Daily News from New York, New York • 65

to On this day In 1958, Betty White, whose "Date with the Angels" sitcom had recently been canceled by ABC, started a new variety series on ABC. "The Berry White Show" lasted three months. DAILY o-OEd (Bal (HM: tnJirsfi TirDw Mall rj TOMORROW night's CBS telemovie, "Co-Ed Call Girl," is the sort of thing that gives TV titillation a bad name. The movie, "suggested by actual incidents," stars Tori Spelling as a repressed and self-conscious college student who gains confi TV genre and its star. Tori Spelling plays Joanna, the little girl led astray by flashy clothes, flattering attention, and men with money.

Because of insufficient attention from her parents, Joanna is easy prey for those who seek to manipulate and exploit her. DAVID B1ANCULU PL I 1 K'C i 1 If only the younger Spelling had learned from the script as she was learning it, she might have wised up enough to turn down this particular acting job, or at least to recognize the portion of the moral that might apply to her. dence, and a glamorous new wardrobe, by accepting a job at an escort service only to have the job turn sour, and her life and freedom become threatened, as things get less attractive and more serious than they first appeared. The film indus served for the usual telemovie casting choices. In "Deadly Pursuits," Spelling had one scene where she was supposed to dance seductively on the sidewalk while a street musician played his horn.

It was embarrassing to watch, and nearly as sad as those stiff leather pants she wore while hosting that recent "Beverly Hills, 90210" retrospective. You get the sense that young Tori is trying so hard to please all of the people all of the time, she makes one mistake after another. Like a human Barbie, she covers herself with outfits and makeup that are almost comically garish. And rather than stay within her limited acting range and branch out if and when she improves, she's reaching for stardom too quickly, and the results are not pretty. One of the costumes she wears in "Co-Ed Call Girl" is such a bizarre retro outfit from the mod '60s that I thought we were witnessing either a sudden flashback or the particular requests of a kinky, nostalgic client.

Instead, the clothes were supposed to represent high fashion, just as Spelling's line readings were supposed to represent actual acting. Not even close. "Co-Ed Call Girl" is the most hen again, based on the shallowness of her acting, perhaps she's wise beyond her years to take the money and run even in streetwalker high heels. Michael Rhodes directs this telemovie, and Allan Leicht and Bonnie Garvin co-wrote it, but it is Spelling who is en-trusted with carrying it Not too long ago, she starred in "Deadly Pursuits," playing a similar role, and doing just as bad a job. Because that telemovie drew such high ratings, though, she's failing her way try, straight and porn, has been cranking out variations on this theme since the invention of celluloid, and network TV has gotten into the act, and stayed there, ever since the ABC telemovie "Little Ladies of the Night," starring Linda Purl, was such a ratings smash way back in 1977.

That trendsetting tele-movie, it should be noted, had as its co-executive producer a man named Aaron Spelling. Aaron Spelling is in no way involved in "Co-Ed Call Girl" SOPHOMORIC: Spelling gains in-tuition about how to make money. miscast and inept entry in a cast as a wallflower-turned-tacky telemovie genre since cheerleader in CBS' "The well, since 1990, when Tina Laker Girls." Yothers of "Family Ties" was But that's a Yothers story; (tomorrow night at 9), except upwards, and probably soon that he is the father of both the will ascend to the TV tier re UWs a Dnedl d1F 'Minuses' ffir -DDauis 'i 5 "Nine Months" led to "Mel By CHRISTY SLEWINSKI Daily News Staff Writer OOD girls just don't have II mm any fun. Lucky, then, that "Melrose Place's" Brooke Armstrong has been really baaaaaaaaaad. (Or, at the very least, emotionally unstable and a tad obsessive.) Actress Kristin Davis may loolc like the girl next door, but she relished the chance to play a "Melrose" meltdown from the day she accepted the part at the end of last season.

"The character breakdown said that she's very well educated, she has impeccable manners, she's wealthy, she has this lovely facade, but she has the heart of a shark," said Davis. "I thought, That's fun when you have different layers to play. It's not fun as far as I'm concerned when you either have a victim, or a bad girl who's always bad. That's boring, if that's the only note you're given to play." Throughout the season, Brooke has played a veritable orchestra of emotions: She's conniving yet vulnerable, psychotic yet seductive. And "Melrose" promises that Brooke will hit her crescendo with tonight's two-hour special (Fox, 8 o'clock).

The acting bug bit early for Davis, a native of Columbia, S.C., who started out in children's theater. She shook off her Southern drawl at Rutgrs University, and stepped immediately into commercials. Guest-starring roles in "ER," "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," "The Larry Sanders Show" and the feature film rose," her first regular series gig- Ironically, Davis doesn't consider the hit show to be her biggest career break. "One day I sat down and I was looking at my bank account, and looked at how many commercials I had running, and I realized that I didn't have to have another job," she said.

"That was an exciting, exciting day. It changed my life, because I realized that I could actually make a living acting." RIGHT 'PLACE': Kristin Davis IT'S THE FIRST i Monday night of the February ratings sweeps, when every point translates to tn -l i "Peaceable No? Well, this similarly themed show, with Brantley's Betsy playing a veterinarian at an animal theme park, may well become a similarly tough trivia question. 8:00 (5) "Melrose Place." Tonight, it's two hours of "Melrose" in one Place. 8:00 (TNN) "Not Fade Away: Remembering Buddy Holly." A major figure in both rock and rockabilly. Buddy Holly recently got the tribute CD treatment and an accompanying video version and this supplementary history ought to lure new viewers to The Nashville Network.

And, to pose a moot question, when-will that TNN special be televised? To paraphrase Holly: This'll be the day. 9:00 (NBC) "Gulliver's Travels." Part 2 of 2. Last night's episode climaxed with Ted Danson's Gulliver falling under the shadow of an amazing floating city in the sky. In tonight's delightful concluding episode, Gulliver meets the lofty inhabitants of that flying city as well as those who live on the ground below, under the ground below, and, in yet another faraway land, a land where horses rule and men are beasts. VCR alert.

10:00 (ABC) "Murder One." No matter where ABC moves this series, it seems to come smack up against killer counter-programing. Tonight, in addition to "Chicago Hope," this courtroom series faces some very Swift competition indeed. dollars TV can demand of advertisers. Therefore, we have virtually no reruns, a handful of specials and eye-catching fresh episodes from the usual suspects. The night's best bet: the conclusion of NBC's "Gulliver's Travels." 8:00 p.m.

(ABC) "The Second Noah." Daniel Hugh Kelly and Betsy Brantley star as the Becketts, in a new family drama presenting a menagerie of animals as well as children. Remember Lindsay Wagner as the single-parent zookeeper in 8 in as Z3 DOING HARD TIME: Daniel Benzali CO 4.