The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 51

THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1993 E7 laker braces for the limelight as Masterpiece Theatre's new Eiosl f. 'A I King's Supper, but they will see a new video opening, the first since 1978. An apartment-style set has been designed for Baker. He'll begin by talking about Gwyn Thomas's work, which Baker said has never been published in the United States. A man who believes in extensive preparation, Baker asked Masterpiece Theatre to send some of Thomas's poems, novels and short stories.

"I found I liked him, once I started to read," he said. "I'd never heard of this guy, but he's terrific. It doesn't hurt to be prepared in front of an audience this big, because the slightest mistake would bring torrents of mail, so you can't afford a casual mistake." Masterpiece Theatre airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on Vermont ETV-33 you, really. I haven't had such an experience since I was in the hospital with a broken back, and I lay helpless and people would come and do things for me." So far, Baker said, the Masterpiece Theatre folks have allowed him to continue cutting his own hair, something he's done for the past 25 years.

It's a task that he views as simple if you've got a three-way mirror. But recently, he's come to realize that people, especially TV people, seem to make a great deal of fuss about hair. "This is what I look like," he said. "You can make too much of hair. I've never understood why hair is so important.

Appearance is everything, I guess, in television. I didn't think about that, really, until I was deep into this. If I'd thought about it a little longer, I might have changed my mind." There's something else that "It's interesting," he said after taping his first batch of introductions for the series. "It's completely different from journalism. Journalism, at least what I do, is such a lonely, antisocial type of work that it's just a delight to go out and work with a whole group of people.

'Powders nose between takes' "But in a way, it's terribly distracting, because they're fussing at you all the time. There's a woman who comes out, and she powders your nose between takes, and there's a fellow who comes out and he blots the dandruff off your blazer. And then the sound person, who happens to be a girl, comes over and she reaches her hand in your pants to arrange the wires, because you're wired under your shirt. "These people are constantly laying hands on you and tending to PATRICIA BRENNAN WASHINGTON POST I WASHINGTON "I hate to my picture taken," said Rus-jsell Baker, smiling slightly from behind his desk at home in Leesburg, "I really don't like being recognized. I guess I will be, somewhat." Most likely.

Tomorrow night, Baker takes over Alistair Cooke's chair as host of PBS's Masterpiece Theatre and will introduce the 23rd-season opener, Selected Exits. It stars Anthony Hopkins as Welsh novelistplaywright Gwyn Thomas. Russell and Mimi Baker moved to Leesburg, near his birthplace, in 1986, fed up with New York rents. Baker, 68, continues writing his Observer column for the New York Times. And so far he seems more comfortable doing that than transforming himself into a TV personality: Funny Business goes behind the scenes at Murphy Brown, tiiaiiiS i'gsgx, rows.

The creators are uniformly candid, articulate and interesting. Each hour of Funny Business will focus on a different style of comedy. Next week's program is Partners (comic duos in the U.S. and England, running the sophistication gamut from Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis to Peter Cook and Dudley Moore). That's followed by A Fool's Guide to Movie Comedy, narrated by Leslie Nielsen; then Visual Comedy, featuring the incomparable Rowan Atkinson; and finally, A Stand Up Life, a segment that follows nightclub comedians Joan Rivers, Alan King, Jerry Seinfeld -on the road.

The concluding hour will bring Funny Business full circle, because the road leads the most gifted standup comics to starring roles in TV series. Bill Cosby: who single-handedly revived a network, NBC, and the sitcom genre in the 1980s, was the prime-time pioneer, blazing a trail for Roseanne Barr, Tim Allen, Seinfeld and this season -Sinbad, Caryl Kristensen and Marilyn Krentz (of The Mommies), John Mendoza and best of the lot i. It i JS jC '( 4 'hi A 4'u 1 4 4' M-A'ilWi i vAM 1 Ballplayers Shannon Stewart, left, and Harry Muir are among 4,000 minor-leaguers who are chasing the dream of big-league success. Minos-leaguers eye Turn down the laugh track for a moment and let's get serious about comedy. If you're restricting yourself to one hour of television tonight, make it Funny Business the debut of a great five-part series in which the people who make us laugh explain how they do it.

