Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 21

COMICS: FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1984 THE HARTFORD COURANT BT All Hail The Heroic 1-86 Chicken COLIN HcENROE Massachusetts; Company Bids On Channel 18 Sale Would End Preacher's, Seven-Year Struggle With FCC Over Licensing By MARC GUNTHER Courant TV Editor If you had laid eyes on the chicken of 1-86, you might have said: Hail to thee blithe chicken! Fowl thou never wert, That' our pulses doth quicken, WASHINGTON A Massachusetts-based company has made what appears to be a serious bid for WHCT (Channel 18) in Hartford, the television station run by the fiery preacher W. Eugene Scott. Astroline Communications Co. has agreed to buy, Channel 18 for $3.1 million from Faith Center according to papers filed with the Federal Communications Commission. If Astroline wins regulatory approval for its bid, the sale would end a seven-year-long struggle between Scott and the FCC over the license for Channel 18.

Faith Center applied to have the license renewed in 1977. "We feel our application is sound on all fronts," Richard P. Ramirez, the controlling general partner, of Astroline, said Thursday. Astroline's lawyer says' the proposed sale could resolve the fate of Channel 18 within several weeks. Still, some significant obstacles remain to the While on the median, With commuter traffic speeding in.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "I'm not the type to get that worked up about a chicken." That's what I thought too when Bob Scranton, a commuter from Eastford, called me Tuesday to say that for many days he had seen a wild chicken on the median strip of I-86 near Manchester. "Does it sleep there? Maybe it doesn 't sleep. It's just a stupid chicken," he speculated, as if to suggest the chicken's karma was such a pale, untaxing thing that there would be no point in shutting it down for a rest. Bob Scranton wasn't fooling anybody.

He was actually pretty worked up about this chicken, even though you could tell he didn't think he was the type to get worked up about one. All the same, I probably would have just hung up the phone and smirked to my co-workers, "That was a guy who was unable to reconcile himself to being worked up over a wild chicken," if Scranton hadn't said one other thing that threw an otherwise typical chicken-on-the-median-strip tip into a totally different category. Scranton said the other guys in his car pool had seen it, too, the way someone who had seen Champ or Nessie or Bigfoot would say, "I'm not the only one." Well. I have often thought that Hartford needs some kind of shady, legendary animal on that order. So I drove posthaste to the alleged habitat of the Hartford highway chicken.

I parked my car off the highway and walked to the edge. There, parading on the median, was a brown and white chicken. Traffic whizzed by at terrifying speed, inches from the chicken's pinfeathers. It was unfazed. Behold a heroic bird, I told myself.

sale. Faith Center's two previous attempts to sell Channel 18 both; collapsed, and a local man, Alan Shurberg of Rocky Hill, has filed vigorous objections to the proposed sale. Shurberg, a 26-year-old self-employed computer programmer and a former broadcast technician, has asked the commission to permit him to apply for the license. In addition, questions remain This proceeding isft without question -extraordinary, complete with a cast; of characters and a still-developing set of facts and circumstances probably unique in the annals of communications law. 99 Harry F.Cole Attorney i Cannon Bo Derek is Ayre McGillvary in "Bolero," the story of an innocent English schoolgirl in search of erotic adventure.

erek's 'Bolero' Pure Bosh BoD film ncvtciv BOLERO, directed and written by John Derek; director of photography, John Derek; music by Peter and Elmer Bernstein; producer, John Derek; a Go-lan-Globus production for City Films. Presented by the Cannon Releasing "Bolero" opens today at Showcase Cinema, East Hartford. Running time: 106 minutes. Ayre McGillvary Bo Derek Cotton Gray Arthur Kennedy Angel Andrea Occhipinti Catalina Terry Ana Obregon Paloma Olivia d'Abo The Sheik Greg Bensen For all her good looks, Bo is one of the silver screen's most plastic, lifeless actors. Formaldehyde, not blood, seems to be running through her veins here.

Even Bo's boudoir athletics look pallid and programmed. What the moviegoer gets in these supposedly torrid scenes is little more than a voyeuristic peek into what looks like a life-size Barbie doll making love to a zombie-like Latin lover. Perhaps Bo and her hubby John are secretly out to destroy the pornography business by satirizing it, depicting it as a dull and pedestrian affair, much like their "Bolero." As proof of this, look at the subtle satirical elements woven into the erotic grand finale as we see Bo and her beau thrashing about in simulated ecstasy. Notice how Bo sometimes seems to keep her eye on the camera, no matter how much she supposedly is being swept away in torrential passion. Now that's a funny bit.

