The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 99

CALENDAR Orange County Television Listings Cob Angeles STuncs Wednesday, July 3, 1985 Part VI DENVER IN CHINA: HE HAS A DREAM HOWARD ROSENBERG HOSTAGES STILL PAWNS ON MEDIA CHESSBOARDS attempt to gain a competitive edge. He didn't identify the network. "There's nothing to be proud of today, because a lot of personal privacy was invaded," ABC reporter Charles Glass said in a telephone interview from Frankfurt after covering the hostages stay in nearby Wiesbaden, "While I was glad to see some of the hostages again," said Glass, Good newsbad news. The confinement of 39 Americans held hostage in Beirut has ended. Their ordeal has just begun.

In Beirut, their captors were Shia Muslims. Now they face new, more fearsome captors. The news media. The loud grunts, squeals and curses that you hear are the net- if 1 In 1955, Michael J. Fox, right, introduces Christopher Lloyd to the DeLorean sports car of the future.

MOVIE REVIEW By JIM MANN, Times Staff Writer PEKING -China, has offered John Denver the Great Wall, but he is holding out for the Forbidden City. For the past 1V4 years, he has been trying to arrange to do a televised concert in China this fall to be broadcast live via satellite throughout the world. So far, no deal has been made, in part because Denver hasn't reached agreement with Chinese officials on where he will sing. "'John Denver live from the Great Wall' has a nice ring to it, but where are you going to put the audience?" Denver asked Tuesday, soon after arriving in China for another round of negotiations with Chinese officials. He said the Chinese have suggested that he sing in some indoor arena, but he wants an outdoor location that will be instantly recognizable as China.

"If it's indoors, it could be anywhere," he told reporters. "We could do it in Mann's Chinese Theater." Denver would like to sing either in a courtyard of the Forbidden City (the old residence of Chinese emperors) or at the Temple of Heaven, another renowned site. But he said the riot that broke out here after a soccer game May 19 appears to have the Chinese authorities "scared to death" about crowd control. "They're nervous about a large crowd," he said, "especially when I'm trying to put a large crowd in a 'national treasure' like the Imperial City or the Temple of Heaven." The pop singer stopped in Peking after a tour of the Soviet Union; in Moscow he did nine concerts for Russian audiences. He is scheduled to leave Thursday for the United States and concerts scheduled this weekend.

"To be quite honest with you, I have no idea where I am or what time it is," he told a group of Please see DENVER, Page 15 TIME FLAGS WHEN YOU'RE THE McFLY ON A '55 WALL Freed hostage Vincent Garza during interview on NBCs works and local TV stations pushing and stepping on each other to get first crack at the returning former hostages. "We have the networks competing madly for the time of the hostages," Terry Smith reported from Wiesbaden, West Germany, Monday on "The CBS Morning News," adding that one network even posted a guard outside the hotel room of one hostage in an HI it mm "Buckaroo Banzai," a movie crammed with so much visual and verbal invention and character detail that it almost burst. No such luck. There aren't enough bits of lovely inventiveness to pad out the gimmick that McFly is accidentally sent back 30 years in the professor's tim5-warp car (another nod to "Buckaroo a plutoni-um -powered DeLorean. More about the plutonium later.

McFly arrives in the middle of his parents' senior year at high school. We have already seen them in 1985, almost immobilized by their mask-like "old age" makeup (they're 47). Mother (Lea Thompson) is a borderline alcoholic, Dad (Crispin Glover) a cringing near-idiot with a laugh like Mortimer Snerd. One uncle's in jail, and the town bully (Thomas F. Wilson) plays a tattoo on Dad's head every chance he gets.

Here in the past, Marty is in the dangerous position of altering the history he knows by heart: How Mom met Dad. To his horror and absolutely to ours he discovers Please see Page 8 FILM CLIPS 'FUTURE' LOOKS FOXY FOR 'WOLF' By JACK MATHEWS, Times Staff Writer 'B! i ack to the Future," which today across the 'country, officially launches who was ABCs chief correspondent in Beirut during the 17-day hostage saga, "I didn't want to confront them with TV cameras when they were with their wives or family. I'll probably get in trouble for saying that." The former hostages are becoming media trophies. And family reunions are TV's hottest ticket. The freed of Laredo, "Today" show.