Comedy is not as easy as it looks. A clown with his pants falling down may be entertainment, but there's a considerable degree of artistry in dropping one's drawers for maximum guffaws. The opening credits of Funny Business begin with a comedy classic: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello performing their Who's On First? routine. We've all seen it 100 times, but the bit is still hilarious as are the other comics in the introductory montage: Chaplin, Laurel Hardy, Harold Lloyd, a young Bob Hope. Writers, cast interviewed Then we see Diane English.

She's not a comedian, but English and her 10-member staff have written some of the funniest jokes of the 1990s. English created Murphy Brown, the popular CBS series that is the focus of tonight's debut Funny Business. The documentary series was granted unprecedented access to Murphy Brown, interviewing writers and cast members and eavesdropping on production of an episode. It's fascinating stuff. Funny Business takes us where no ordinary viewer has gone before to story meetings, read-throughs, rehearsals and finally the taping of the show, in front of a wildly appreciative studio audience.

Hilarious excerpts In addition to seeing Candice Bergen and the gang in their jeans and T-shirts (Grant Shaud looks about 14 out of his FYI uniform), viewers will hear Murphy Brown cast members' analysis of what makes the show click. Their comments are blended with particularly choice excerpts from the series, such as Miles Sil-verberg reacting to the big announcement that would plunge Murphy Brown into controversy: "How many unmarried pregnant role models have you seen in prime time?" Miles whines rhetorically. "None. Zero. Gurnisht." "Sometimes audiences surprise us," Murphy suggests.

"Right," Miles replies. "I'll be surprised in a dark alley by Reverend Wildmon. Will that make makes Baker uneasy: the camera. "The problem of being in front of the camera is that you're talking to a piece of furniture, and most people don't talk to furniture," he said. On the set at WGBH in Boston, where the introductions to both Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! done by Diana Rigg are taped, the idea is intimacy.

'Supposed to be alone' "You're supposed to be alone, talking to one or two people, and you have all these people fluttering around you and people rolling cameras. I've done it a couple of times, and I'm not quite relaxed with it yet. I hope I get relaxed. If I don't relax, if I bomb, I'm not going to stay with it." When the season opens, viewers will still be greeted with J.J. Mouret's music, Fanfare for the MIKE BOONE TV RADIO you happy?" Great bit written for literate, informed people who know Donald Wildmon is the Mississippi-based preacher who leads a fundamentalist crusade against what he perceives to be anti-Christian television or what some of us in the north call smart and funny TV.

Before zeroing in on Murphy Brown (the documentary series was produced in 1992, just when Dan Quayle was tossing the sewage into the ventilation system), Funny Business offers a quick history of U.S. situation comedy. 'Not that bright' This segment includes gems from I Love Lucy (writers recall not being able to use the word "pregnant" in scripts: we've come a long way to NYPD Blue); the Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore shows, All in the Family (Archie Bunker's hilarious rant about Eleanor Roosevelt, who "discovered the coloreds in this country. We never knew they was there, and we been having trouble with 'em ever Maude (discussing abortion with her daughter, played by the unforgettable Adrienne Bar-beau), MASH and Cheers (Kirstie Alley cheerfully admitting she's "not that bright" and doesn't understand most of the jokes on the show). Funny Business is not a definitive survey.

It overlooks the vastly underrated Roseanne; and the documentary series a U.S.-British co-production for the BBC and the Showtime pay-TV service was produced before Seinfeld and the Larry Sanders Show became the hippest and hottest comedies on television. But lack of up-to-dateness is a minor quibble about an otherwise fascinating and frequently funny documentary. Funny Business talks to the best and brightest in network comedy: English, Larry Gelbart, Norman Lear, James Bur He said commercial TV puts good ratings ahead of responsible journalism: 'Action, Jackson' is the cry. Hire lookers, not writers. Do powder puff, not probing interviews.