And if this steamy finale isn't being played for laughs as well as titillation, why is the image of the two lovers con- stantly fogged up by silly clouds of white smoke that huff and puff all around their hotly entwined limbs? It looks as if Bo and her Angel yes, Angel is her lover's name are enshrouded in smoke, which is presumably wafting from piles of wet leaves located somewhere off-camera. Perhaps the smoke is hubby John's idea of amusing symbolism. Where there's smoke, there's fire, or something heavy like that. See Dereks Page B2 about the economic viability of Channel 18 in a television market already has one independent station, WTXX (Channel 20) of Waterbury, and is about to get a i second, WTIC (Channel 61) of Hartford. Channel 18's programming consists of lengthy monologues and appeals for money by Scott, an outspoken preacher based in Glendale, Calif.

The programming is transmitted to Hartford by Scott apparently has a following in Hartford, though no one seems to know how many viewers Wtitch Chahnel 18, and its ratings are insignificant! Fir years, though, community and church organizations have objected to the absence of local programming on the station. The Astroline group promises to remedy that. Ramirez, who would be the station's chief executive, says his group would try to provide locally originated programming that responds to community needs. The bulk of the programming, however, would be the traditional fare of independent stations syndicated shows, movies and sports. Ramirez said the new owners would also spend a substantial amount to upgrade Channel 18's facilities, which are outdated and in poor condition.

He has left a job as general sales manager of WMJX-FM, a Boston radio station, to work full time on the effort. The Astroline purchase could end one of the more tangled regulatory struggles in FCC -history. FCC regulators have been trying to examine Scott's broadcast properties since 1977, specifically to look at allegations of improper fund raising, but he has resisted many of their inquiries. He has also denounced FCC members on the air and filed at least nine lawsuits against the FCC. "This proceeding is without question extraordinary, complete with a cast of characters and a still-developing set of facts and circumstances probably unique in the annals of communications law," said Harry F.

Cole, the lawyer representing Shurberg. Largely because of his refusal to cooperate with the FCC, Scott lost his license for a TV station in San Bernardino, which went off the air in May 1983. He also lost the licenses for a TV station in San Francisco and a radio station in Los Angeles but continues to operate those stations while appealing FCC rulings. i Meanwhile, Scott has fended of regulatory scrutiny of Hartford's Channel 18 by invoking an FCC policy known as "distress sale." Under that policy, a station can avoid losing its license by selling to a qualified minority buyer at a purchase price lower than the market price. The policy is designed to encourage minority ownership of broadcast stations and.

to avoid time-consuming enforcement proceedings. While Astroline has a complex structure it is a limited partnership under the control of a second limited partnership its lawyers claim that it is a qualified minority buyer because Ramirez, a Hispanic who owns a 21 percent interest in the company, will have operating control of Channel 18. But Shurberg, in his opposing comments, says the "purported minority ownership is nothing more than a sham." Cole argues that Ramirez made only a small investment in the station and that the real control will be held by the non-minority partners of Astroline an investment firm that holds a 70 percent interest in Astroline Communications Co. Both Ramirez and Herbert A. Sostek, a partner in the Astroline reply that Ramirez is investing in the station by devoting all of his time to it and that he will be the general manager and controlling general partner of Channel 18.

Shurberg has committed considerable resources to the legal battle, filing numerous briefs and arguments since entering the fray in December "I stand an excellent chance of getting control of Channel 18," Shurberg said this week. While few of his arguments have been accepted by the FCC, lawyers familiar with the proceeding say that Shurberg's position that the Channel 18 license should be made available to interested outside parties such as himself will be seriously considered by the FCC. Those lawyers also indicate that the case will probably have to be resolved by the federal courts. I wandered over to the nearby, construction site, where several' workers denied sighting a chicken, possibly because their eyes tended to gravitate towards the cranes swinging huge, deadly chunks of concrete and metal through the air in terrifying arcs. One guy pointed to the tape re-' corder I was holding out to him and said, "You're supposed to tell somebody when you tape them.

I'll take my crowbar and mash that thing up for you." "Ha-ha-ha," I laughed nervously, to' prove that I enjoyed his joke. I did find a guy named Ed Julian who said the chicken had been on the median for a couple of weeks. "He's very hip to traffic," Ed said. 'He never crosses the yellow line." Rumor had it the chicken had been living in the general area for months, he said. "Have you guys given the chicken a name?" I asked.

said Ed. "What does the chicken live on?" I asked some other workers. "Exhaust fumes," said one guy. On the way home, I had the common experience of being almost blown into South Windsor by a pass- ing trailer truck. What if that hap-; pened to Lucky? Concerns such as that gnawed at my liver until (at Bob Scranton's suggestion) I found myself calling Frank Intino at the Connecticut Hu-: mane Society.

