THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 3, 1994 TAG: 9412010031
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 24 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
JUST A FEW days ago, Frank Sinatra did it has way on prime-time TV, showing the world that he still has it at 79. Now here comes Lena Horne, the sexiest septuagenarian of them all, to perform in a jazzy, bluesy, swinging 90 minutes on A&E Sunday at 8 in ``An Evening With Lena Horne.''
Does she ever look great for 77.
Horne tells her audience at a Manhattan supper club that she'll sing the songs she's been singing since she was 15 - and intends to go on singing. No telling how many times she's done ``The Lady Is a Tramp.''
So when she botches the lyrics of that evergreen in the concert's finale, the audience - including VIPs Liza Minelli, Lionel Hampton, Bobby Short and Ed Bradley - realizes it's an epic moment.
They give her a Standing O.
There is a bonus in this 90 minutes: two numbers by the Count Basie Orchestra, ``April in Paris'' and ``Jumpin' at the Woodside.'' Basie's dead but his band continues to tour.
They were good friends, Basie and Horne. He was one of her teachers.
``I was not a trained musician,'' Horne said. ``But I was taught by brilliant musicians and have always tried to sing the songs of musicians who have something to say.''
A song such as ``Just One of Those Things.''
Come next Saturday on PBS, 82-year-old Perry Como will appear in his annual Christmas special. Sinatra, Horne, Como. They get younger every year.
Since we've waxing nostalgic here, let's talk about ``The Honeymooners' First Christmas,'' which The Disney Channel has scheduled for Wednesday at 10 p.m. This special is of interest to Jackie Gleason fans and devotees of early TV for two reasons.
First, this rebroadcast or kinescope of a show that was done live Dec. 21, 1951, shows Gleason playing all of his TV characters - Ralph Kramden, Joe the Bartender, The Poor Soul, Reginald Van Gleason III, Rudy the Repairman and Fenwick Babbit. It's the only time he used them all in a continuing story, which meant hasty costume changes for the Great One.
Secondly, ``The Honeymooners First Christmas'' gives viewers the opportunity to see the actress who played Kramden's bride before Audrey Meadows took the role. Pert Kelton presented a sharper, edgier Alice. Paul Reiser hosts this special and, in so doing, competes with himself in prime time. (Reiser also appears on ABC at 10 p.m. Wednesday in a Washington, D.C., gala at Ford's Theater hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.)
Of the Gleason performance in 1951, Reiser said, ``It wasn't enough on that night that Jackie was doing a live variety show that had become one of the most popular shows on television. He felt that this show had to be really special. So he brought all of his TV characters in one long-form sketch for the first time ever.''
As usual, Ralph Kramden threatens to send Alice to the moon when she annoys him. Hey, Ralph. That's spousal abuse.
Wednesday is the 53rd observance of the day that will forever live in infamy, the Japanese attack on the U.S. fleet in Pearl Harbor. To mark the event, A&E on Tuesday at 8 p.m. presents a profile on Franklin D. Roosevelt, the man who led America through hard times in the 1940s. ``FDR: The War Years,'' part of A&E's ``Biography'' series, repeats at midnight.
One more note from A&E: After the FDR special, the cable channel brings back Imogen Stubbs as the coolest private eve in ``Anna Lee: Stalker.'' She's young, pretty and dresses funky. In this one, Anna gets mixed up with train robbers and has a go at romance.
Don't tell me that TV is nothing but trash. Not this month, anyhow.
There are three classy films on the schedule in the next few days, including a 1990's version of the wonderfully depressing ``Wuthering Heights,'' which TNT will show Monday at 8 p.m. The cast of this British film is superb with Ralph Fiennes of ``Schindler's List'' and ``Quiz Show'' playing the ruthless but somehow lovable Heathcliff. Juliette Binoche plays his ghostly Cathy.
Funny thing about ``Wuthering Heights'' and ``The Return of the Native,'' the 182nd presentation of ``The Hallmark Hall of Fame,'' which airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on CBS. Both open with shots of lovely young women, dressed in heavy cloaks, walking across the swirling mists of windswept moors. It isn't every month you have the chance to see books by Thomas Hardy and Emily Bronte brought to TV.
What a collection of characters!
In ``Return of the Native,'' Catherine Zeta Jones plays Eustacia Vye, a beauty born to country life who wants to break out. ``She thinks of herself as a queen in exile, a bird in the cage, desperately wanting to escape life in Egdon Heath, which she belives is a prison,'' Jones said.
The third better-than-usual-TV-film is ``Jacob,'' also from TNT. It's on Sunday at 8 p.m. This is the second of Turner Broadcasting's Old Testament epics to reach the small screen this year.
Matthew Modine has the title role, but the last actress I'd expect to see in a Bible flick is hip, sexy Lara Flynn Boyle of ``The Temp,'' ``The Rookie'' and ``Baby's Day Out.'' Here, she is cast as Rachel. Come to think of it, casting Modine of ``Married to the Mob'' and ``Full Metal Jacket'' in this movie is also far out.
What time is it, kiddies? It's WHRO Channel 15 membership pledge drive time.
Go to your piggy bank, look in the sofa cushions for loose change - WHRO needs all the coins you can spare to buy a new transmitter and keep the Big Birds, Mark Russells and Russell Bakers coming your way.
Pledge time means special programming such as Saturday's ``In the Spotlight'' program at 9 about the band that said it would never again perform together - the Eagles. MTV produced the 90-minute concert, which is as 1990s, witchy woman, lyin' eyes and Hotel California as PBS ever gets.
On Sunday, WHRO makes more music. At 7 p.m., Diana Ross joins Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras for Christmas in Vienna. Neil Diamond's Christmas special airs at 10 p.m.
Now here's a twist on this TV menu featuring singers of songs: Natalie Cole will be on the USA network Thursday at 9 p.m. in a dramatic role as a nanny who gets accused of a kidnapping in ``Lily in Winter.''
On Sunday night at 9, Lifetime puts the spotlight on Rose, Jackie, Joan, Rosemary, Kathleen and Eunice in ``The Kennedy Woman: An Intimate Portrait.''
As far as I know, none of the Kennedy women will do an Eagles' song. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
TURNER PICTURES INC.
KEN HOWARD
Spend "An Evening with Lena Horne" a 8 p.m. Sunday on A&E.
by CNB