THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610030092
SECTION: TELEVISION PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: 87 lines
KATE MULGREW, who is in her second season playing a 24th century starship commander, says it didn't take long to experience ``Star Trek'' mania.
One convention of Trekkers did it.
``It's quite extraordinary to be carried on this cloud of love and support. I enjoy it tremendously,'' said Mulgrew, who plays Capt. Kathryn Janeway on ``Star Trek: Voyager,'' the latest spinoff of a TV franchise that began 30 years ago.
UPN, the network of ``Voyager,'' will mark that milestone Sunday at 8 in a special, ``Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond,'' to be carried locally by WGNT. UPN says the live telecast will feature the largest gathering ever of actors from the four ``Star Trek'' TV series and eight feature films.
Also aboard will be real-life space travelers (former astronaut Buzz Aldrin) and starstruck celebrities (Quincy Jones, Ted Danson and Warren Beatty). The event will be used to raise money for several charities and environmental causes, including Danson's quest to preserve the vitality of coastal waters and deep oceans.
The TV schedule in the week ahead shows that Hollywood celebs care what happens to the forests, streams, animals and birds among us.
There's another show-biz anniversary worth noting this month - the 25th birthday of Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla. TV will be up to its mouse ears in that celebration.
You would expect The Disney Channel to make a big deal of birthday No. 25, and that is precisely what happens on Tuesday at 8:15 p.m. with ``Inside Out: Walt Disney World's 25th Anniversary Special.''
Disney is promising a look behind the scenes at the Disney theme parks.
On Monday at 8 p.m., E! Entertainment Television also goes boldly where no other TV cameras have gone at WDW with ``Disney World Anniversary'' hosted by Art Mann.
If that isn't TV special enough for you, try this programming on for size:
Ever wonder about the man with the grin and glasses enshrined on Mount Rushmore? Wonder no more because on Sunday at 7 p.m., Public Broadcasting tells you everything you always wanted to know about the youngest man to be elected president in ``TR, the Story of Theodore Roosevelt.''
TR led such a busy, robust life it's hard to believe he was born a sickly infant with asthma. Before he was president, he was a cowboy in South Dakota's Badlands and a Rough Rider in Cuba. ``I was afraid of a lot of things,'' said TR. ``But by acting I wasn't afraid, I found that I really wasn't.'' The ``American Experience'' special continues TR's story Monday at 9 p.m.
You know you've had too much to drink when you wake up in a strange country wearing nothing but your underwear. MTV deals with binge drinking and the heavy use of alcohol among teens 14 to 17 in ``Smashed: An MTV News Special Report'' on Monday at 10:30 p.m. MTV shows the problem and some solutions, such as following three teens attending a support group for heavy drinkers. MTV also takes up this question: Do people under 21 have the right to drink?
Who's just about the last person you'd expect to be worried about the future of Asia's wild elephants? How about Goldie Hawn, the former ditz on ``Rowan and Martin's Laugh In''? Sure enough, it was Hawn who flew off to India recently in search of a blind elephant she first saw seven years ago - and to call attention to the poaching of wild elephants.
Once there were millions. The population today is estimated at between 30,000 and 50,000. Hawn tells her story on PBS Wednesday night at 8 in ``In the Wild: The Elephants of India With Goldie Hawn.''
Just as concerned with the future of wildlife as Hawn are two other glittery folk who are man and wife. Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger plunged into the Peruvian rain forests to do a special, ``Black Market Birds,'' for TBS. It premieres Sunday night at 9.
Baldwin and Basinger uncover this troubling fact: The macaw is being trapped and sold on the black market. Smuggling birds is a $20 billion-a-year business, says TBS. The macaw is among a hundred species of parrots on the endangered list.
``Sightings,'' the series that may have started this whole ``The X-Files-Independence Day'' outer space thing is back for the new TV season, but not in syndication as in the past. The Sci-Fi Channel bagged the franchise with 22 new episodes scheduled for Fridays at 8 p.m. This week, salvagers run into a World War II ghost ship. . . . Here's perfect escapism: Bravo on Sunday at 8 p.m. begins airing the six-part series ``The Look,'' which is about life in the high-fashion world of designers and supermodels. First up in this ``Expose'' showcase is what goes on at an international fashion show. ``It's great theater,'' says clothes horse Joan Collins.
The Family Channel adds five programs from producers Sid and Marty Krofft to its weekend morning schedules starting Saturday with ``The Bugaloos'' at 8 a.m. followed by ``Lidsville'' at 8:30, ``Sigmund & The Sea Monsters'' at 9 and ``H.R. Pufnstuf'' at 9:30. On Sunday at 9:30 a.m., ``Far Out Space Nuts'' runs on FAM. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
[Actors appearing on Star Trek reunion] by CNB