Thursday Is Also Noted for a Day of Infamy

TV or not TV. . . .

LEST WE FORGET: Thanksgiving is also the 27th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy--TV’s most vivid single moment.

Who can disagree with the recent survey of professors, TV critics and others who said that the shooting on Nov. 22, 1963, resulted in the most memorable broadcast in the medium’s history?

JFK would have been 73 last May.

In the survey, conducted by Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., Neil Armstrong’s 1969 moon walk was voted the second most memorable broadcast, and the miniseries “Roots” was third.

NETWORK: Smart move by ABC to renew “Twin Peaks” for the remainder of the season after dropping “Cop Rock.”

ABC has become the best network by finding room among its pop hits for lower-rated but offbeat series that also include “thirty-something,” the Vietnam drama “China Beach” and “Life Goes On,” about a family whose son has Down’s Syndrome.

No way that ABC would dream of unseating “thirtysomething” in the near future, and “Life Goes On” has encouragingly grown in strength this season even against “60 Minutes.” But “China Beach” could be vulnerable, and at best has little chance to last beyond the current season.

ABC has the dilemma of wanting to overtake No. 1 NBC, yet also maintain its quality reputation with these series. Nonetheless, the network’s strategy--a healthy combination of commerce and originality--is sound.

And ABC got a big boost last week when Barbara Walters’ interview special with Shirley MacLaine, Mel Gibson and Delta Burke drew 32% of the audience, and walloped CBS’ “WIOU” and NBC’s “Hunter.”

CHEAP, OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND TRUST TV: What? No more flood of NBC press releases selflessly helping the public about earthquake awareness?

You mean all that public spiritedness was really just cynical, self-aggrandizing hype to build up last week’s miniseries “The Big One: The Great Los Angeles Earthquake”?

Would a fine American TV network like NBC do a thing like that--exploiting a frightening, nerve-end subject simply for its own ratings gain?

Prove us wrong, guys. Put on a four-hour documentary series that really deals with earthquake facts and advice during the next ratings sweeps in February.

No fiction. Just helpful TV for all those viewers you deeply care about.

ALL ABOUT EVE: What a grand and warm performer Eve Arden was, even in the endearing little situation comedy “Our Miss Brooks.”

Straight-arrow, with solid values, Arden, who died last week, also had a graceful, leggy beauty like Lucille Ball.

Does anybody but me remember her in the film comedy “Voice of the Turtle,” as Eleanor Parker’s wisecracking pal--with Ronald Reagan in a fine performance as a soldier on leave?

RECORD BOOK: That 200th-episode celebration for “Cheers”--which pulled 44% of viewers--had a higher rating than the finales of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Family Ties” and even “All in the Family.”

How has “Cheers” endured and become a phenomenon in an era of anti-booze warnings?

By emphasizing not the drinking, but the more important thing that goes on in a good bar--the camaraderie that helps ward off loneliness.

POP: Carl Reiner told NBC’s Bob Costas he became “very aware” when his son, Rob Reiner, started directing films “better than I direct. . . . I might have been able to do ‘The Princess Bride,’ but not like him.” And Rob’s “Spinal Tap,” says his old man, “is a classic of all time.”

VISIONS: Why do I get the feeling that KNBC Channel 4 anchor Linda Alvarez is going to break into an aria every time she starts reading a news story? And just because weather guy Christopher Nance works for KNBC, does that mean he has to dress like a peacock?

DATEBOOK: There’s no way anybody’s going to miss CBS’ two-hour “Frank Sinatra: 75th Birthday Celebration” on Dec. 16, right? . . . And on Dec. 15, recent award winners Jessica Tandy (an Oscar for “Driving Miss Daisy”) and husband Hume Cronyn (an Emmy for HBO’s “Age-Old Friends”) return in a CBS rerun of “Foxfire,” about an Appalachian farm family.

WILD THING: No truth to the rumor that ABC is a developing a series called “News Rock,” about a newspaper where editors and reporters burst into song while working on stories.

THE FRANCHISE: With Angela Lansbury making an unexpectedly strong showing again this season in “Murder, She Wrote,” wouldn’t it behoove CBS to at least think about trying to woo her back for another year?

SLEUTH: How’s this for an inspired TV premise? A 1930s private eye (played by Tony Peck, Greg’s son) has as his clients famous novelists working in Hollywood: F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Dashiell Hammett. His job: Research their film scripts and provide clues for the ending. The premise is being turned into a drama series for cable’s Arts & Entertainment channel. You sure won’t find it on CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox.

BEING THERE: “The truer you are, the freer you get. It’s automatic.”--Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp) in “I Spy.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .