Daily News from New York, New York • 163

of ffarc lh-j 'ira rool iiirl rnK stantial. not fantastical and insuostantial. ine miniseries ''V Begins with a quote rom T. S. Eliot's 'Tho U'-jdolo, hi rtes from Yeats' poem "The iliiiiii jecona coming ana toe lii-ble Book of Re elation Not the standard Ste- ItirtrT nklr1 i rr, A wmmmm pets-run-amok, killer-hotel 5 1 AW Minutes' segment on biological wcnfiire in 1976 helped inspire the novel mmmMwmmmmm SUR-VIRAL INSTINCT: Molly Rmgwald and Gary Sinise play 'STAND'EES: The miniseries Drovides meatv roles for Rubv Dee characters who are inexplicably spared by the killer virus.

and Ossie Davis. The eight-hour program starts tonight on ABC, Gary Sinise Jamey Sheridan excel in powerful drama of good vs. evil An iiidicat ion of how rooted in reality The Stand" is: King's wife. Tabitha Jane Spruce, sent all crew meim bers a copy of Crisis jn the Hot Zone, an -article from theOit 26 1992 lueoflhe New orker -re port me the i true story of a 1989 outbreak of Ebola Reston virus near- Stephen King's eight-hour ARC miniseries. which he ao" a pted from his.own 3978 novel "The and its rewrite, begins tonight at 9 with a quotation from S.

Eliot: This the nay the uorhi iviih a bang but a whimpff The way the miniseries hits the ground innning. though, with its story of a sudden plague toot AIDS, but the resonance is there') iping out most of the planet's population. King might as well hav quoted from the rock song by R.K.M. that goes: end of the world as ic-e know it. And I feel fine.

King's The Stand." which 1 iff "yec ft I i ABC presents tonight and tomorrow. with four additional hours on Wednes day and Thursday, wastes noli me in setting its tone. In the first scene, some kind of deadly virus breaks free of its controlled scientific environment at a government facility in California, and kills everyone inside ithin minutes except for one guard. 'who grabs his fam HE'S SICK, BUT NOT ILL: Evil survives the plague, as Miguel Ferrer finds out. ily and flees, unknowingly taking the killer bug with him.

The opening credits come next, and 'The shifts from a credible post-apocalyptic reality, as in "Testament" or "'The Day After." to more ethereal planes, where characters are soothed by an old woman (Ruby Dee) and herguitar. or seduced orscared by a long-haired devil (Jamey Sheridan: who's terrific) with a sense of humor as wicked as his intentions. Gonna make him a star "Pleased to meet you." he says, using a line from the Rolling StOnes Sym-pathy for the Devil" to introduce himself to a potential disciple. "Won't you guess my On the side of goodness, there's i he stalwart Sinise. and he's superb.

It's ironic that an actor ho started out a decade ago doing artier work play- ing opposite John Malko ich in an 'American Playhouse" production of Sam Shepard's "True West." deliver-inggreat performances doing John Steinbeck's work on staee and in film will Finally become a big star because of a TV miniseries. And because of Stephen King. But "The Stand" will make Sinise a star it looks like a big time hit. It's got major roles for Molly ingwald. Laura San Giacomo.

Rob Lowe and Corin Nemec: meaty ones for Migel Ferrer," Ray Walston. Ossie Davis. Adam Storke and Shawnee Smith, and a string of clev er cameos, from Joe Bob Briggs and Kathy Bates to King himself. Anyone who tunes in for Part 1 will eagerly go the distance, because this is the most stylish, surprising and (until the very' end. when it doesn't really matter) satisfying TV adaptation of King s.work better thaa "Salem's Lot." and.

in fact, right up there with the movies "Stand by Me." "The Shining." "Carrie" and 'Misery." "In "The "King once wrote. got a chance to scrub the whole human race, and it was Fl'N!" It still is and with characters and subplots developing slow ly and unexpectedly. ABC's "The Stand" gives King's story, and the miniseries form, a welcome jolt. Watch it tonight, or you'll be unpre- are superimposed over a parade of corpses that outdoes the body count in anvtwo' Rambo" movies. Director Washington.

DC. (The article is the basis of Hobert Bedford next movie proiect.) But if "The. Stand strikes a chord because it plays to our plausihle fears, it also draws 1 many of usrin with its religions themes. Reared in a fairly strict family. King went to Sunday school, church, and Th ursda v-m aht Bible school.

practice what I think of as a quiet, personal religion." King says. I believe there is a God. and he's a loving God-He probablv cares about me and you and everybody else; But I don't go to church, and I don't-try to ram what I be--lieve'down anybody else's throat The biblical stories ftill have an immense resor fiance for In maay waJ tthe Stand' is working out the 5ook of -f i ng says he hopes he; miniseries wilt- leave viewers fcith a renewed faith in their fallow human beings. hope they come away fieeling a little better about humanity. We live in this funny world where skaters beat up other skaters.

Or we think they dp. There are riots and wars and people behaving very badly toward one anoth-: er. At the center of 'The' Stand' are good people, who are, also ordinary people. 4 They give up their lives for their friends. In a world where people can still do that, things, haven't "one enr tirely to hell iRondle is a freelance imter- DAVID Vl BIANCULLI 11 the lost stylish satisfyijig TV adaptation of King's work.

Mick Garris brings the camera in close uncomfortably close on the bloody mouths and vacant stares of these people, who dropped dead at homeat work and on the streets. Then the guy we've followed from Los CO Angeles to Texas, the one Continuing thread since the story started, dies in the arms of astraneer. Suddenly, we're left turns out to be the heart and soiijpf "The Stand." As stoic Texan Stu Redman, he's the first one' who doesn't immediately fall ictimtdthe plague. He doesn't know why. and for a while, neither do we.

Sing it again: "It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine." CO 3 as disconnected aricf distbhcerted as 1 when Janet Leigh, the heroine of "Psycho." wound up dead in a shower. Whom are we supposed to root for now? And that's iust for Starters. There are others like him. and they soon divide into factions one good." one evil each driven by dreams and tlie guy into whose arms the guard col- who iJr,.