00:00 EDT Saturday, September 06, 1986

CIRCLE OF VIOLENCE: A FAMILY DRAMA

Tuesday Weld and Geraldine Fitzgerald star in a powerful story of what the U.S. Congressional Committee on Aging has termed a "growing national scandal," parental abuse. Weld plays an emotionally unstable divorcee whose simmering hostilities explode when her aged mother is forced to move in with her. Caught in the violence are Peter Bonerz, River Phoenix and Zouanne Leroy. The director is Emmy-winning David Greene. (CBS).

BLACKOUT

Made for U.S. pay-TV, this frightening thriller may not be art but it's certainly efficient at raising goosebumps. Richard Widmark stars as a retired detective who is determined to crack a long-unsolved mass murder. Stumbling along a labyrinthine path, he encounters amnesiac Keith Carradine, terrified Kathleen Quinlan and Michael Beck as a hostile cop. (CHCH).

COVERT ACTION

Viewers may need a scorecard to keep track of RCMP, CIA, KGB and SIS agents. And to separate the good guys from the bad. We do know the hero is Art Hindle, as an RCMP agent who tries to thwart an assassination attempt on the Premier of Quebec. When the CIA hinders his efforts by assigning a team to misfits to "help," the double-dealing gets pretty messy. (CBC).

9B

Based on the true experiences of a British teacher plunked down in the wilds of Canada, this comedy-drama could be the springboard for a series. Robert Wisden is the immigrant who, expecting to work "just north of Vancouver," ends up in a town close to the Yukon border. There he finds his charges are a rowdy group of unteachables and rabble-rousers. Directed by James Swan, the film was shot in Toronto and Fort Nelson, B.C. (CBC).

HERE A THIEF, THERE A THIEF

Liberally "borrowing" from such light- hearted thrillers as Charade and Romancing the Stone, this bauble is notable, if for nothing else, as Audrey Hepburn's return to acting. She's teamed with Robert Wag- ner, Samantha Eggar and Jerry Orbach in a who's-doing-what? involving a kidnapped fiance, a light-fingered countess, a mysterious adventurer, a stolen fortune and assorted villains. (ABC).

LOST]

This tortuous drama, based on a true story, begins when a fanatical fundamentalist missionary and his brother and sister-in- law are capsized as their tiny craft hits foul weather while sailing from Vancouver to South America. Their 74-day ordeal makes for a relentlessly grim psychological thriller. The stars are Kenneth Welsh, Helen Shaver and Michael Hogan. (CBC).

THREE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

Two-time Oscar winner Sally Field portrays Helen Caldicott, the Australian physican who became a powerful spokesman for the controversial anti-nuclear movement. (NBC).

THE MARRIAGE BED

Here's a Christmas story for adults, gift- wrapped by Constance Beresford-Howe. Searching for his independence, Ross Graham (R. H. Thomson) deserts his pregnant wife, Anne (Linda Griffiths), and two young kids just before Christmas. Bombarded with advice from well-meaning friends and family, the abandoned Anne decides enough is enough and sets her own course. The terrific supporting cast includes Clare Coulter, Jan Rubes, Martha Gibson and Sheila McCarthy. (CBC).

LOVE 40

Tuesday Weld again, this time as the lover of a man half her age. The romantic comedy spins on the reaction of Patrick Cassidy's mother, Ellen Burstyn, when she discovers the object of her son's affections is old enough to be his, uh, mother. Don Murray and Eli Wallach cheer and jeer from the sidelines. (CBS).

COURAGE

Sophia Loren stars in the fact-based story of a New York woman who risked her life as an undercover operative with the Drug Enforcement Administration to help bust a $3.5-billion ring, the largest since the infamous French Connection. Co-starring in the three-hour film are Billy Dee Williams and Hector Elizondo. (CBS).

THE BEATE KLARSFELD STORY

Farrah Fawcett gets a chance to further flex her histrionic talents as a young German woman who becomes obsessed with tracking down and bringing to justice Nazi war criminals. Co-starring in the fact-based thriller are Tom Conti and this year's Oscar-winner Geraldine Page. (ABC).

