THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 17, 1995 TAG: 9506150042
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 21 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
ONCE UPON A time, Hollywood feared and loathed television. No longer. Today, the movie moguls are in bed with TV, using The Box to promote films in commercials and on talk shows.
Has anyone not seen the commercial for ``Batman Forever''?
Come Tuesday at 8:30 p.m , there will be another liaison between the movies and television when ABC airs ``Disney's Pocahontas. . . The Musical Tradition Continues.'' This special, in which the music of Academy Award-winning composer Alan Menken is celebrated, is nothing more than one long commercial for the Disney animated feature about the sweetheart of the Jamestown colony.
How does one put the Pocahontas legend to music?
``You write songs that weave a thread of magic and mysticism through the love affair between Pocahontas and Capt. John Smith,'' said Menken, who also wrote the music for ``The Little Mermaid,'' ``Beauty and the Beast'' and ``Aladdin.'' He's darn good.
And that's not the only TV go-around for Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, wife of John Rolfe, hot media babe in the 1990s. The Disney Channel on Sunday at 11:30 a.m., and again on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m., will show ``The Making of `Pocahontas': A Legend Comes to Life,'' with Irene BeDard, the voice of Pocahontas, hosting a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this film.
There is also some of that behind-the-scenes stuff on the ABC special.
(On Monday, June 26, the A&E network gets caught up in Poca-mania, profiling the princess at 8 p.m. as Wild Frontier Week gets rolling. A&E's Pocahontas is not the superbabe the Disney animators have created.)
Want additional proof that Hollywood and television are more partners than rivals? Check out ``National Geographic Explorers: The Photographers,'' which premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on TBS.
With moviegoers swept up in the fictional love affair that involves National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid in ``The Bridges of Madison County,'' Turner Broadcasting decided to show viewers the real item - the magazine's photographers on location in remote and exotic locations.
Trivia item: National Geographic photographers at times expose 600 to 800 rolls of film on assignment, shooting between 20,000 and 30,000 pictures. They're lucky if 30 shots get published.
Sunday is Father's Day, which is usually a cue for TV to do something special, and by gosh, this year is no different. George Clooney of ``ER'' and his dad, TV journalist Nick Clooney, will appear together Sunday starting at noon in American Movie Classics' Father's Day Film Festival. ILLUSTRATION: Disney's Pocahontas...The Musical Tradition Continues"
highlights Academy Award-winning music from Disney film classics.
The show airs Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.
by CNB