Stay away from controversial subjects." Rather later denied that he was motivated by any personal dissatisfaction: "Of course I'm happy." NBC has ordered a full season of 22 episodes for The John Larro-quette Show the first such order for any of the 39 new series on U.S. networks. The Tuesday-night series about a recovering alcoholic who runs a bus station in St. Louis hasn't made a serious dent in ABC's Roseanne. But NBC's ratings for the 9 p.m.

time slot are up 26 per cent over last year so far. fl CBS is not only reviving the old (1963-'66) ABC series Burke's Law this winter but is bringing back Gene Barry along with it. 01' Elevator Shoes will once again play wealthy chief of detectives Amos Burke (we vaguely remember Amos showing up for a case in a limo). this time teamed with a grown "son" (The Yun the Restless star Peter Barton). Six episodes have been ordered.

ormer Saturday Niyht Live regular Nora Dunn will join NBC's Sisters in a recurring role. Dunn will play Norma l.eiir, a ii mi in in ''VJfN-'V in 1 Russell Baker Camera still makes print journalist uneasy Brett Butler. -w Funny Business offers up ever thing you always wanted to know about comedy, but were laughing too nard to ask. Funny Business begins toiijght at 10 p.m. on Vermont Newsworld's Media series.

is worth a look this weekend. Hot Docs: Real Life LVanJaS, When Does Truth Become Eicfipn? is the incredibly ponderous title 6f a Media telecast that will look at the aftershocks of the Valour and the Horror mess. i i Guests include director Brian McKenna, Paul CowarJ, whose Billy Bishop documentary The Kid Who Couldn't Miss aroused the ire of Canadian veterans; John Smith, who directed The Boys of St. Vincent, and Bernard Zukerman, the former Journal documentary unit head who has become a drama producer (Love Hate, Conspiracy of Silence and the upcoming Dieppe). Media is on bewsworld lodav jitjjp.m.

and tomorrow at 8 p.m. K4 Unintentional humor may redeem H.E.A.T. And Shannen Doherty is guest host on SNL Gazette TV critic Mike Boone picks the best of tonicht's programs: 1 larts of the West (CBMT-6 at 6). Mark Harmon guest stars as a rodeo clown. Travels in Europe (WCFE-57 at 6): Florence.

Austin Citv Limits (Vermont ETV-33 at 7): Delbert McClinton and Lee Roy Parnell. Spotlight (MuchMusic at Kate Bush. Yes, Minister (WCFE-57 at 8): Great Brit-com begins reruns. Concert Plus (MusiquePlus at 8): Farm Aid '93. The Passionate Eye (NewsuorlJ at 8): Documentary on right-wing South African nationalist Lugene Terreblanche.

I tinny Business (F.TV-33 at 10): British series looks at television comedv. orld's Best (Newsworld at 10): Pleasure Island takes viewers to a New Age resort in Hie Mediterranean. Saturday Niuht Live (WPT.S 1 Just-married Shannen Doherty is guest host. vith Cypresj Hill rapping Ampulco II.L.A.i. tWVNV-22 at midnight) lcsh and lantasy in syndicated series, starring abioi thai will be hilarioiislv awful.

If 1 You call this funny? Hysterically funny Rowan Atkinson explains visual comedy in a later instalment of the humor series Funny Business. lomicide gets four-show reprieve ig time in XRIC KOHANIK HAMILTON SPECTATOR I HAMILTON, Ont. With the JWorld Series just around the corner, this is a good time to look at She people who are the true backbone of the game not superstars, hot owners, not even agents. It is young men who are at the centre of Chasing the Dream, an labsorbing documentary special on tomorrow night. There are 700 players in the major leagues, and 4,000 in baseball's minor leagues.

It is those players that writer-producer William Thomas wanted to salute in Chasing the Dream. I "I think the most interesting baseball is in the minors," says Thomas. "It's a great place to watch baseball before these players be-'come prima donnas." 132 minor-league teams It was after Thomas took David to see a St. Catharines Blue Jays game that the idea for Chasing the Dream began to grow. Barlow is of the documentary.

"You can stand on the bleachers there (at the St. Catharines ballpark) and see the SkyDome in Toronto," says Thomas. "But the question is, how the hell does a player get there?" That question intrigued Barlow Thomas enough to start digging the answer. They were amazed what they discovered. "Minor-league baseball is an industry in itself," says Thomas.

