
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 19, 1994                   TAG: 9405190118
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Tom Shales
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ABC PROMISES A GOOD TIME FOR ALL

No one can accuse ABC of going overboard to celebrate its 40th anniversary. A special was taped in Los Angeles last October, but its air date kept getting postponed. Finally the two-hour show comes to TV on Saturday night, a little tattered and torn but still cheerfully entertaining.

We'll just have to overlook the fact that 1993, not 1994, officially marks the 40th year for ABC, and that late in the show, Barbara Walters tells us that a new ABC News program, ``Turning Point,'' is ``on the way''; it premiered in March. These things don't detract from the fun of watching ABC's big parade of clips: everything from ``77 Sunset Strip'' to ``The Thorn Birds'' to ``Nightline.''

As you might expect, the show consists of big blocks of clips separated by patter from various ABC stars. Tim Allen, who stars in the network's current hit ``Home Improvement,'' says facetiously at the outset, ``These are not just highlights. Frankly, these are the only two good hours we could find at ABC.''

It's a joke, of course, but for years ABC, youngest of the Big Three networks, had a justifiable inferiority complex. It didn't do as much quality stuff as CBS and NBC did, and it seemed to specialize in youth-baiting junk like ``The Mod Squad'' and ``Happy Days.'' The funny thing is how nostalgic one can get now over even the dumbest TV shows of old, partly because they so often seem to represent lost innocence, partly because it's a natural tendency to love whatever you grew up with - to love even what you once may have hated.

Eventually, ABC achieved parity with its two top rivals. Roone Arledge revolutionized TV sports coverage and also brought the network great prestige with a remodeled news division that is now the industry leader. Fred Silverman, the network's top programmer in the '70s, introduced plenty of pap into the American mainstream, but it was on his watch that ABC galvanized the nation with ``Roots,'' one of the greatest communal experiences in American television history.

Of all the stars introducing segments on the show, John Forsythe may come off best when discussing the appeal of the trashy primetime soap ``Dynasty'' on which he starred. ``You couldn't really call the show lighthearted,'' he says, ``but you couldn't take it all that seriously, either. The Carringtons lived in a world just a little to the right of reality.''

Bruce Vilanch, who wrote the script for the special, deserves credit for veering away from mindless gush and toward at least semi-analytical remarks.

Dozens and dozens of memory-evoking clips fly by: Those homogenized, squeaky clean, oddly endearing families of the old sitcoms (``Ozzie and Harriet,'' ``The Donna Reed Show''); the tidy good-and-evil parlay of the cop shows (``Starsky & Hutch,'' ``Baretta''); the ongoing byplay between Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell; and the certifiable landmarks that showed network television at its best (``Brian's Song,'' ``War and Remembrance'').

ABC thrived in the role of upstart. It became the network that took risks on TV that took guts - like ``The Day After,'' a harrowing depiction of the effects of nuclear war, or ``That Certain Summer,'' a pioneering drama that dealt with homosexuality.

Thankfully, though, the two hours aren't all given over to sobering importance. There are such ecstatic highlights as a duet by Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, in which they sang each other's hits; Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing a tribute to Ray Bolger; Jack Benny fiddling while Sammy Davis Jr. dances; and a replay of the artfully succinct words that closed the weekly police drama ``The Naked City'':

``There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.''

Other stars appearing include Susan Lucci, Peter Strauss, Cybill Shepherd, Dick Clark, Judith Light and Jim McKay. In addition, cameras pan an audience full of invited guests from ABC's past, among them Clayton Moore (``The Lone Ranger''), Lee Majors (``The $6 Million Man''), Vince Edwards (``Ben Casey''), The Lennon Sisters (``The Lawrence Welk Show''), Barbara Billingsley (``Leave It to Beaver'') and that cute Connie Stevens (``Hawaiian Eye'').

For anybody who has grown up with American TV, this show seems a guaranteed good time. It's what you might call just a little to the right of wonderful.

Washington Post Writers Group

by CNB