The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 95

CALENDAR' Orange County Television Listings Cos Atujclcs Sfuncs Saturday, April 4, 1987 Part VI LACY ATKINS RODERICK MANN HOWARD ROSENBERG FOR ANNIE POTTS, TIMELY FILM ON TV EVANGELISTS 'ou've got to admit that the Yi timing is uncanny, said Annie Potts. "I've just fin 2 NEW FOX SERIES-PLAINLY NO VANILLA It's Fox, not lox. Not that the public would know. Since fall, the infant Fox TV network has consisted of only one series, Joan Rivers' raspy week-night talk show, whose campaign for better ratings prompted a recent shuffle of producers. But the bill expands Sunday with the introduction of "Married With Children" and "The Tracey Ullman Show" on KTTV Channel 11 and XETV Channel 6, as the Rupert Murdoch-steered Fox venture becomes the first serious, well-financed attempt in years to sustain a non-cable fourth commercial network to compete with the Big Three.

In coming weeks, Fox will dribble out the rest of its Saturday and Sunday prime-time schedule on independent stations reportedly reaching 85 of the nation. Whether the fourth network scheme will work remains to be seen, but there's no doubt Fox is already having an impact within the industry. It's even said that one reason ABC Sports decided to renew its unprofitable "Monday Night Football" ties with the National Football League was because of Fox's interest in the package. Meanwhile, is Sunday night on Fox historic? Perhaps. Worth a look? Absolutely.

That's because "Married With Children" (pre-miering at 7 p.m., with repeats at 8 and 9 for maximum exposure) and "The Tracey Ullman Show" (at 7:30 p.m., with repeats at 8:30 and 9:30) are evidence anew that TV's boldest comedy (David Letterman excepted) is not on ABC, CBS and NBC. The vast majority of syndicated comedies are as appallingly pale and unappealing as those on the major networks. In the pay-cable arena, though, "It's Garry Shandling's Show" on Showtime is at once TV's funniest and most daring comedy. Showtime also has the pioneering "Brothers," TV's first sitcom with a continuing, identifiably gay character given intelligence and dimension, and on April 20 it will welcome the inventive "Hard Knocks." On HBO, meanwhile, Please see FOX, Page 12 i the TV studio next door where the couple's broadcast is taking place. The invaders then take everyone hostage.

"It's quite a show they interrupt," said Potts with a chuckle. "We have a Samson, clad in a loincloth and chained up, and 30 angels complete with wings. "Once we become hostages, of course, everything begins to fall apart. We discover that my husband is an adulterer. It's real black comedy." Eureka Springs was chosen as the ideal location for "Pass the Amo" because, although in winter it's a quiet little place, in summer it becomes a huge tourist attraction.

A giant statue of Christ dominates the town. When the unit arrived, there was opposition in certain quarters "but that eventually died down," says Jaffe. "We explained that we weren't making a movie attacking religion; we were attacking those who exploit it." Potts says she jumped at the chance of being in the movie as soon as she read the script. "I'm sure that when the scandal about Jim and Tammy Bakker broke, there was a wild scramble among producers in this town to plan a movie on the subject," she said. "Nobody can accuse us of doing that; we were already in production." In "Pass the Amo" Potts is, once again, a Southerner (she's a native Kentuckian).

"Years ago my agent said to me, 'Annie, you've got to change your voice if you want to get anywhere in I said I wouldn't. 'It may make things more difficult for me I said, 'but it's my voice that sets me apart and will give me longevity as an Please see POTTS, Page 2 ished this movie about a husband-and-wife team of TV evangelists. And do they get in trouble. Potts, one of the stars of CBS-TV's "Designing Women," last week completed work on a new movie for the Vista organization, "Pass the Amo," shot in the small Arkansas town of Eureka Springs. With Tim Curry as co-star, the film is directed by David Beaird "I just finished one of my big scenes a couple of weeks ago when I turned on the TV and watched the scandal breaking over Jim and Tammy Bakker," said Potts.

(Television evangelist Bakker, relinquished his large ministry and vacation resort after admitting to a sexual encounter and subsequent payoffs to keep the matter quiet.) "I thought, 'This is incredible' I know if I were Vista, I'd be panting to get the movie out fast." But however much Vista is panting, that can't be done. There is still another week's shooting to be done on the movie. "The earliest release we can hope for," says Herb Jaffe (who co-produced with Mort Engel-berg), "is six months from now. Say October." "Pass the Amo" is the story of two television evangelists, the Rev. Ray and Darla Porter, (Curry and Potts) who live high on the hog from their religious programs-driving around in Rolls-Royces and maintaining homes in Bermuda and Rancho Mirage.

Because of some shady dealings, their church is one day broken into by four people (among them Linda Kozlowski, fresh from "Crocodile On the way out, the intruders accidentally stumble into Critics are kind to Annie Potts, and "I always write and say thanks for a review." JPtSCgyilACHER CRAIG HERNDON WMhtagton Port VI CRITIC AT LARGE A MAGICIAN WIELDING DRUMSTICKS By CHARLES CHAMPLIN, Times Arts Editor Jazz drummers are no more alike, or equal, than trumpeters or tenor men. Given the nature of percussion, the drummer's signature can be a little harder to make out, back there behind the reeds and the brasses. There is, you would think, only so much that can be made of a sock cymbal or a temple block, or even a platoon of snares and tomtoms. But one of the large joys of discovery in jazz is that the longer you listen, the easier it becomes to distinguish the really good drummers: to separate the men from the metronomes, the artists from the noisemakers. One of the best, maybe the very best, Buddy Rich, died Thursday at the age of 69.

