THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 18, 1995 TAG: 9511160056
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
IF YOU'RE A NETWORK, how can you possibly top yourself after you've given the viewers hours and hours of film and interviews about John, Paul, George and Ringo plus two new songs by the Beatles?
ABC will try to do just that next week by calling on not just the Fab Four but also Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Madonna and Whitney Houston.
Come Thursday at 8, ABC airs ``Television's Greatest Performances'' in which Jackson is seen doing ``Billy Jean'' on a 1983 Motown special, Sinatra sings it his way in a Madison Square Garden ``Main Event'' and Houston again belts out the national anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl at a time war was raging in the Persian Gulf.
After that, at 9 on Thanksgiving night, ABC concludes ``The Beatles Anthology'' with Part 3, which includes their last studio album and, alas, the band's breakup in 1970.
``The Beatles Anthology'' begins Sunday at 9 p.m.
See 16-year-old John Lennon start it all with a band called the Quarry Men.
(The E! Entertainment channel, cashing in on this new wave of Beatlemania, on Friday at 7 p.m. premieres ``The Beatles on E!,'' with a visit from Yoko Ono, who insists she did not help break up the Beatles.)
Jimmy Smits, a terrific cop on ``NYPD Blue'' but a little short in the sparkle department, is the curious choice to host ``Television's Greatest Performances.'' Also featured are Diana Ross, the Muppets and Steve Martin in a hilarious performance during Johnny Carson's final week on ``The Tonight Show'' in 1992.
Seems like only yesterday we were carving a face on the Halloween pumpkin, and here comes Christmas on TV. The will-that-be-cash-or-charge? season begins officially on Thanksgiving evening at 8:05 when TBS airs ``Dr. Seuss'
How the Grinch Stole Christmas'' for the umpteenth time.
Other Thanksgiving programming includes eight specials on the Faith & Values Channel, starting with ``Songs of Praise'' at 2 p.m. Thursday. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will sing at 8:30 p.m. on F&V.
On a lighter note, Comedy Central has arranged a ``Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day Marathon'' beginning at 9 a.m. and continuing until midnight. The perfect end to a lovely Thanksgiving holiday? Watching ``Night of the Blood Beast'' at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central.
``Chipmunk Thanksgiving'' is scheduled for the USA network at 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. And the day before Thanksgiving, on Wednesday at 8 p.m., TNT has a corker of a holiday special in ``The Wizard of Oz in Concert.''
Think of it as a musical journey over the rainbow. Debra Winger is the voice of the Wicked Witch of the West, and Joel Grey plays the wizard. The special repeats at 9:30 and will be seen again on TNT four more times in November and December. (Grey's daughter, Jennifer, on Thanksgiving will be in the cast of ``The West Side Waltz,'' a ``CBS Playhouse 90s'' special, sharing top billing with Shirley MacLaine, Liza Minnelli and Robert Pastorelli.)
Elsewhere in the week ahead, The Disney Channel on Sunday at 9 goes onstage and backstage with Boyz II Men in ``Going Home.'' This special was shot last summer when the group was on tour. They do 12 songs . . . and play basketball, too. Also from the Disney Channel, another holiday special: ``To Infinity and Beyond: The Making of `Toy Story.' '' See what it took to create Disney's first computer-generated animated film. It's on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.
Ashley Johnson, the kid who has all but stolen the ABC sitcom ``Maybe This Time'' away from old pros Betty White and Marie Osmond, stars as Little Orphan Annie in ``Annie: A Royal Adventure'' on ABC Saturday night at 8. Joan Collins plays the villainess here, Lady Edwina Hogbottom. This is not a musical.
In a special that is as far removed from ``Annie'' as you can get, Home Box Office on Tuesday at 10 p.m. explores the roots of this country's violent history in ``Violence: An American Tradition.'' Watch this and you'll learn how Columbus imported violence to these shores, how the Civil War bred frontier violence and how for a time in the United States, it was OK to beat your wife just as long as the stick you used wasn't any thicker than a man's thumb - the rule of thumb.
PBS, which tells no lies, swears that it's new series, ``Dangerfield,'' is a combination of ``ER'' and ``NYPD Blue.'' The six-part series about an English police surgeon begins Sunday at 10 p.m. . . . NBC uncorks another ratings grabber in ``Dead By Sunset,'' starting Sunday night at 9. It's a four-hour miniseries about a sociopath who married five women, fathered six children and made and lost three fortunes by the time he was 38. Ken Olin stars. . . . Who ever thought that the people who put sugar on your kitchen table are hastening the demise of the Everglades. TBS on Sunday at 10 p.m. makes that case in ``World of Audubon: Sugar Scandal.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
The Beatles...
SHOWTIME photo
Patti Lupone, left, and Meredith Henderson star in ``The Song
Spinner,'' Sunday night at 6 on Showtime.
by CNB