Baxter Bulletin from Mountain Home, Arkansas • 19

THE BAXTER BULLETIN Copyright 1989 by Baxter County Newspapers. Inc. Adams stars in summer series By JERRY BUCK AP Television Writer long-running radio soap opera "Pepper Young's Family." He was the third actor to play Pepper, taking over the role in 1915 and stayinguntil it leftthe airin 1959. He also had regular roles in such radio series as "Big Town" and "Gasoline Alley." "When I got out of college and went back home to New York City I decided to earn my living as an actor instead of as a teacher," Adams says. "Radio was a good way for an actor to make money because you could also work in the theater.

But around 1960 radio passed away and many actors moved to Los Angeles. "I didn't want to move here per manently so I went into commercials. I established a beachhead, mostly doing voices. I prefer not to be on camera. I still do commercials for a lot of national and regional accounts." Adams' mellow voice, with a hint of a rasp, is a familiar one behind commercials.

He's the one who says, "With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good." Adams was living in Connecticut when the offer came from "Lou Grant," a spinolT of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" starring Edward Asner. Allan Burns, co-creator of the show, had seen Adams in "The Deadliest Season," (See ADAMS on Page 3) 2 if i 1 hMA' I -if LOS ANGELES (AP) Connecticut Yankee Mason Adams, sitting on the wooden deck of his California hillside home, isn't speculating on the future of the new NBC summer comedy series "Knight and Daye." "I'm in suspended animation as far as doing any more 'Knight and Daye' shows," says Adams, who stars in the series with Jack Warden and Hope Lange. "We did six episodes. We'll have to see how it plays. It could come back as a mid-season replacement.

But that's all speculation." The show has a preview Saturday night and is scheduled to begin its regular summer run on Wednesday. The comedy focuses on the once-famous radio act of Hank Knight and Everett Daye. Adams is Daye, Warden is Knight and Lange is Daye's wife, Gloria. Knight and Daye had split up 30 years earlier when Knight made a play for Daye's then-girlfriend, Gloria. "I was a news writer, basically a journalist," Adams says of his character.

"I got a job at this radio station where Jack Warden was a radio personality. When the station manager saw our names, Knight and Daye, he put us together. I was reluctant, so what it evolved into was that we were constantly in confrontation. "When we get back together, someone says, 'Hey, they're And someone else says, That's what they do." When I'm asked about our breakup I say we had a profound disagreement. Actually, he was making moves on my future wife." Adams, who's lived mostly in Connecticut for the past 30 years, bought the house in Bel Aire when he came West to play managing editor Charlie Hume in "Lou Grant." "We never sold it and it's worked out very well.

I hate living in hotels," he says. He and his wife, Margot, a writer, also keep a home in New York City. It's the third television series for Adams. Besides "Lou Grant," which ran from 1977-82, Adams also starred in "Morningstar, Eveningstar," which as on briefly in 1986. But an older generation knows Adams as Pepper Young in the 7 Jean Simmons portrays Miss Haversham and Martin Harvey is the young Pip In The Disney Channel's production of the Charles Dickens classic, "Great Expectations." The six-hour, three-part mlnlseries premieres Sunday at 7 p.m.

and continues at the same time Monday and Tuesday nights. The Disney Channel is available locally on Home Cable Channel 38. (Copyright 1989. The Walt Disney Company) Dickens miniseries debuts Sunday on Disney Channel In an ambitious undertaking, The Disney Channel launches a three-part, six-hour miniseries Sunday night based on one of the world's classic novels, Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations." The production stars Anthony Hopkins, Jean Simmons and John Rhys Davies with Anthony Calf as Pip, the story's central character. The Disney Channel is available locally on Home Cable Channel 38.

"Great Expectations" is considered by many critics to be the most enduring work by Dickens. Carol Rubin, The Disney Channel's executive director of feature films and miniseries, said although the work had been adapted to the screen before, "No motion picture has been able to tell this action-packed adventure and love story as fully as does this miniseries." "Our version has the airtime necessary to be able to deal with more than just the central links of the narrative," she said. In the Disney version, Jean Simmons plays Miss Haversham, an eccentric and sinister character. In the 1916 theatrical version, she portrayed Estella, the beautiful but heartless target of Pip's affection. "Great Expectations" debuts at 7 Sunday night and airs at 7 Monday and Tuesday nights.

It will have subsequent airdates during July. I () 'A Fish Called Wanda' Jamie Lee Curtis and John Cleese star In the crime farce "A Fish Called Wanda," which debuts at 7 p.m. Saturday on Cinemax. Co-star Kevin Kline won an Oscar lor his supporting role as Curtis' crazy boyfriend and co-conspirator In a big-time London diamond heist Cinemax is available locally on Home Cable Channel 35. (Photo courtesy of HBO Cinemax) ENTERTAINMENT TV LISTINGS.