THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 27, 1994 TAG: 9408250069
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEKLY PAGE: 01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
IF YOU WATCH the optimistically titled ``Victory over Violence,'' a four-part series that begins Monday night at 10 on WGNT, you'll learn that it takes 30 pages in ``The Most-Wanted Bulletin'' to list all the bad guys on the run in and around Seattle.
The people in Seattle and four counties nearby who read the bulletin, which is published by volunteer labor and distributed free, have helped the police arrest 114 fugitives and find 17 missing children in the last year.
The story of Valerie Vavrik and Bruce Dunlap's ``Crime Report: The Most-Wanted Bulletin'' pops up in hour No. 3 of ``Victory over Violence'' - the part about how better to catch criminals.
In Charleston, S.C., the cops openly videotape suspected drug dealers on the streets where they do business. In Oxnard, Calif., the chief of police appears on a weekly TV show, ``Streetbeat,'' which focuses on crime in neighborhoods and how to check it. Other cities have put curfews in place to keep kids off the streets late at night.
What more can we do here in Hampton Roads to defeat crimes of violence?
Perhaps we can pick up a tip or two from this series.
``Victory over Violence'' is produced by Arnold Shapiro, who recently put together two network specials on the depth of child abuse in the United States. Walter Cronkite hosts.
``We all know what the problem is,'' said Shapiro. ``It's violence, which you won't see in this series. What you will see are solutions. You will see people who are making a difference in reducing crime in cities and neighborhoods all across America.''
From Seattle, Vavrik said she decided to help produce ``Crime Report: The Most-Wanted Bulletin'' in Seattle when she realized it was no longer safe to walk in her neighborhood at night.
``There were four murders here last week. That's shocking. We're doing the bulletin to help reduce the number of victims of crime in our community,'' she said. Fifty thousand copies of the report go out to stores, libraries and shopping centers.
Elsewhere on the TV menu as August melts away:
WTKR has scheduled another in its ``Town Forum'' series for Wednesday at 8 p.m. On this program, the subject is health care reform. ``Health Care Reform: A Chance to be Heard'' will be a panel discussion moderated by Jane Gardner of Channel 3's Eyewitness News team.
The phone lines will be open to viewers. Jack Howard of WNIS and John Barnes, editorial page editor of The Virginian-Pilot/Ledger-Star, are listed as panel members by the program's producers.
And now. . . for a change of pace. At the age of 91, Bob Hope is still fit enough to host a series of specials for NBC this year, starting with ``Bob Hope's Young Comedians: Making America Laugh'' tonight at 10. Hope's one concession to the advancing years: He's taken on Crystal Bernard as co-host.
Thursday is the first day of September and the start of the new TV season for two of Fox Broadcasting's hottest shows, ``Martin'' and ``Living Single.''
Remember that these shows, starting with ``Martin'' at 8, have moved to a new night on the Fox schedule. Let's see now. Wasn't Martin among the missing as last season's episodes wound up? I hear that Gina has located him in some weird cult. After these two shows, Fox continues with ``M.A.N.T.I.S,'' which rolled out the new season last week.
HBO recently remade the 1964 film classic ``Seven Days in May,'' with Forest Whitaker, Sam Waterston and Dana Delany, which answers the question, ``Whatever happened to Dana Delany after `China Beach?' '' She plays the president's chief of staff in this HBO original. ``The Enemy Within'' is on HBO Sunday night at 11:45 and again on Wednesday at 11:30.
The plot in a nutshell: The brass in the Pentagon is prepared to launch a coup against the president and all the president's men because the admirals and generals want to clobber somebody, anybody, for reducing the military's budgets, power and influence.
It's a film that the military establishment in Hampton Roads can relate to.
Almost every place you turn in Hollywood these days, Whitaker is involved in some project, either as an actor or director. TV or film? It makes no difference to this man. He just wants the work.
``I like working in television because the smaller budgets dictate a certain way of shooting. It's shorter. There is less time for the producers or directors to play around with the project. Less time for the actors to play around with the project. That's helpful, I think,'' Whitaker said when he met TV writers in Los Angeles not long ago.
Offbeat pick of the week: It's on tonight at 9 on The Discovery Channel.
``Challenge: Two Miles Down'' is about laborers in South Africa who risk life and limb mining gold. There's still plenty of the glittery stuff around, but you have to go to a depth equal to nine Sears towers laid end to end to get at it.
One of these summers, the MTV cameras will focus on Virginia Beach for its ``Best of the Beach'' series. But not this year. MTV's been hanging around Mailbu, Venice Beach and Hawaii. ``Best of the Beach'' shows up on MTV today at 2 p.m. and again Sunday at 3 p.m.
What's Hawaii got that Sandbridge doesn't? Besides great surf.
You can tell it's pledge month for Public Broadcasting and WHRO because of all the neat special programs they've rolled out in August. The latest is ``MGM: When the Lion Roars,'' which airs in three parts starting Tuesday at 9. And tonight at 8 on WHRO, it's two great chefs for the price of one. Julia Child and Jacques Pepin appear in ``Cooking in Concert.''
They prepare four dishes including salmon wrapped in a crust of thinly sliced roasted potatoes. What's for dessert, Juila?
Turner Broadcasting, a company with thousands of movies in its vaults, recently launched ``Sunday TNT Classics'' on Turner Network Television. The films start at 4 p.m. This Sunday, it's the four-star film that everyone likes, ``Bad Day at Black Rock'' starring Spencer Tracy.
``Sunday TNT Classics'' is a consolation prize for cable subscribers who aren't wired into Turner's new channel, Turner Classic Movies. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Walter Cronkite is the host for ``Victory over Violence,'' a
four-part series about how cities try to reduce crime. The series
will begin airing Monday night at 10 on WGNT.
by CNB