THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 4, 1995 TAG: 9511020073
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
``KIDNAPPED,'' the four-hour miniseries with all the swash and buckle you can ask for, the project in which Christopher Reeve was to star for the Virginia Beach-based Family Channel before he sustained serious spinal injuries in a fall from a horse, arrives on TV screens Sunday at 7 p.m.
Armand Assante replaced Reeve in the lead role.
This revival of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic is the first of six original co-productions of The Family Channel and Hallmark Entertainment. Francis Ford Coppola is among the co-producers of the ``Kidnapped'' miniseries, which concludes Monday at 8 p.m.
The plot gets rolling when Assante as Alan Breck Stewart meets Brian McCardie, playing David Balfour, in the brig aboard a ship bound for the Carolinas in 1751. Young Balfour is about to be auctioned off into slavery while Stewart is in hot water with the British because he is regarded as a traitor, deserter and criminal for rebelling against King George and the English invasion of Scotland.
Reeve was just a few weeks away from leaving the United States for Europe to begin work with director Ivan Passer on ``Kidnapped'' when he was left paralyzed from the chest down by the fall. When Assante met with TV writers in Los Angeles not long ago by way of satellite from Dublin, he sounded almost apologetic for taking over what was to be Reeve's next acting assignment.
``These are tragic circumstances that I have moved into, but I hope that Christopher wants me here, and wants to see this project completed. It was rather terrifying to come into a situation where shooting was well under way and I was moving into a work that had been prepared for another actor.''
The Family Channel will show ``Kidnapped'' again on Nov. 23, Thanksgiving Day, at 6 p.m.
Television in the week ahead focuses on two men, icons of the 20th century, whose lives are just as adventurous as any of Stevenson's heroes. TBS on Sunday at 9 p.m. salutes the renowned French inventor-adventurer-environmentalist-TV star in ``Jacques-Yves Cousteau: My First 85 Years.''
There are wonderful images on film above and below the sea as TBS in two hours sums up the life and times of the man who has done everything from ``chasing the stealthy octopus'' to pioneering dives as deep as 750 feet to seeking out the world's polluters aboard the converted minesweeper Calypso.
The TBS documentary is a feast for the eyes, but you won't learn much about the private Cousteau outside of the fact he had his first wife and son, who was killed in a plane crash, buried at sea. Bet you didn't know he won the Legion d'Honneur and Croix de Guerre for heroism in World War II.
No less compelling is the life of publisher Rupert Murdoch, who runs a corporation with revenues of $9 billion annually. PBS' ``Frontline'' looks at how the Australian in 40 years built a media empire that circles the globe in ``Who's Afraid of Rupert Murdoch?'' airing Tuesday at 9 p.m.
Why Murdoch? Because for a man who has much to say about what millions of people on several continents read in newspapers and see on TV, people know little or nothing about him, said Paul Judge, a reporter who worked on this ``Frontline'' edition.
No committee or team of executives runs Murdoch's holdings, which include Fox Broadcasting in the United States as well as TV Guide. ``He decides how his company is run,'' said Judge.
``Frontline'' did not have Murdoch's cooperation.
Also from PBS and WHRO in the week ahead are two programs of interest in military-minded Hampton Roads. On Monday at 9 p.m., ``The Battle of the Bulge'' is recalled in ``The American Experience'' series. Following that at 10:30 p.m., PBS brings back the glory of the battleship Navy in ``USS Wisconsin: The Last Battleship.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
by CNB