THERE MUST BE A PONY

For those seeking a little glamor, here's a lavish adapation of James Kirkwood's novel. Elizabeth Taylor stars as Marguerite Sidney, a neurotic Hollywood star fighting her way back into the spotlight while falling in love with handsome businessman Ben Nichols (Robert Wagner). But is Nichols what he appears to be? The script is by Mart Crowley, whose landmark play The Boys in the Band caused a lot of talk in the sixties. (ABC and CITY).

LBJ

Randy Quaid tackles the title role in a three-hour biographical drama tracing the political rise to power of President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Patti LuPone, who scorched Broadway in Evita, plays Lady Bird Johnson, who followed her husband as he progressed from his position as secretary for a congressman to the highest office in the land. (NBC and CITY).

PLUS

Jason Robards and Glenda Jackson star in the story of Soviet dissident Andrei SAKHAROV; the suburban life of George Segal and Helen Shaver is flipped upside down with the arrival of IRS investigator Ron Liebman in the farce MANY HAPPY RETURNS; Andy Griffith has a drinking problem which tears his family apart in UNDER THE INFLUENCE; Gregory Harrison, Billie Dee Williams, Ken Norton and Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini court disaster while trying to complete an off-shore oil rig in OCEANS OF FIRE; Simon and Simon's Gerald McRaney turns nasty as a psychopath who kidnaps young Shawnee Smith in EASY PREY; Philip Michael Thomas and Lesley Ann Warren are an interracial couple who wage a ferocious battle to win custody of her daughter in SOCIETY'S CHILD; Daniel J. Travanti and JoBeth Williams repeat their roles as John and Reve Walsh as they continue to create national awareness of the problem of missing children in ADAM: THE STORY CONTINUES; after an car accident leaves her with total amnesia, Lindsay Wagner tries to reconnect with her husband, Armand Assante, in STRANGER IN MY BED; John Ritter and Betty Thomas are shocked to discover youngsters are being sent to a reformatory for hardened criminals in A PRISON FOR CHILDREN; George C.Scott reprises his Oscar-winning role as Gen. George Patton in THE LAST DAYS OF PATTON; Lee Remick thwarts the Nazis as she leads 100 orphaned children from Poland to safety in Israel in LENA: MY HUNDRED CHILDREN; Meredith Baxter Birney finds her life collapsing around her as a result of her severe eating disorder in KATE'S SECRET; Tracy Pollan and Akosua Busia become spies for the Union Army in the Civil War adventure A SPECIAL FRIENDSHIP; Cliff Robertson and Loretta Swit play the Fishers, who spent more than 16 years searching for a sunken Spanish galleon containing a fabulous fortune in DREAM OF GOLD: THE MEL FISHER STORY; exploitation by the press of a grisly murder is the subject of BETRAYAL OF TRUST, with James Farentino, Parker Stevenson and Daphne Ashbrook; twenty-sixth-century Lauren Hutton seeks the help of twentieth- century William Devane in destroying futuristic madman Klaus Kinski in the science fiction fantasy TIMESTALKERS; Alex Karras, Dick Butkus and Bubba Smith are former football stars who track down their ex-coach's kidnapper in the bone-crunching comedy THE FUN BUNCH; and Peter Ustinov, as Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, suspects Tony Curtis, Emma Samms and Lisa Eichorn of murder most foul in MURDER IN THREE ACTS.