Americans have been playing musical chairs on the morning news programs, with NBC News hitting the flattest note by paying air fares to West Germany for the families of some of the former hostages. In that way, NBC virtually assured their appearance on "Today" via satellite before they were grabbed by other morning programs. That smacked of pay-as-you-go Please see HOSTA GES, Page 1 7 ANNE DOWIE if facilities and a swimming pool. Admission is free. Here's a roundup of Independence Day festivities: Irvine Symphony presents a square dance exhibition, a youth chorus and a pops concert in "Concert on the Green" at Heritage Park Stadium, 4601 Walnut Irvine, with television personality George Fenni-man from the Groucho Marx "You Bet Your Life" show serving as emcee.

Grounds open at 5 p.m.; fireworks begin about 9 p.m. City of Santa Ana Independence Day Spectacular and Concert (714834-4115), Santa Ana Stadium, Civic Center Drive and Flower Street. A concert featuring the Coasters, the Drifters and other artists starts at 5 p.m. Fireworks begin at 9. "American Salute Band Concert" by the Fullerton College Community Band offers traditional patriotic music at 8 p.m.

at Pearson Park Theatre, corner of Harbor Boulevard and Sycamore Street, Anaheim. The "Music Under the Stars" series, to be held on Thursdays at 8 through Aug. 8, will feature community bands from Fuller-ton College, Anaheim and Huntington Beach playing Broadway show music, Sousa marches, New Orleans jazz, light classics and popular music. For information, call (714) 999-5191. Other outdoor arenas offering concerts throughout the summer include: Lacuna Hills' Oakbrook Please see CONCERTS, Page 13 Jt Ml By SHEILA BENSON, Times Film Critic Strange how scale is occasionally everything in a movie.

If "Back to the Future" (city-wide) had been about the size of, say, "Repo Man," it might have been one of those appealing films that begs to be adopted. It's not It's big, cartoonish and empty, with an interesting premise that is underdeveloped and overproduced. The team of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale has been associated with Steven Spielberg since the two wrote "1941" for him. The earlier ZemeckisGaleSpielberg movies, like "Used Cars," were noisy but they were at least sassy and offhand, with a pleasant, bargain-basement air. But everything here is huge, even in this California small town with its movie-classic Fox," in which he co-stars with Jack Warden, Rubinstein has been busy conferring about the show between performances.

The series' second season begins shooting shortly after the final performance Sunday of "Merrily" a benefit for the theater. And during his stay in La Jolla, he's continued to record portions of the weekly syndicated radio program Presents Carnegie Hall Tonight," which he hosts. The studio piano against one wall town square that, by now, should have a statue of Frank Capra in the center. Director Zemeckis opens "Back to the Future" charmingly enough, in the vacant laboratoryliving quarters of eccentric professor Dr. Brown frenetic Christopher Lloyd), who owns almost every clock but Big Ben, and is all set to start up his own elaborate wake-up devices.

Brown's inventiveness and absent-mindedness cancel each other out: His invention does automatically open and dump a can of dog food, but the doctor and the dog aren't there, and the blue-bottle flies are. Enter Brown's young assistant, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox of "Family big on brashness and energy, dangerously low on subtlety. You might hope from this opening that we're in for another VINCECOMPAGNONE Los Angeles Timea John Rubinstein finds time to work on his own musical too. in his hotel room isn't there just so he can practice the "Merrily" music, some of which he plays at an on-stage piano.

The partially completed score for a new musical he's composing litters the piano's music stand. "The lyricist I'm working with is here in town. Like the 'Franklin Shepard number in it's hard for him to get time with me to work on the score," Rubinstein said after still another phone call. "That's the drawback to any kind of success; you have this life of Please see RUBINSTEIN'S, Page 4 Fireworks will complement Fourth of July concerts at Santa Ana Stadium and Heritage Park Stadium in Irvine. THE SOUND OF SUMMER FOR JULY 4 AND BEYOND RUBINSTEIN'S CREATIVE DRIVE IS IN HIGH GEAR TV star Michael J.

