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Show ( n n by Joey Sasso CONFIDENTIAL REPORT: Priscilla Barnes, the new face on ABC's "Three's Company," says she's not going to copy her predecessor, Suzanne Somers, by playing a dumb blonde. The lovely actress insists that ner character, Terri, will be the exact opposite of Somers' Chrissle, whom Priscilla describes as a "bunny brain and a naive klutz." "Thankfully, the producers don't want my character to be a dimwit, says Priscilla. "They want her to be very different from what they've had in the past. She's bright, competent, vulnerable and witty." Priscilla, a former beauty contest winner, is determined to make the most of her shot at stardom. She has even postponed her wedding so that she can concentrate solely on the series. "I can't manage marriage plus all this hubbub and excitement at the same time," says Priscilla, who is engaged to Joel Schur, 40, a wealthy art dealer in Beverly Bever-ly Hills. "After seven years together, we were planning to marry right at the time 'Three's Company' came along," she explains. "We still intend to, but not now. We'll wait until things calm down a bit and our lives get back on an even keel" TV BACKSTAGE: One of the most successful new TV shows of the season is "Omni: The New Frontier," hosted by Peter Ustinov. The series is syndicated nationally and the executive producers are Bob Guccione and Kathy Keeton, who created Omni magazine after which the shows' are patterned, it is called the Show of the Future and has been acclaimed by critics. Ustinov is particularly interested in the series as he's a long-time buff and has been reading Omni since it was started three years ago... Hugh 0' Brian stars in "Bush Doctor, an original one-hour drama, which is being presented by the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company as its seventh drama special. The program will be telecast nationally during the week of January 2. Co-starring with O'Brian is Katherine Justice, Jack Hedley and Mildred Awiti. The original drama was written by Robert Janes and directed by Ron Satlof. Bob Halmi produced the special for Liberty Mutual. TV CLOSEUP: Joel Higgins is the star of television's hottest hot-test new show and yet he's out of work. The handsome blue-eyed actor, who has shot to fame as the marshal of Copper Creek in the ABC comedy, "Best of the West," confesses: "Everybody's saying what a wonderful show we have, but I'm out of a job. I m basically sitting around unemployed." That's because filming for the series finished finish-ed six months ago, Higgins explained in an exclusive interview. in-terview. "It's been on the shelf for a long time, which is extremely frustrating," he says. "The series was supposed suppos-ed to start last fall, but then the actors went on strike. By the time that was resolved, it was too late to start the series, so it was put off until mid-season." . . . Although he has been in show business all his life, Danny Thomas does hot profess to be an authority on the entertainment world. He recalled many years ago when a young Cuban singer was going to star his wife in a television comedy . which would be shot with three cameras before a live audiencesomething au-diencesomething that had never been done before. "I said to myself that Desi Arnaz is crazy-why doesn't he go back to playing his bongo drums?'r Thomas laughed. "The show I was skeptical about, of course, was 'I Love Lucy' and It made Desi and Lucille Ball the sweethearts of television for years." TV OOMSULOS SMVKM. INC. .' ,fclc,', '' |