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Show Wci7,ljo,0-Y- 7 By Buck MIA FARROW. We interrupt for this important message... PETER PANNED? There is much to recommend ..AS PETER PAN NBCs Sunday night (Dec. 12) production of Peter Pan. Julie Andrews offers a lovely rendition of "Once Upon a Bedtime," Sir John Gielgud is excellent as the narrator, and both Mia Farrow and Danny Kaye pull and tug at the heartstrings. But we still prefer, although we may simply be sentimental fools, the old version which starred Mary Martin. Unless our memory is playing tricks on us, there was a special sort of magic in Ms. Martins performance that Mia Farrow has been unable to capture. But never mind. You should see this new version anyway, if only because everyone will be arguing over which version is better. And how can you take sides if you fail to watch? ON THE INSIDE: What's the new TV trend, folks? It is not enough to say that the hottest new element is the movies like "Gone With the Wind" or TV books like "The Moneychangers" or events like Sinatras party for John Wayne. Such programming is not readily copied in large quantities, and network programmers are miserable unless they have a series' mould they can use to stemp out copies on an assembly-lin- e basis. For the past few seasons, the magic label has been "adult sitcom, which meant to those in the trade a comedy series of the Norman Lear type with much yelling, much cursing, a great many toilet flushings and an abundance of references to such once unmentionable subjects as menopause and impotency. But this season, series of this type have been hit hard in the ratings. The lofty perches once owned by All In the Family" and "Maude" are now occupied by "Happy Days" and Laverne & Shirley." So what does this mean to the network Those are the programmers? It means new buzzwords, the new label: So ABC has brought back a sad summer series titled "Whats a) "hon-serie- "youth-accente- d. youth-accented- IVWttK Biggm Happening? about black teenagers, NBC has a pilot project titled "Hollywood High" and another titled 3 Girls 3 and CBS, under the programming leadership of Robert Wussler, is on a crash schedule to ready a closet full of new shows with the accent on youth. Next season count on it we will have youth coming out of our ears. One consolation: Maybe it will keep the teenagers home. SAD PASSING: Billy Halop is dead. He was 56, and his sister said that he died peacefully in his sleep. Do you remember him on the screen? More than 40 years ago, Billy became the leader of The Dead End Kids" on the stage, and in movies that have now been repeated many times on television. In his youth, Billy appeared exceptionally talented, yet beyond the Dead End format, success remained elusive. Thus the announcement of his death, like that of Leo Gorcey (another Dead End kid) some years ago, seemed doubly sad. It spoke of unfulfilled promise. QUICK CHANGE: From king to sting Roger Miller, best known for his great song King of the Road," feeling the sting of rejection via cancellation in the middle of a k club engagement, because according to the management, his performance was "not up to expectations.. .From hit to Thomas, who on the longtime hit series, "The portrays John-Bo- y Waltons," quitting that program after this season, with his last episode showing John-Bo- y heading off to New York to become a writer.. .From bad to ad George Raft, the bad guy in so many ancient movies, filming a new TV commercial In which he plays (what else?) a jailbird. ..From croaker to broker Rue McClanahan, who portrays the neighbor married to a doctor on Maude, getting hitched for real to a Los Angeles real estate broker. top-secr- et two-wee- quit-Ric- ." Until next time, look happy. hard |