Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 63

SFIEAK Decatur. Illinois Sunday. December 16. 1990 'Vinnie's' been good to Casella 5tr AT A- SHUT, Herald Review wire services Two "Twin Peaks" biggies were in Philadelphia recently to research a "biography" of "Peaks" character FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan. Writer Scott Frost, brother of "Peaks" co-creator Mark Frost, and Ken Scherer, chief as' Hit 5 Af-C- 6.

5 Actress ends 7-year absence 0 Christmas fantasy lures Olivia Newton-John back into acting career. By JERRY BUCK Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) It took a story about a young girl's Christmas wish for a new mother to get Olivia Newton-John to return to acting after a seven-year absence. "A Mom For Christmas," a holiday fantasy on NBC Tuesday night, is the singer's first movie for television and her first dramatic appearance since the 1983 theatrical release "Two of a Kind." Newton-John plays a department store mannequin who comes to life to fulfill the 11-year-old girl's wish following the death of her natural mother. Juliet Sorcey is the child and Doug Sheehan plays her father. "The little girl makes the wish at the department store's wishing well," Newton-John said.

"I overhear it and turn up at her house. I'm there for the position of nanny and bamboozle my way in. The little girl knows I'm the mannequin, but the father doesn't." It all began several months ago when Newton-John was approached by two networks about doing a series. REAL-LIFE MOM: Olivia Newton-John, center, costars with Doug Sheehan and Juliet Sorcey in the Christmas fairytale "A Mom For Christmas," to be aired at 8 p.m. Monday on ABC.

By MIKE DUFFY Knight Ridder Writer Check it out. Here comes Vinnie Delpino, lippy pal of prime-time medical prodigy and teen sawbones extraordinaire Doogie Howser. Yo, Vinnie! Nice Cadillac, dude. Wait, the line between TV fantasy and reality is blurring again. That's not Vinnie.

That's Max Casella, the young actor who plays the self-styled teen wisenheim-er named Delpino. "People like the character; he's just a real likable guy," said Casella during a recent phone interview while on a break from filming the popular ABC series. Though Casella is playing a 17-year-old high school senior, he's no teenybopper. In fact, he's 23 and on his own. "I'm used to it; I never play my own age," said Casella, who is also only 5-foot-3.

Portraying Vinnie Delpino has really changed Casella's life. He's moved from New York to LA and has dealt with the inevitable culture shock. "I miss Central Park and the rain and the fall season," he said. "But I don't miss the subways. I like all the driving around out here." That's understandable.

Since "Doogie" is a hit, Casella has been able to buy some deluxe new wheels the aforementioned Cadillac, an Eldorado even. For insurance call JIM SEE 429-5788 2721 N. 22nd Street. Decatur, Illinois I ike a good neighbor, Male farm is there. STATE FARM Insurance Companies Home Offices: Bioomington, Illinois the World" miwiiiict of Lynch-Frost Productions, visited Friends School, among other places.

An MacLachlan Cooper studied wpoman says Frost "discovered" that Cooper grew up in Philadelphia and attended German-town Friends. "Agent Cooper: My Life, My Tapes" (working title) is due out from Pocket Books in the spring. Five late-night action-adventure series will debut on CBS Jan. 21. CBS News' "America Tonight," with Lesley Stahl and Charles Kuralt, has its finale on Jan.

18. On Mondays, it will be "Sweating Bullets," starring Nick Slaughter as a federal drug agent-turned-private investigator. Tuesdays, it's Shannon Tweed as smooth operator Sally "Slick" Monroe in "Fly by Night." "Scenes of the Crime," a Stephen J. Can-nell mystery anthology, is Wednesdays. Thursday's entry is "The Exile," with Jeffrey Meek for as a double agent without a country.

"Dark Justice," on Fridays, is about a judge (Ramy Zada) who adopts a secret identity "to ensure that criminals who go free on technicalities are brought to justice." ABC Sports chief Dennis Swanson will take on the added chores for daytime and children's programming, ABC announced Monday. Philip R. Beuth, senior vice president of the ABC Television Network Group, will add late-night entertainment. The jobs previously were held by Michael Brockman, who recently got the boot after 18 months. "The Company," a new ABC drama series about the CIA from "China Beach" creators John Sacret Young and William Broyles is now called "Under Cover." Ironically, "Under Cover," which stars Anthony Denison and Linda Purl, will replace "China Beach" in the ABC lineup at 9 p.m.

Saturdays Jan. 12. Its two-hour premiere will be Jan. 7. Diane Keaton, who directed an episode of "China Beach" this fall, is directing an episode of "Twin Peaks" that will air in February.

m. Lest mi Mmi What ghosts of TV past are lurking out there? had to make up my mind in a hurry." During the past seven years, Newton-John has spent most of the time on her albums, a chain of Australian-themed boutiques, environmental causes and raising her 4-year-old daughter. So what next? How many other "lost" treasures from television's past are out there? For instance, could there be more episodes of "Gilligan's Island" or "Hogan's Heroes" or "Hello, Let's hope not. i Light for ABC-TV 1990 Christmas Eve Special Don't miss this joint United Methodist worship service linking Friedenskirche (Peace Church) in Berlin, Germany, and Grace United Methodist Church in Decatur, Illinois. Asa "I met with people from NBC and we talked about what I'd like to do," the actress said, explaining that she didn't want to be tied to a series.

"A month later the script arrived. Production was starting in Cincinnati in two weeks and I The remainder of the classic "Honeymooners" skits had been performed on Gleason's hour-long show on CBS, done live in the days before videotape. However, during those pre-videotape days, many television networks made kinescopes of their shows. Others, like Gleason, simply wanted to keep a record of their work. The making of a kinescope was pretty basic stuff.

You simply hooked a movie camera to a television set and filmed what was on the screen. Whether or not Gleason had saved the kinescopes because he thought they would be valuable one day is difficult to say. But, it's obvious, he knew the time was right to make them available to the public. The "lost" episodes were an instant sensation. Television hucksters, noting the fanfare the "Honeymooners" discovery enjoyed, suddenly began looking for other "lost" items.

One of the first to emerge was the "lost" episode of the original "Star Trek." Actually, it was the pilot film of the series called "The Cage." NBC turned down the pilot, and the revamped version is the one Trekkies are familiar with today. f) By DOUG NYE Knight Ridder Writer That famous lost rendition of "Jingle Bells" as sung by the "I Love Lucy" cast has been found. What? Say you didn't know it was lost and once more you've never even heard of it? Me neither. No matter, CBS recently found the short segment that was broadcast at the end of a regular "I Love Lucy" episode on Christmas Eve, 1951. It has been included on a holiday cassette, "I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners: A TV Christmas Present," released by CBSFox Home Video.

"Jingle Bells" is just another in a series of lost and found television moments that seem to suddenly pop up every few months or so. A couple of years before he died, Jackie Gleason announced to the world that he had uncovered "the lost episodes" of "The Honeymooners." The lost episodes of "The Honeymooners." What a find. How had they been lost anyway? Actually, they hadn't been. Prior to Gleason's discovery, the only episodes floating around of "The Honeymooners" were the 39 that had been filmed during the 1955-56 TV season. Christmas Eve Special Broadcast December 24, 11:00 p.m.

WAND TV Ch. 17 Grace United Methodist 901 N.Main 429-5374.