Turns out Frank's people were already on the trail of Lucky but had been unable to snare the wily chicken. The following day, however, Frank called me and said, "We have the bird in hand." "Is it worth two in the bush?" I couldn't help asking. "Yes," he said, without elaborating. "Are you going to rehabilitate the chicken?" I asked. "We'll send her to a farm." I have mixed feelings about all this.

No sooner do I discover a wild, mysterious, legendary chicken doing a dance of death for Hartford's commuters than it is captured in a humane dragnet. But this is no ordinary chicken. Maybe they haven't built the farm that can hold And still of a summer's morn they say, when the road is jammed with traffic When the dump trucks seem quite elephantine and the cranes seem quite giraffic When the asphalts a ribbon ofau-tos, locked in the gridlock 's grip The Highwaychicken comes pecking, Pecking, pecking The Highwaychicken comes pecking, up the vidian strip. Distributor, Dereks Tangled In Suits Over Film Outcome Even in Sex Scenes She's Dull, Plastic By OWEN McNALLY Courant Film Critic Before the stunningly beautiful, utterly talentless Bo Derek bares all in "Bolero," she bores all in this excruciatingly dreadful sex saga Doing her usual sexy humanoid schtick, Bo plays a young heiress whose sole quest in life is to sacrifice her virgin-' ity to a Rudolph Valentino-like hero either a swarthy sheik or a super macho bullfighter. Be warned that "Bolero" is one of the very worst turkeys of the year something that Bo and her hubby John Derek should, more appropriately, have released around Thanksgiving time.

No doubt, though, loyal Bo watchers will be thrilled with the panoramic views of their fantasy figure's ample endowments so often exposed here from top to bottom. Even before the credits are finished rolling, Bo apparently protesting against her cloistered life in a strait-laced girls' academy moons her way across a pastoral English countryside. Mooning is the height of subtlety for this flick. But even the most passionate buffs of Bo-in-the-buf might not have the endurance to make it through this film's agonizing tedium to its grand finale when the virgin heiress finally makes her supreme offering to her Spanish bullfighter. This graphic deflowering scenario should have earned an X-rating for "Bolero," but didn't.

Although packed with nude scenes and simulated intercourse, "Bolero" escaped the damaging stigma of an X-rating because it is being presented by Cannon's Releasing a Hollywood movie distributer that is not a member of the motion picture rating board. The board had recommended an but the film was released unrated because of the technicality. Although "Bolero" has no official rating, youngsters under 17 will not be admitted. Oldsters that is everyone over 17 also ought to stay home and save their money as well. Why? "Bolero" is a howling bore.

Its wretched amateurishness transcends any mere rating category, although for rotten or for execrable would be close to the mark. By JEFF SILVERMAN Chicago Tribune i enahem Golan is used to fighting wars. Most Israelis are. He fought the Arabs, he's fought the "Love Streams," a first-prize winner at this year's Berlin Film Festival, and Nastassja Kinski for the much-awaited "Maria's Lovers," the first American production to be directed by a Soviet, Andrei Konchalovsky. Under the Golan-Globus command, Cannon has fired a few box-office salvos most notably "Breakin'," its high-profit ode to the break dancing craze but mostly so far it has dropped bombs, bombs with what Golan-Globus thought would be real audience-pulling firepower.

These include Brooke Shields in "Sahara," Faye Dunaway in "Wicked Lady" and Elliott Gould in "Over the Brooklyn Bridge." And now exploding all around them are the Dereks and their film, "Bolero." Bo Derek starred and produced. Her husband wrote, directed, edited, operated the camera, served as cinematographer and shot all the production stills. He may even have gotten the coffee. The first film to be distributed solely under the banner of Cannon's Releasing Corp. without the help of a major studio, "Bolero" opens in 1,022 theaters nationwide See Page 82 Egyptians, he's fought from the desert and he's fought from the heights.

He's even managed to fight Hollywood. But he's never faced a guerrilla force quite the likes of John and Bo Derek. The threesome's fight over money and rights to the Dereks' sexy, controversial movie, "Bolero," is a verbal and legal battle that's not over yet. First, some history. Golan, 54, and his 40-year-old cousin, Yoram Globus, form the principal partnership of the Cannon Group, one of Hollywood's most active independent production companies.

Since taking over Cannon in 1979 and the reputation for low-budget exploitation that went with it they've had their hits and they've had their misses. They've also tried to upgrade, hiring such star talent as Katharine Hepburn and Nick Nolte for the upcoming "Ultimate Solution of Grace John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands for.