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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 22, 1990                   TAG: 9005220387
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAY SHARBUTT ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`PEAKS' IN, `ELVIS' OUT OF ABC FALL LINEUP

"Twin Peaks" will be back next fall along with "China Beach" but there will be no more "Elvis" sightings, ABC said Monday.

The new schedule contains six new series, including Steven Bocho's hourlong "Cop Rock," a mix of cops and musical production numbers.

"Elvis" wasn't the only midseason ABC show to get the ax. "Brewster Place," starring talk show star Oprah Winfrey, was canceled, too. Also out: "Capital News," "The Marshall Chronicles," `H.E.L.P." and "Sunset Beat."

All had low ratings. But so did "Twin Peaks," directed by David Lynch of "Blue Velvet" fame and one of this season's most written about new series. A dark saga of sex, murder and jelly doughnuts, it had top ratings of 21.7 for its April 8 premiere, but has steadily lost viewers, despite even a favorable New York Times editorial.

Wednesday's season-closing episode likely will have high ratings because it is to resolve the murder of a key character, a high school beauty named Laura Palmer. The mystery even has touched off sales of T-shirts marked "I Killed Laura Palmer" in California, an ABC spokesman said.

But last Thursday's show gave the series its lowest Nielsens to date - a 10.6 rating and a 17 percent audience share. Each ratings point represents 921,000 homes.

Still, ABC spokesman Tom Mackin said the network expects the ratings will improve next season when the series follows the renewed "China Beach" in the latter's new time slot on Saturday nights.

Other ABC renewals include the high-rated "Roseanne," and "thirtysomething," "Life Goes On," and ABC News' "PrimeTime Live" and "20/20" series.

Three of the five other new series on ABC's roster are sitcoms - "Baby Talk," based on the hit movie "Look Who's Talking"; "Going Places," about four young adults in Los Angeles working on their first TV show - a "candid videos" series; and "Married People," about three generations of married couples sharing the same brownstone in New York.

Capitalizing on its top-rated "America's Funniest Home Videos," ABC also will have "America's Funniest . . . Part II."

James Earl Jones, whose "Paris" police series on CBS flopped a decade ago, will try again in a new hourlong ABC series, "Gabriel's Fire," playing a former convict working as a private investigator for a defense attorney.

by CNB