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Show Gtieryl f-acfef in new TV variety special By Peter Meade "Cheryl Ladd... Scenes from a Special," Miss Ladd's third prime-time variety special, will air Wednesday, March 31 on ABC. Guest stars include Miss Ladd's "favorite lady," Carol Burnett, along with soap opera star and recent Grammy Gram-my winner Rick Springfield. There'll be a "9 to 5" production produc-tion number with Miss Ladd, Miss Burnett and a chorus of cleaning ladies; a duet of "Whenever I Call You Friend" with Springfield; and "The Hot Number," in which Miss Ladd suggestively struts and sings her way around a group of men. The hour-long special is not cluttered with the usual filler that dominates many programs pro-grams of this type. Instead, using a style reminiscent of silent movies, each segment begins with a title. The special is a pedestal for Miss Ladd's variety of talents as she sings, dances, dramatizes, tries for laughs and then sings once again. "Scenes" features four songs from Miss Ladd's upcoming third album. The songs are written by her hus-. hus-. band of the past 15 months, : Brian Russell, who is also the V f V t ' k : . . r v. ' Cheryl Ladd special's executive producer. "Music was my first love," she says. After graduating from high school in South Dakota she started touring with the Music Shop Band. When the group disbanded in Los Angeles, she landed a role as the voice of Melody on the cartoon series "Josie and the Pussycats." It wasn't until after she had appeared in numerous commercials com-mercials and guest-starring roles, however, that her big break came. In 1977, she began a four-year run as Far-rah Far-rah Fawcett's replacement on "Charlie's Angels." "How do you replace a legend?" she asks, speaking of Miss Fawcett. "But I like the ! glamorous image and now I only look at 'Charlie's Angels' in the positive sense. At that : time in my career I needed ' something to happen. It came j up at the right moment and . made me a known person." When "Charlie's Angels" went off the air in 1981 she ; wasn't terribly disappointed. "Now I'm ready to do other r things," she explains. s ; Last week she returned . home to California after sev-; sev-; eral months in Australia s where she was filming a m movie, tentatively called "Now and Forever." The production pro-duction utilized a mostly Australian Aus-tralian crew and cast. Her next project will be an ABC movie portraying Princess Grace of Monaco. It is an unauthorized biography, but "I hope she'll like it," says Miss Ladd. "I've thought about doing another TV series," she says, "but not for a while. I have ! other things I want to do." I Like what? "I can't think of anything more rewarding than to originate origi-nate a role on Broadway," she says. "Something like Peter Pan. It would leave a wonderful wonder-ful mark." |
