THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 29, 1994 TAG: 9410280126
SECTION: TELEVISION PAGE: 01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
IT'S A SMALL world in Hollywood.
A few years ago, actress Patrika Darbo appeared briefly on the ABC sitcom ``Roseanne.'' Monday night at 9 on NBC, she plays Roseanne, queen of ratings and raunch, in ``Roseanne and Tom: Behind the Scenes.''
This is the second unauthorized biography about Roseanne to hit TV this fall. That puts Roseanne right up there with the Menendez brothers but one made-for-TV-movie behind Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco.
In a conference call with TV reporters, Darbo said she also was considered for the title role in the Fox movie about Roseanne, ``Roseanne: Portrait of a Domestic Goddess.''
But Denny Dillon of ``Dream On'' played the part by shouting a lot.
Darbo said she won't be a caricature of the woman who evolved from a waitress doing tricks - that is what the Fox script implied - into one of the most popular, powerful and wealthiest women on network television.
``You won't be seeing a `Saturday Night Live' sketch when you see me playing Roseanne,'' Darbo said. ``I am not doing an imitation of her. I've tried to capture her flair and incorporate it into my acting style.''
Darbo has seen Dillon play the part. Her critique: The Fox film had too many flashbacks.
``You'll see me playing a role that is softer, more personal, a role about a woman who has dealt with success and tragedy,'' Darbo said. ``Our movie is primarily a love story about two people who started out as friends, became lovers, husband and wife and lost it somewhere along the way.''
Darbo's enormous advantage over Dillon, of course, is the first-hand knowledge she gained while working on the ``Roseanne'' set and getting to know the woman she plays. Roseanne even autographed a copy of her autobiography for Darbo.
Roseanne is an influential woman in Hollywood. Suppose she hates Darbo in the NBC movie. Suppose Roseanne tries to put the squeeze on producers to keep them from hiring Darbo. Has Darbo ever considered the consequences of playing Roseanne in a film not endorsed by Roseanne?
``I don't anticipate a backlash,'' she said.
``No way I could have turned down this part,'' she continued. ``How many great roles with comedy, drama and pathos are there for actresses who are over 30 and overweight?'' Stephen Lee co-stars as Tom Arnold.
Are you ready for a second season of ``Babylon 5,'' the bargain-basement ``Star Trek''? Season No. 2 of the series in which Norfolk's Stephen Furst appears as a bumbling ambassador's aide named Vir premieres late Wednesday night at 1 a.m on WGNT.
Public Broadcasting and WHRO show their concern about the ``lost generation'' of this country's young African-American males in three nights of prime-time programming that begins Monday at 9 p.m.
First is ``Surviving the Odds: Young Black Males - Dead or Alive.''
On Tuesday night at 8, WHRO has scheduled a viewer call-in show, ``Beyond Survival: A Hampton Roads Town Meeting.''
In ``Surviving the Odds: The Black Tax,'' which airs Monday at 8 p.m. and again Wednesday at 8 p.m., PBS suggests that young African-American men pay for their blackness in terms of rejection and hostility.
With CBS' eight-hour miniseries sequel ``Scarlett'' airing in a couple of weeks, WGNT gives us the chance to revisit the classic ``Gone With the Wind.'' The Civil War drama starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh is shown over two nights, Tuesday and Wednesday, at 8.
A wondrous night from The Learning Channel on Friday: three hours of ``The Body Atlas'' series. You'll learn about taste and smell, muscle and bone, glands and hormones, the body as a machine taking in food, and life in the womb. The three hours repeat at 11 p.m.
Am I the only one who thinks Halloween is evolving into a bigger deal than it ought to be? Television continues to embrace the observance with many hours of programming, including Megadeth performing on MTV Saturday at midnight; Frankenstein week on the Sci-Fi Channel (it starts with the 1931 ``Frankenstein'' on Monday at 9 p.m.); ``Lamb Chop's Spooky Stuff'' on PBS Sunday at 8 p.m.; and Anne Rice on Lifetime Sunday at 10 in ``Birth of a Vampire.''
Even the Olsen twins are at it. Mary-Kaye and Ashley pop up on E! Entertainment Television with Art Mann Saturday at 10 a.m. (and again Sunday at 5:30 p.m. and Monday at 2:30 p.m.) in ``The F.Y.E. Halloween Special.'' These children are into everything - TV, movies, home video, toys, books, games. On E!, they compare notes with Kermit the Frog.
A&E focuses on Orson Welles in the ``Biography'' series Monday at 8 p.m. Welles scared the pants off America in a 1938 broadcast of ``War of the Worlds.'' AMC contributes to the scary Halloween weekend by showing two classic sci-fi films: ``The Thing'' will be Sunday at 7 p.m. followed by ``The Day the Earth Stood Still.'' On Halloween night, AMC runs ``King Kong'' and ``Son of Kong'' back-to-back starting at 11:05 p.m.
One more note about Halloween TV: At five minutes past midnight Sunday morning, TBS 26 episodes of ``The Munsters.'' On Sunday night at 9 on TBS, Boyd Matson hosts ``Wicked Wonders'' on ``National Geographic Explorer.'' Matson ponders such questions as, Why do we hate spiders?
Do you know there is a Comedy Hall of Fame? Saturday at 8 p.m. on NBC, Sid Caesar, George Carlin, Bob Hope, Shirley MacLaine, Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Pryor will be saluted in Beverly Hills. What's MacLaine doing in that group? . . . Be warned that Sylvester Stallone will show up on E! Entertainment Television next week Monday through Friday from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. to hype his current and upcoming films. . . . The Discovery Channel covers the annual competition of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Singing in a special Thursday night at 8:30. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
In ``Roseanne and Tom: Behind the Scenes,'' Patrika Darbo and
Stephen Lee play the wacky ex-couple. This second unauthorized
biography airs Monday night at 9 on NBC.
SPOOKED TWINS! Mary-Kate, left, and Ashley Olsen from ``Full House''
appear with host Art Mann for E! Entertainment Television's ``F.Y.E!
Halloween special.
``BIRTH OF A VAMPIRE'' This special unlocks the mystery behind one
of the most popular novelists, Anne Rice, by revealing the places
and events that shaped her art. 10 p.m. Sunday on Lifetime
"Gone with the Wind"
Spend two evenings with a classic tale. Catch Clark Gable and Vivien
Leigh in this Civil War drama (just weeks before the made-for-TV
sequel, ``Scarlett,'' airs). 8 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday on WGNT
by CNB