"I no idea that there were 4,000 players and 132 teams, all walking over each other to climb that ladder." There's a peculiar sense of wonder that sweeps through Chasing the Dream. That sense comes from the realization that the inner workings of baseball seem unlike any other major-league sport. In the National Hockey League, the program points out, players like Mario Lemicux and Wayne Grct-zky were big-league stars by the time they were 18 years old. But in baseball, 1 8-year-olds are still learning the basics and can expect several more years in the minors be- -fore they hit the big time, focus on three players "Everybody has heard of the Jminor leagues, but no one knows what goes on," Thomas says, i Chasing the Dream zooms in on llhree such players, following them through a summer in the Toronto organization. 1 larry Muir, Shannon IStcwart and Kddy Vasquoz come 'from widely different backgrounds, but each is chasing the dream, The program follows their pro-Kress as they spend the summer 21 of in on for CBC film with Toronto's farm teams, known as the "Baby Jays." For Stewart and Muir, the summer meant a season with the St.

Catharines Blue Jays of the New York-Penn League. Vasquez wasn't quite so lucky: his dream sent him to the Medicine Hat Blue Jays in the lower-level Pioneer League instead. 'Everyone wants to move up' "What really intrigued me about minor-league baseball is that nobody wants to be there," says Thomas. "Everybody wants to be somewhere else. Everybody wants to be moving up." Chasing the Dream marks a move up for Thomas as well.

The freelance writer made his TV writing debut back in 1988 with his Gemini-nominated script for Breaking All the Rules: the Story of Trivial Pursuit, a TV-movie that chronicled the development of the widely popular triviaboard game. And he concedes that working on a documentary was quite a different experience from his experience with Breaking All the Rules. "I guess the biggest difference in this project is that I was sober," Thomas jokes. "When you hang around with the guys who invented Trivial Pursuit, I mean, you do interviews in strip bars until two in the morning." The real difference in doing a documentary, Thomas notes in a more serious moment, is that it harvests itsdrama from real life. "You can write a script in a documentary, but nobody really reads your words," he says.

"It's real life. You just hope you've got situations where they're going to say things that kind of hark back to your original premise. And if your instincts were right, then they eventually do say what you're trying to prove in the documentary." miles from SkyDome Chasing the Dream trots out a lot facts and figures in telling its story. However, it is most effective contrasting life in the minors and the majors. In one particular sequence, the program nicely cuts back and forth from the hustle and bustle raging inside the SkyDome with the struggling efforts that go in St.

Catharines during a minor-league home game. "Despite nightly promotions by local sponsors, the St. Catharines Jays have one of the league's lowest attendance records," narrator Kenneth Welsh explains at one rather dramatic point in the program. "Just 21 miles across Lake Ontario, the SkyDome is sold out every game. It's the longest 2 1 miles in baseball." Chasing the Dream airs on tomorrow al X.JIO Homicide lives! NBC is bringing last season's best new drama series back from the dead but for only four episodes, so far.

There's no firm scheduling yet, but the network is considering telecasting Homicide: Life on the Streets on four consecutive nights. Homicide creator Barry Levin-son, who directed Robin Williams in Toys, has lined up the manic genius to guest star in the cop drama. BOB CBS anchorman Dan Rather caused shock waves this week when he told a convention of U.S. radio and TV news directors, "We all should be ashamed of what we have and have not done." i i A Dan Rather Tells broadcast-news directors, "Wu all should be ashamod crass producer of a local TV talk show. In the Oct.

16 episode, A Kick in the Caboose, Alex (Swoosie Kurtz) appears on the show to discuss her successful battle against breast cancer. After the host (Jack Betts) literally dies on camera, Lear asks Alex to take over as host. Dunn was at SNL from 1985 to '91. Ironically, her best-known character was vacuous talk-show host Pat Stevens. Still crazy after all these years.

The Simpsons begin a new season Monday night. Here's what's new: Kclscy Crammer will do a guest-voice stint, reprising his role as villainous Sideshow Bob in an episode this month. Sideshow Bob reappears after serving time for the attempted murder of Bart Simpson's aunt. Following his release, he seeks revenge on Bart, whose testimony had put him behind bars. His reign of terror on the Simpsons forces them to move out for a while and relocate under assumed names.

Also this year, daughter Lisa gets a rival as the nicest, most talented little girl in grade school, according to a report in the trade paper Variety. The paper reported that the producers are hoping to sign Winona Ryder to take the part of a classmate who is a better student, more popular and even a better ja.z saxophone player. The show has already locked in Kuilileen Turner for a vocal appearance. She'll play a toy magnate whose product line includes a doll deemed sexist by the politically correct Lisa..