Fox in feature films. But the feature he actually made first comes second. "Teen Wolf," a low-budget horror spoof in which Fox plays a timid teen-ager whose genetic clock turns him into both a werewolf and the high school hunk, was made just before "Back to the Future," the Universal release opening nationally today. "Teen Wolf" will be released Aug. 9, nearly five weeks later.

The two films actually overlapped in production, but when Eric Stoltz was fired from "Back to the Future" after four weeks of work in the lead role, there was Fox engine running ready to take over. "For a while, we were part of the limousine shuffle between 'Family 'Back to the Future' and 'Teen says Kathryn Galan, creative affairs vice president at Atlantic Releasing which produced and is distributing "Teen Wolf." "Michael actually shot two special-effects scenes for us after he started on 'Back to the Atlantic Releasing, a New York-based company that specializes in low-budget films, usually watches its advertising and distribution pennies by opening its films regionally (to avoid expensive national ad costs) and moves its prints from market to market (to save on print costs, which invoice out at about $1,200 each). Not this time. Atlantic is going national with the $4-million "Teen Wolf," planning to open it in more than 1,200 theaters and back it, says marketing vice president Ron Wanless, with a major-league ad budget of more than $4 million. Wanless says "Teen Wolf" is not being positioned to exploit the anticipated success of "Back to the Future," or the $6 million to $10 million of advertising money Universal will have spent on it by Aug.

9. But no one at Atlantic is complaining. "We were delighted when we saw 'Back to the he says. "It's a reasonable assumption that Please see A FOX, Page 10 By CHRIS PASLES If summertime, and the listening is easy especially in the outdoor concert venues of Orange County. The following roundup of concerts including many free events lists the many opportunities awaiting the alfresco music lover during the holiday weekend and far beyond.

Pre-Fourth of July activities include: orange COUNTY ful," a multimedia musical program presented by South Coast Community Church, 5120 Bonita Canyon Drive, Irvine, tonight at 8. ThurlRavenscroft will narrate. Outdoor fireworks follow. For information, call (714 854-7600. Fountain Valley Fiesta offers entertainment, contests and fireworks nightly through July 7 at Mile Square Park, Brookhurst Street and Heil Avenue.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Call (714) 962-4441 for "Concerts in the Park" (714990-7735) starts an eight-week Wednesday evening concert series tonight, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in City Hall Park, 403 S. Brea Brea (between Imperial Boulevard and Elm Street).

The series, which runs through Aug. 21, will feature Bottom Line, Leon Guide Band, Broadway Plus, Norm Hugues, Smokewood, Los Angeles Jazz Combo, Mississippi Mudders and Aristocrats. The park has barbecue By HILLIARD HARPER LA JOLLA The bicoastal and seemingly bionic John Rubinstein excused himself and took another phone call in his hotel room. "Hi, Merritt. I'm doing this play, 'Merrily We Roll down here at the La Jolla Playhouse.

You do? Yeah, it sounds interesting. Could you send me a copy?" Like the prodigiously creative character of Franklin Shepard whom he plays in the Sondheim musical, Rubinstein thrives on a red-hot work ethic into which he constantly pokes a varied array of artistic irons. For Rubinstein, it's not enough to be an award-winning actor (he won the 1972 Theatre World Award creating the title role in "Pippin" and 1980 Tony and Drama Desk awards for "Children of a Lesser Theater alone doesn't seem to satisfy the multimedia demands of his creative impulses. In preparation for the CBS-TV detective series "Crazy Like a ft INSIDE CALENDAR FILM: "Red Sonja" reviewed by Michael Wilmington. Page 12.

Demi Moore is the "new kid" in "St. Elmo's Fire." Profile by Deborah Caulfield. Page 2. STAGE: "Ship Shapes" at Beverly Hills Playhouse reviwed by Don Shirley. Page 15.

TV: Tonight on TV and cable. Page 16. Evelyn Bouix as Edith Piaf in "Edith and Marcel." See review by Kevin Thomas on Page 8..