Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 25, 1995 TAG: 9503290022
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN CARMODY THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Among the dramas are ``White Dwarf,'' ``a mystic fantasy set on a planet so remote and at a time so far in the future that it resembles the past.'' Francis Ford Coppola is an executive producer, Paul Winfield is the planet's ``renowned healer'' and CCH Pounder is his nurse.
``The Pastor's Wife'' is from David E. ``Chicago Hope'' Kelley, and stars Kyle Chandler as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church on Staten Island and Nina Siemaszko as his wife, ``who is striving to be the next Stephen King.''
``Gemini,'' from the creators of ``Northern Exposure,'' is based on the true story of a man who is both an emergency room doctor and a New York city cop.
Among the comedy projects: ``Daisy & Chess,'' which stars Rosanna Arquette as an ``ex-rock-and-roll groupie working at a hip Bowery music club while trying to figure out how to be a responsible mother to her 9-year-old son.'' First thing she could do is leave the music club, if you ask us.
Other projects include an untitled vehicle for David Alan Grier, who quits academic life to become a cub reporter at a celebrity gossip magazine, and ``Ned & Stacey,'' starring Thomas Haden Church as an ambitious advertising executive who ``enters into a marriage of convenience with a socially conscious journalist'' (Deborah Messing).
Brandon Stoddard, an important part of ABC programming management for more than 20 years, has resigned as president of ABC Productions and will leave the company in June, according to an announcement Wednesday by David Westin, president of ABC Television Network Group.
A former president of ABC Entertainment, Stoddard took over ABC Productions, the in-house production arm of the network, in 1989.
Former first lady Nancy Reagan has made five public service announcements on behalf of the Alzheimer's Association and the National Institute on Aging. The spots were distributed to TV stations around the country via satellite Thursday. . . .
Former president Ronald Reagan, announced in November he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. ``Alzheimer's disease can change your life. It changed mine,'' she says in the PSAs. The five spots are 10, 15, 20, 30 and 60 seconds in duration and urge family The May ratings sweeps for Nielsen begin Thursday, April 27, and conclude Wednesday, May 24. Your first reaction this morning is probably Big Deal. Or maybe an outright So What?
Well, CBS thinks the May ratings sweeps are mighty important. If you were headed for third place after finishing in the penthouse last year, you'd think they were mighty important too.
CBS Entertainment announced its plans for the May sweeps, including, of course, the word ``Buffalo Girls,'' the big miniseries from Larry McMurtry starring Anjelica Huston, Melanie Griffith and so many more, begins Sunday, April 30; there's another ``Cagney & Lacey'' reunion May 2; a ``Rockford Files'' Sunday, May 14; second thoughts about getting married by ``Murphy Brown'' Monday, May 15; and a two-hour season finale for ``Dr. Quack,'' er, ``Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman'' Saturday, May 20, in which she and Sully tie the knot. ``Chicago Hope'' winds up the season May 15 when the state medical board tries to take away Dr. Geiger's license. And there's a ``Brady Bunch'' special Wednesday, May 24, including a lot of home movies never seen before.
by CNB