Richmond Times-Dispatch from Richmond, Virginia • 139

at the Dance numbers are hot grim storylines are not DOUGLAS DURDEN OF Guy Witcher (left) and Armin Mueller-Stahl star in John Avildsen's new boxing movie set in pre-apartheid South Africa been good to director By Daniel Neman Staff writer WASHINGTON John Avildsen directed the original one of the best boxing pictures ever made Then he made the three Kid" pictures and he followed up with Now he has made Power of an anti-apartheid film playing at the Willow Lawn theater The film is about a young boxer complete with a couple of climactic fighting scenes So what does Avildsen think about the sport? think boxing is one of the dumbest things two people can he said He only puts it in movies because of its power on the screen think very dramatic moving simple But it's also But he makes the boxing movies because that is what has been offered to him since winning the Academy Award for best director for in 1976 are what you eat and you are what you he said almost made If 1 had I think I would have been sent a lot of police stories Success pigeonholes you to some degree but it could be worse I could be sent all those Now 56 with gray hair and a gray beard and clear blue eyes that match his silk shirt Avildsen met the press at the offices of the Motion Picture Association of America to reflect on his career He has had an admirable output as a director He made a splash with his first mainstream movie in 1970 and followed up with such acclaimed films as the and On Continued on page 14 col 6 For much of its two hours on CBS tonight at the is an excuse to wrap a quartet of soggy storylines around some spectacular dance numbers You probably be surprised to learn that the director of the TV movie is Debbie Allen the actress and choreographer whose most recent feat of fancy footwork was choreographing the Academy Awards The Savoy of the title is legendary Savoy Ballroom of the late '30s and early Among the people who flocked there for entertainment were young women who spent most of their time working as domestics On their few nights off they crowded onto the dance floor for a break in the tedium of their work movie airing at 9 pm on Channel 6 is based loosely on the life of screenwriter Beverly mother Mary Odom Sawyer who lived in Brooklyn with her sisters during the Depression my mother told me wonderful stories about that time and that place her eyes would Ms Sawyer writes when 1 saw movies from that period with black actresses portraying domestics whose worlds revolved around the lives of their white employers I knew it was a distortion a stereotype My mother and my aunts were young women with their own lives their own hopes and their own dreams" Part of that life was spent dancing at the Savoy where the musical favorites were band leader Chick Webb and his vocalist Ella Fitzgerald First Lady of just loved them to Mrs Sawyer told her daughter played the music that made you dance We would stay the band played Sweet and wouldn't get back to Brooklyn three four in the morning you had to rehash the whole night Had to go to work at seven so you get much steep But it was worth every bit of it You had that good time to look back on keep you going And you'd look forward to your next day off to do it all over at the Savoy" filmed in Wilmington NC isn't nearly as eloquent as Mrs memories But it does offer three popular performers heading the cast: Lynn Whitfield an Emmy winner for her title rote in Josephine Baker Story" singer Vanessa Williams and Different star Jasmine Guy Vanessa Bell Calloway rounds out the quartet of friends who necessarily stick together though thick and thin which includes poverty illness racism and betrayal The grim message in between dance numbers is that not enough to want to escape from Harlem to a better life You have to make it happen Ms character marries young and marries poor A HARLEM LEGEND Lynn Whitfield (clockwise Guy and Vanessa Williams star in tonight's CBS from upper left) Vanessa Bell Calloway Jasmine movie at the Savoy" It starts at 9 stand-in for Harlem of SO years ago a great deal of effort was put into the ballroom scenes with their gravity-defying pyrating dancers The dance numbers were choreographed by Norma Milter and Frank Manning former Saww Ballroom dancers of the '30s who won a Tony Award in 1989 for their choreography for Local note: Richmond actress Kwcli Leapart is prominently featured in a scene from at the filmed in a beauty salon Look for the talkative customer who gets her hair pulled Ms Leapart also will appear on the upcoming season finale of The Family Channel's Brother with deadly results The young woman played by Ms Calloway falls in love with a white actor with disastrous results Ms Williams who wants to become a singer must use her looks and other attributes to charm the boss Ms Whitfield who turns in the best performance in the most complex rote sacrifices love and friendship for success Playing the men in their lives are Mario Van Peebles Jack Michael Warren Street Darnell Williams and John Di Aquino But first on with the show Although Wilmington doesn't make a convincing No longer the Channel 35 focuses