Jo Jones made musical instruments of his wire brushes and created art within art from those sounds of swinging and sandy sibi-lance. I came to think of the late Shelly Manne as an Impressionist among drummers, a tone colorist who never lost a light, crisp beat (think of him with Andre Previn and Leroy Vinnegar on that "My Fair Lady" album years ago). But Shelly was always looking for ways to make it sound fresh and differ -Please see GENIUS, Page 8 ROBERT HILBURN U2 SHOWS GRACE UNDER PRESSURE AT TOUR OPENER TEMPE, off arguably the most anticipated rock tour in two years, U2 delivered a triumphant concert here Thursday night that left little doubt that this Irish band is indeed the rock arrival of the '80s. The show was the start of a world tour that includes seven sold-out Southern California shows this month, and the quartet knew it had to live up to enormous expectations. By the time U2 stepped on stage at the Arizona State University Activities Center, however, two more challenges had been added.

One was political: a statewide controversy over Gov. Evan Mecham's rescinding of the holiday honoring Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The other challenge was medical: lead singer Bono Hewson's throat was so sore before showtime that he could only speak in a whisper. The way the band dealt with both matters added to the evening's sense of drama and accomplishment.

Until arriving here Saturday night, the band members didn't know about the Mecham controversy, which has caused at least two major pop attractions Stevie Wonder and the Doobie Brothers to vow not to perform in Arizona. U2 which has saluted the late civil rights leader in two songs was suddenly faced with a question: should it, too, cancel its Arizona shows? Paul McGuinness, the band's manager, said Thursday that the group was prepared to cancel the three shows if the "the mood of the community" Please see U2, Page 5 2 Dorothy a search for quality on TV. HER PEN IS MIGHTY ALLY OF QUALITY TV By BARBARA MILLER There are letter writers, and there are letter writers. Dorothy Swanson is a letter writer. Swanson has penned, she estimates, more than 300 letters and instigated the writing of thousands of others.

But instead of inviting the standard "thanks for writing" response, her letters elicit much more substantial replies on occasion influencing programming decisions at the television networks. Swanson's crusades to get two prime-time TV series "Cagney Lacey" and "Designing Women" back on the air have worked so well for the Fairfax, resident that other shows with ratings problems have sought her support and that of Viewers for Quality Television, a 3-year-old group she co-founded to back worthy but not necessarily popular shows. They don't necessarily get it. "She's not just some public-relations service," notes Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, co-executive producer of CBS' "Designing Women." Indeed, Swanson doesn't even get paid for her efforts. Her reward, she said, is enjoying the "moments of truth" that her favorite TV programs provide.

Thus, she said, she turned down requests to write letters on behalf of ABC's struggling "Spenser: For Hire" and Wizard." "Designing Women," though, was one that captured her heart. So when CBS moved and then shelved the first-year comedy series earlier this season, she launched a massive letter-writing campaign to resurrect it. The series, which had bounced through Monday, Thursday and Sunday-night time slots and had seen its standing in the ratings plummet from a high of No. 16 to a low of No. 65 has now returned to its original 9:30 p.m.

position on Mondays and is back in Nielsen's Top 20. "This show was an example of not being given Please see LETTERS, Page 4 U2 singer Bono Hewson holds his throat as he sings in pain. ilHll PHOTOGRAPHER LEAVES A LEGACY OF STARK IMAGES By RICK VANDERKNYFF Photographer Francesca Woodman wasn't famous when she killed herself six years ago at age 22. Although she had gained a circle of admirers and her work had been shown in several exhibitions, Woodman's uncatalogued collection of more than 500 photographs seemed destined for obscurity. But thanks to Ann Gabhart, then-director of the Wellesley College Museum in Wellesley, Woodman instead has left a photographic legacy.

MAKE WAY FOR MONSTERS AT KNOTT'S By JIM WALTERS Paint brush in hand, Lee Thomas stood ready to take on the next prehistoric monster. A garishly green 200-pound baby Triceratops a few feet away had already met its match; a gray-undercoated 15-foot-tall Tyranno-saurus rex awaited her. "In this light, all of these figures look a little strange," said the figure-finisher at 7 K1 Sequoia Creative ORANGE which is cre-COUNTY ating 21 fully mechanized figures for Knott's Berry Farm's newest attraction. "But this theatrical paint really lends itself to the special lights that will be on them." Theatrical lights, steam and blasts of hot and cold air will help set the stage for "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs," the theme park's $7- Please see KNOTT Page 6 Beginning in 1983, two years after Woodman's death, Gab-hart led a crusade on behalf of ORANGE COUNTY Woodman's work that exhibition, which opened in nated in a INSIDE CALENDAR FILM: Judy Davis talks about "Kangaroo." Page 7. MUSIC: William Kraft's "Contextures II" receives its world-premiere performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Review by Daniel Cariaga. Page 2. RADIO: AMFM Highlights. Page 12. TV: Tonight on TV and cable.

Page II. February, 1986, at Hunter College Art Gallery in New York City. After stops at Wellesley College and the University of Colorado, "Francesca Woodman: Photographic Works" opened Thursday at the UC Irvine Fine Arts Gallery. The show closes May 2. Gabhart first saw Woodman's work by chance Please see WOODMAN, Page 3 Francesca Woodman used herself as the subject in an untitled work..