, according to Codiroli, dominated her. After the mother's death, she lived the next 25 years with her brother, who also dominated her. After his death, she lived alone. Miss Schaff was afraid of bugs, thunder and men all fears, Codiroli said, that were passed from her mother. She once had a male suitor, her neighbor said, but she broke it off because of duties to her mother.

Please see FRIEND, E-4 III- Sometimes they coo over their newborn baby; at other times they toss it around like a football or a sack of potatoes. Sometimes they coo over each other; at other times John lets himself be seduced by the nanny, and Helen lies catatonic on the floor. All of which, in the Christopher Dur-ang satire Baby With the Bathwater, makes for a baby with, shall we say, a lot of problems. This baby doesn't know whether it's a boy or a girl, much less whether mother Helen suffers from more multiple personalities than Sybil or simply from an unhealthy fixation on Judith Krantz. And it makes for a black comedy that, under Paul M.

Wegman's direction at the Tropical Theatre, is as funny and surprising as anything you're likely to see. Unfortunately, Durang himself doesn't seem quite to have known what to make of his play, and its second-act changes in tone what Helen and John might call inconsistency throw the Tropical production into a confusion from which it never quite recovers. Christopher Durang, who came out of Yale's school of drama at the same time as Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep, is the author of such plays as A History of the American Film (1976), Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You (1979), Beyond Therapy (1981) and The Marriage of Bette and Boo (1985). His satire takes on subjects as varied (and as much a part of American popular Kaye Ragen, Sandy Rabinowitz scene from Tropical play. fy 'Baby With the Bathwater' Cast Kaye Ragen, Albert Davis, Chris Bobison, Russ Oleson Director: Paul M.

Wegman Playwright Christopher Durang Theater Tropical Theatre, 18 S. Gertrude's Walk, Orlando Timet: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday (also 8 p.m. March VICTOR JUNCOSENTINEL culture) as movies and the Roman Catholic Church.

But Durang's highly literate wit contains no vitriol; he parodies and embraces his subjects at the same time. Such is the case in Baby With the Bathwater, in which John and Helen, who are confused about their own identities, pass that confusion onto their child. There is nothing realistic about Please see BABY, E-4 Freds band together to save what's left of their name By Diane Hubbard Burns Of THE SENTINEL STAFF Neck" and "When All Else Fails Hug Your Freddy." He sells "Fred Society" T-shirts. Daniel markets his Fred-robilia at California flea markets, where a representative from a large San Bernadino law firm bought 14 T-shirts. "He said all their gofers are named Fred." The Fred Society is spreading east.

Since a story about the society was aired on Cable News Network in mid-February, Daniel has had queries from Freds as far afield as New York City and Chicago. He has even, heard from two women who wanted to join. Their names are Phrede and Fredna. In the course of promulgating his message about the Fred Society, he met a man in Southern California who was changing his name from Fred to Michael. Daniel tried to talk him out of it.

"I told him there are so many Michaels out there. 'Fred builds character and sets you apart from every Tom, Dick and Harry." surdities such as the Moron Tab 'n' Apple Choir and the Precision Briefcase Drill Team in Miami's King Mango Strut, a spoof of the Orange Bowl Parade. Daniel, 31, has amassed quite a collection of examples of what he calls "Fred-ophobia." Positive role models are hard to come by. There's Fred Astaire, Fred Mac-Murray and, uh, Fred Perry, a 1930s tennis champion. "But can you imagine Fred Springsteen or Fred Rambo?" he asked.

Alas, Freds are rarely characterized as creative, attractive or macho. "Lets face it," Daniel said, "no movie star has ever changed his name to Fred, and Elizabeth Taylor has never married a Fred." Daniel, who inherited his first name from his artist grandfather, wants to erase the stigma that accompanies the name Fred. He hopes to have some fun and make a little money in the process. He has designed bumper stickers that announce: "Fred and Proud," "I Brake for Freds," "Better Fred than Dead," "Fred Better Fred than dead, Fred Daniel figures. But sometimes not much better.

"When' I was very young, I can remember kids making fun of me and pronouncing my name in odd ways 'Hey, Fre-yud. Later, his dates and even his dates parents laughed out loud at his name. The parents would ask their daughter, "You're dating a Fred?" Fred Daniel, however, means to beat the anti-Fred odds. The Santa Ana, graphic artist has founded the Fred Society, an organization that aims to make life less humiliating for all the world's Freds. Its ranks have swollen to 350 since the Los Angeles Times published a story about Daniel a month ago.

The media have often portrayed characters named Fred as wimps or bumbling idiots, Daniel said in a telephone interview from his home and studio. There was cartoon caveman Fred Flintstone, Red Skelton's Freddie the Freeloader (a hobo who never spoke), and henpecked Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy. Lately, television commercials have gotten into the act of denigrating Freds. In a Federal Express ad campaign last year, Fred was the office ignoramus who kept sending packages to the wrong places or getting them there late. "He would be cowering behind the water cooler while people were saying, 'Where's Daniel recalled.

In December the Marching Freds 100 men and one dog joined other ab TV listings, E-6.