AND

Richard Chamberlain tackles the role of legendary lover CASANOVA; Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale and William Katt suspect Alan Thicke and Jennifer O'Neill of murder in the new Perry Mason mystery THE CASE OF THE SHOOTING STAR; Alan Arkin, Rutger Hauer and Joanna Pacula lead more than 300 Nazi death camp prisoners to freedom in the fact- based ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR; Mare Winningham is an accident victim who receives a brain transplant in WHO IS JULIA?; while investigating her son's death, Lee Remick uncovers a neo-Nazi plot in OF PURE BLOOD; Tommy Lee Jones is a priest who becomes involved in murder in WHERE THE DARK STREETS GO; John Ritter and Alfre Woodard try to force the Veterans Administration to provide benefits to Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange in UNNATURAL CAUSES; Tony Danza plays a convicted murderer who became a lawyer while DOING LIFE; Ann Jillian appears as herself in a biography detailing her ordeal with breast cancer in THE ANN JILLIAN STORY; Telly Savalas makes another appearance as streetwise detective Theo Kojak in THE INVESTIGATION; after 35 years of dedicated serivce to the fire department, John Forsythe is faced with mandatory retirement in FIRED; Robert Hays and Catherine Mary Stewart are up to their eyebrows in danger in the comedy- thriller MURDER BY THE BOOK; Dorian Harewood stars as a young black engineer who may have been railroaded to prison for robbery in JUSTICE DELAYED: THE LENELL GETER STORY; Booth Savage stars as an aging hockey player bedevilled by personal demons in THE LAST SEASON; John Ritter will do anything to stop Connie Sellecca from marrying anyone but him in THE LAST FLING; cancer victim Jill Clayburgh sets her house in order in the pull- out-the-stops soap opera LEAVING HOME; through community action, high school principal Denzel Washington turns his blackboard jungle into a proud institution in THE GEORGE McKENNA STORY; Nancy McKeon stars as the first woman to break into the ranks of the Los Angeles County Fire Department in FIREFIGHTER; Peter Strauss and Melissa Gilbert star in a thought-provoking thriller dealing with the possibility that a legal error could allow a mass murderer to go free in THE PENALTY PHASE; Pam Dawber learns an ancient Japanese art in AMERICAN GEISHA; Margaret Colin finds the frozen body of Sherlock Holmes, thaws him out, falls in love and joins him in sleuthing in THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.

ALSO

The prayers of their fans are answered: Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers return as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart in THE HART TO HART REUNION; Linda Lavin and her 11 kids whip a dusty Australian ranch into shape in A PLACE TO CALL HOME; Richard Crenna is a college professor who murders his lover, a teen- age prostitute, in THE RULING PASSION; Oscar-winner Delbert Mann (Marty) directs Craig T. Nelson, Susan Blakely and Kimber Shoop III in THE TED KENNEDY JR. STORY, which tells of the youngster's winning fight with cancer; siblings Justine and Jason Bateman appear together in CAN YOU FEEL ME DANCING, the story of a blind woman's struggle to break free of overly protective family and friends; business rivals Loni Anderson and Perry King find themselves STRANDED on a South Pacific island; Donna Mills and James Brolin are a seemingly ideal couple, until she begins to live her romantic fantasies with strangers in ENCOUNTERS; wicked Richard Mulligan will likely steal the show from nice guys Drew Barrymore, Pat Morita and Eileen Brennan in a lavish musical remake of BABES IN TOYLAND; Barnard Hughes and Geraldine Fitzgerald are an aged couple who become the object of community outrage when they deny help to a teen- ager who is later murdered in IN THIS FALLEN CITY; Isabella Rossellini portrays her famous mother in INGRID BERGMAN: MY STORY; Bonnie Franklin and Rosemary Clooney set up a half-way house for female ex-cons in SISTER MARGARET AND THE SATURDAY NIGHT LADIES; Susan Sarandon and Kristy McNichol fight for their lives as nurses captured by the Japanese on Bataan in WOMEN OF VALOR; Nancy McKeon, Lisa Wherchel, Mindy Cohn and Kim Fields take a FACTS OF LIFE AUSTRALIAN VACATION; Ted Danson stars as a psychologist whose obsessive investigation into a series of murders points to a group of powerful men involved in child molestation in WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS; Lorne Green, James Arness, Brian Keith and Ricardo Montalban saddle up and ride to do battle in THE ALAMO: 13 DAYS TO GLORY.