THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, December 9, 1995             TAG: 9512070028
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK          PAGE: 1    EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, Television columnist
                                             LENGTH: Medium:  100 lines

SOAP QUEEN Deidre Hall, who often visits Virginia Beach to see her twin sister, Andrea, opens up her private life to a primetime audience Sunday at 9 on ABC in ``Never Say Never: The Deidre Hall Story.'' She lays out for all to see the frustrations of 20 years of infertility and, finally, the joy of motherhood with the help of a surrogate. To quote Hall, it was 20 years of ``being shot full of hormones, knocked out and cut open by doctors.'' Her quest for motherhood ends happily when a surrogate mother named Robin (played by Eve Gordon) enters the lives of Hall and her husband Steve Sohmer. She has given the Sohmers two children, ages 3 1/2 and 1. It was a long, painful, difficult path for all to walk here. A friend once told Hall, ``This baby thing is not for you. You've tried every way known to man to conceive and it's not happening.'' And when the surrogate birth was arranged, the trials did not end. Hall was warned that she might not get to keep the baby, that she could be setting foot into a legal thicket. The tabloid press chased the story from every angle, even ambushing Robin in the ladies' room. The Sohmers were criticized by some churchgoers. No matter. The ending is a happy one. This is a four-Kleenex evening before the tube. Andrea Hall Gengler plays herself in the film. WHAT ELSE does TV have to offer in the week ahead to take your mind off the fact that you haven't started your Christmas shopping or even thought of addressing your Christmas cards? Plenty, including a really good and really surprising episode of ``Party of Five.'' On Sunday at 8 p.m., Home Box Office shows Michael Jackson in a two-hour concert taped at a Broadway theater. ``Michael Jackson: King of Pop - One Night Only'' dishes out more from his over-promoted ``HIStory: Past, Present & Future - Book 1'' disc. There will also be a duet with sister Janet. The Beacon Theater is an intimate location compared to the wide open spaces in which Jackson has done concerts in the past. Another singer of note will be featured Monday at 10 p.m. on Bravo in ``South Bank Show: Clint Eastwood.'' Yes, he sings. Didn't you see ``Bronco Billy''? ``Paint Your Wagon''? The Bravo show is clips plus interviews that cover Eastwood's pretty darn distinguished career in films. Eastwood on westerns, which helped make him famous: ``The genre is not dead. It's just a question of finding a new venue, new people to portray the western.'' Meryl Streep, who co-starred with Eastwood in ``The Bridges of Madison County,'' is among the big names that appear in ``Stars in the Making'' on CBS Wednesday at 9 p.m. This is one of those easy-to-assemble specials that show what big, big stars such as Streep, Tom Cruise, Michael Douglas and Dustin Hoffman had to endure before they got The Big Break. Fun stuff. Joe Regalbuto of ``Murphy Brown'' is the guide here. There will soon be a film about the life and times of Richard M. Nixon in movie theaters, but before that happens, TNT beats producer Oliver Stone to the punch with ``Kissinger and Nixon'' on Sunday at 8 p.m. Under layers of heavy makeup, Beau Bridges plays Nixon and Ron Silver is cast as Henry Kissinger. This is a primer on how the U.S. got out of the war in Southeast Asia and a not-so-pretty portrait of how Nixon used and abused the power of the presidency. Interesting but a tad too long. The folks over at The Family Channel headquarters in Virginia Beach know how to put their viewers in a holiday mood. They break out the Shirley Temple movies. ``Shirley Temple Classics Week'' begins Monday at 3 p.m. with Temple in ``Dimples.'' FAM, as they liked to be called at the channel, keeps the holiday mood going on Sunday at 9 p.m. with ``Holiday Greetings from the Ed Sullivan Show.'' See Gene Autry sing about Rudolph and Bing Crosby croon about having a white Christmas. Elsewhere in the Land of the Picture Tube, former Pittsburgh quarterback and a winner in four Super Bowls, Terry Bradshaw, hosts ``Sports Illustrated 1995 Sportsman of the Year'' Sunday at 7 p.m. on Fox. Who's your choice? Tonya Harding? Yes, women have won five times in the past. . . It's time for another of those well-crafted but slow-moving ``Hallmark Hall of Fame'' holiday specials. This time it's ``Journey'' on CBS Sunday at 9 p.m. Jason Robards, Meg Tilly and Brenda Fricker, minus British accent, co-star in this piece about a restless young mother, farm folk taking pictures of cows, and, well, lots of talking and staring. . . Bet you never knew that Jupiter is larger than all the other planets in our solar system put together. In ``On Jupiter'' (Monday at 9 p.m.), the Discovery Channel tells all about the planet with a storm three times the size of Mother Earth raging at all times. Be advised, all you ``Party of Five'' fans, that come Wednesday at 9 on Fox there will be a giant surprise before the scheduled wedding of Charlie and Kristen. And you may not like what you see. Fox says I can't reveal more than that. . . See dogs who live better than people in New York City on The Learning Channel Sunday at 8 p.m. in ``Dog Day in Manhattan: Dog Stories.''. . Roads: A Season for Music.'' Included will be ``the governor's musick'' from Colonial Williamsburg. . . Another program note from WHRO: The PBS outlet this month is showing the wonderful documentary, ``Victory at Sea,'' Monday through Friday at 11:30 p.m. It hasn't aged a bit in 50 years. . . Had enough of Howard Stern? If not, catch E! Entertainment Television's ``Howard Stern's `Miss America''' Friday at 10 p.m. It's about the shock jock on a book-signing tour.

"Never Say Never..."

TNT PHOTO

Beau Bridges, left, as Richard Nixon and Ron Silver as Henry

Kissinger in TNT's ``Kissinger and Nixon,'' which premieres Sunday

at 8 p.m.

by CNB