THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 10, 1994 TAG: 9412080057
SECTION: TELEVISION PAGE: 01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
THE LAST TWO dudes I'd expect to see in a salute to a man who was as hopelessly square and wholesome as Walt Disney are publisher Hugh Hefner and comic Dennis Miller. But Saturday night at 8 on ABC, both will be on camera - Hefner in his silk pajamas - to take part in ``The Wonderful World of Disney: 40 Years of Television Magic.''
Miller, His Royal Hipness, says he watched the Disney hour on Sundays when he was laughing through puberty. ``It was enjoyable and melancholy because when Disney came on Sunday night, I knew the weekend was over. His show was the last gas station before you hit the school desert on Monday.''
Hefner, Foremost Playboy of the Western World, and a man who knows a thing or two about altering a nation's culture, toasted Disney as a genius businessman and artist. He created one Magic Kingdom in Disneyland and another in our minds, he said. He also was the first film maker, Hef said, who had the foresight to give cartoon characters a personality all their own - everyone from Mickey Mouse to the Lion King.
Disney conquered TV almost by accident starting in 1954.
He signed on with ABC only because the network helped finance the $17-million dream world he was building in Anaheim, Calif.
Disney's first excursion into TV was called ``Disneyland,'' followed by ``Walt Disney Presents,'' ``Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color,'' ``The Wonderful World of Disney,'' ``Disney's Wonderful World'' and ``Walt Disney,'' which signed off in 1983.
The Disney folks no longer need the networks. They have a cable channel all to themselves plus all the money in the world.
If you grew up watching the Disney programs, you should get goose-bumpy about tonight's two-hour special. Aren't you just dying to go back to the days of Spin and Marty, the roll call on ``The Mickey Mouse Club'' (Hello, Karen, Cubby, Jimmie and Annette) and such films as ``20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'' and ``Swiss Family Robinson''?
And you get to meet Walt Disney all over again. Kirstie Alley hosts.
Fox Broadcasting leaps back four decades or so Tuesday night at 8 for ``The Museum of Television and Radio Presents: Science Fiction, A Journey Into the Unknown,'' hosted by those aging cosmos cowboys, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
This is science-fiction TV from ``Tom Corbett, Space Cadet'' in the 1950s through ``The X-Files'' today. A revelation: ``The Time Tunnel,'' a series that signed on in 1966 with James Darren in the lead, was pretty good sci-fi.
What's a week without a marathon? Like egg without the nog.
If it's more science-fiction you crave, the Sci-Fi Channel begins a week of going back to the future with those curious creatures who gave Charlton Heston such a hard time. On Monday at 9 p.m., it's ``Planet of the Apes,'' followed on succeeding nights at 9 by the sequels and prequels to that splendid 1968 film. It ends with ``Battle for the Planet of the Apes.''
Do you dig Patsy and Edina, the hard-drinking, hard-smoking, hard-living, sweetie-darling Brits of ``Absolutely Fabulous'' on Comedy Central? If they are your cup of tea, rejoice in 12 episodes of ``The `Absolutely Fabulous' Marathon'' which begins Sunday at noon.
In a marathon of a completely different kind, The Learning Channel on Friday reels off 13 episodes of what your humble columnist thinks is the most compelling half-hour on cable, ``Connections,'' hosted by a Britisher who is even more fun that Patsy and Edina - the very cool James Burke.
What's the connection between laughing gas, atomic bombs and cashmere sweaters? The connection between Big Ben and plastic sandwich bags? Burke knows.
Also from The Learning Channel: ``This Century: Jesus Christ, Movie Star.'' TLC on Monday at 10 p.m. looks at how film makers have portrayed the December Birthday Boy. Of today's acting crop, who would you cast as Christ?
I guess by know you know that it's not easy being beautiful. If you want proof, here it comes on E! Entertainment Television in ``The World's Most Beautiful Women,'' a special Monday at 7 p.m.
Jaclyn Smith, Michelle Pfeiffer and those leggy supermodels are knockouts. But do you consider Julia Louis-Dreyfuss of ``Seinfeld'' beautiful? How about Barbra Streisand, Oprah Winfrey and Sinead O'Connor? E! settles the question Monday.
Over at The Family Channel headquarters in Virginia Beach, they've created all kinds of original programming for the Christmas season.
The latest burst of FAM creativity: ``Rugged Gold,'' a made-for-cable film starring Jill Eikenberry and Graham Greene. See it Saturday night at 8. It's about life in the Alaskan wilderness, but it was filmed in New Zealand. I don't know why they just didn't shoot it out in Kempsville somewhere.
And speaking of holiday programming, ``Perry Como's Irish Christmas'' pops up on WHRO Saturday night at 7, right smack in the middle of the PBS affiliate's December pledge dirve. Como filmed in Dublin. You bet he sings, ``Toora, Loora, Loora.''
Sunday at 7:30 p.m. on Showtime, it's Shelley Duvall starring in ``The Christmas Witch,'' part of her excellent ``Bedtime Stories'' series. Every Friday in December at 5:30 p.m., Showtime is sending out half-hour animated kids' shows with holiday themes.
Celebrity alert! On Monday at 8 p.m., Clint Eastwood is the subject on A&E's ``Biography'' series. In ``The Man from Malpaso,'' Eastwood recalls that his father said he'd never make it as an actor. Friday night at 9 on PBS, David Frost chats with the tenor, Luciano Pavarotti.
Other TV tidbits worth noting:
The Disney Channel Saturday night at 11 reels off the very first episode in the ``I Love Lucy'' series . . . HBO beams out two original presentations this weekend, starting Saturday night at 8 with ``Witch Hunt,'' a quirky film about private eyes starring the very quirky Dennis Hopper. On Sunday night at 10, it's another can't-take-your-eyes-off-it episode in the ``American Undercover'' series. This one, ``Murder 9 to 5,'' is about people who chop down fellow workers in moments of rage . . On MTV Wednesday at 8 p.m., it's that jolly ol' elf himself, Bob Dylan, doing an ``Unplugged'' session. Same channel, Friday at 7 p.m., is the program you headbangers have been waiting for all year - ``The Year in Rock.'' It's Woodstock '94 and the Michael Jackson-Lisa Marie Presley wedding and the Rolling Stones' tour and more.
Is the year in rap included? You bet. What's an MTV special without Salt-N-Pepa? by CNB