on future Its overall audience share is still half that of its closest network competition but a series like Living can outperform its Sunday night competition on NBC-Chan-nel 12 and ABC-Channel 8 Richards doesn't expect to see overall growth continue at the same rate Channel 35 now concentrates on demographic figures meaning specific age groups which continue to climb According to Richards the station has doubted its share of its target audience of 18- to 34-year-olds in the last five years Most of the credit has to go to Fox prime-time schedule launched in spring 1987 Though many doubted Fox's ability to stay alive in the competitive market of network television it now broadcasts four nights a week often adding a fifth with Monday movies This summer it plans to add an additional night And by this time next year Fox could be supplying its affiliates with a foil seven nights a week plus four hours of programming on Saturday 2-year-old Hills 90210" is tops with teens and probably the most writ-ten-about show of the season done well enough to create a spinoff which could premitre this summer Similarly Simpsons" started a craze for prime-time animation that ABC NBC and CBS haven't been able to top Before that With Children' generated controversy and publicity Now Living rtgularly breaks the taste barrier That's not to say all's perfect with Fax Several of its shows can still be counted on to fill the bottom rungs of the ratings ladder Even its successes are razzed for their offen By Douglas Durden SUIT writer not like an entertainment company to let an important anniversary go by unnoticed But WRLII-Channel 35 all but ignored its 10th birthday in February The TV station was too busy looking to the future a future that includes more nights of Fox television eventually a new studio and more locally produced programs WRLH became Richmond's first independent TV station when it signed on in February 1981 Back then it was owned by the Norfolk-based TVX Broadcast Group Since then the station has had five other owners some longer than others Act III Broadcasting which acquired WRLH in summer 1988 holds the distinction of owning the station the longest But for part of last year it looked as if the station was going to change hands again Abry Communications of Boston was set to buy Act III Broadcasting a division of Act III Communications of Los Angeles which is headed by producer Norman Lear Along with owning TV stations Act III produces movies and TV series Within months however the deal between Abry and Act III unraveled Since then Act III Communications has released a successful movie Green and launched a critically acclaimed new TV series Powers That Even during those months when it looked as if Channel 35 would have new owners the station never missed a beat Abry was poised to buy it was business as usual Nothing said Don Richards general manager of WRLH since 1988 sive content But the TV service has put its affiliates on the viewer map and promises to continue doing so a Richards says of Channel growing identification with Fox programming have a foot in both camps an independent and an affiliate an More and more tied to a Fox programming the only success for independents film Channel 35 however Trek: The Next now in its fifth season proved that independents can have big-budget glamourous hour-long series Come January fans of science-fiction series will have more good news Trek: The Next Generation" a spinoff of will have a spinoff of its own Trek: Deep Space which Channel 35 will carry Following in that new tradition of hour-long syndicated series Paramount also plans a January launch for its new series version of which it made into a movie in 1987 Channel 35 will air it as well Channel 35 also will carry Whoopi Goldberg's new syndicated evening talk show that makes its debut in the fall All is not good news at WRLH however In February when it should have been celebrating its 10th anniversary the plans for a new studio ran into a major roadblock WRLH was planning to move from its cramped studio location on Westmoreland Avenue to the renovated Masonic Temple building at Adams and Broad streets The plans appeared so definite that the down- Continued on page 5 coL 1 Staff photo by Kevin Mortoy BROADCASTING TO GO WRLH by a remote truck that enables live general manager Don Richards stands broadcasting from city locations Richards discount any future ownership changes either a desirable product As this country conies out of the recession investors are going to look first toward groups like ours I've no doubt Mr Lear entertains a lot of offers" TVX original owner is a prime example of how mercurial but profitable the TV business can be After a troubled period when the company acquired more stations than it cduld find financing for the company was purchased by Paramount Pictures last year with a handsome profit for TVX's original partners What makes a station like WRLH so desirable? Here's one obvious answer told from a local perspective Though the audience share for traditional network affiliates is in a state of flux Channel 35 has shown a steady increase in its prime-time Richmond audiences EC yv 25 iM.