DATE: Saturday, October 4, 1997             TAG: 9710030117

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Bonko 

                                            LENGTH:   87 lines

IT'S A WONDERFUL WORLD WHEN DISNEY SHOWS RETURN TO PRIMETIME

WHILE OTHERS IN THE CAST and crew of ``Seinfeld'' spent the summer on vacation, Jason Alexander sweated through rehearsals and the filming of ``Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella'' for ``The Wonderful World of Disney.''

The Disney showcase, which has had seven titles since it first appeared on television 43 years ago, returned to primetime on ABC last Sunday with ``Toy Story,'' and this week brings on Kirstie Alley in ``Toothless.'' After Disney bought the network, it was just a matter of time before Disney picked a peach of a timeslot to showcase its films.

Sunday at 7 is it.

Disney is coming after you, Mike and Morley.

``Toothless'' is one of 16 original productions scheduled for the only primetime series that brags about itself in the title. Lawrence Welk wasn't the only one who could say, ``Wunerful, wunerful.''

``Cinderella,'' in which Alexander shares billing with Whitney Houston, Brandy, Whoopi Goldberg and Bernadette Peters, will be seen during the November sweeps. When meeting with TV writers in Los Angles, Alexander joked about signing for ``Cinderella'' because he needed the money.

Need the money? Whoa.

Didn't Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards get big raises from $160,000 to $600,000 per ``Seinfeld'' episode, earning something like $1,500 for every word of dialogue they speak?

Well, yes, said Alexander. ``But it should be pointed out that we haven't been paid for this season.''

Working for Disney last summer was insurance, said Alexander. How so?

``If Jerry Seinfeld had been smashed by a bus and run over before we started filming the new season, I would have been out of a job and back on the unemployment line.''

Jerry's fine, and Alexander is cashing those fat ``Seinfeld'' checks.

He sings and dances in ``Cinderella,'' which may surprise viewers unless they've done their homework. Long before Seinfeld cast Alexander as George the semi-lovable loser on ``Seinfeld,'' he won a Tony on Broadway. In a recent TV production of ``Bye, Bye Birdie,'' he was a regular Fred Astaire.

``I grew up watching musicals,'' he said. ``The bulk of my work before `Seinfeld' was in musicals. I think it's a sin that very few producers are doing musicals for the movies or television. A whole generation has already missed out on musicals.''

On Alexander's resume, he lists singer and dancer first, actor second. It's the other way around for Goldberg, who plays Queen Constantina in ``Cinderella.''

``I'm a good comic actor who has hit a lucky streak with music,'' Goldberg said. ``When they were making `Sister Act,' somebody asked if I could sing. I opened my mouth, and something came out - a tone or something. The word spread. Whoopi can sing.''

She comes to ``Cinderella'' after doing ``A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' on Broadway. Even after Broadway, Goldberg said she was tense in a cast of musical heavyweights. ``Extremely tense.''

Disney and ABC will use ``The Wonderful World of Disney'' as a showcase for everything from costly original productions such as ``Cinderella'' to remakes of Disney classic films such as ``The Love Bug.''

Herbie's back.

Disney is also producing a new ``Oliver Twist'' with Richard Dreyfuss playing Fagin. Tony Danza has been cast in ``The Garbage-Picking, Field-Goal Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon.'' Alley, who recently launched her new series in which she plays a former lingerie model on NBC, stays pretty much covered up as the Tooth Fairy in ``Toothless.''

The Tooth Fairy's gown is 1950s vintage prom queen.

She plays a dentist who dies in an accident, finds herself in limbo - it's a trailer park with a ``hellevator'' on the outskirts - who must work her way into heaven by being the Tooth Fairy with this charge: Never involve yourself in the world of the living.

It's cute. It's Walt Disney's kind of a picture. ``The Wonderful World of Disney'' will also include Disney kind of films that Disney didn't make, such as ``Babe.''

In 1954, Walt Disney broke into television not so much that he wanted to make films for the small screen but because he needed money to build ``Disneyland'' in Anaheim, Calif. ABC forged a partnership with Disney when he agreed to produce ``Disneyland'' as a weekly series.

It once pulled in 55 percent of the viewers.

Today, 43 years later, Tinkerbell is still popping up on the tube, bringing on the show with a swipe of her sparkly wand. Today, she's an image created by a computer.

Offer ``The Wonderful World of Disney'' to a kid like Brandy, cast her as Cinderella to Houston's fairy godmother, and how could she not say yes?

``The absolute highlight of my whole life has been meeting Whitney Houston and Whoopi Goldberg and Jason Alexander. I love those guys,'' Brandy said. Was she ever surprised to learn that George Costanza of ``Seinfeld'' is a singer and a hoofer.

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