Those of you who enjoyed "The Civil War" on PBS have something to look forward to.
Filmmaker Ken Burns and his "Civil" partner, Stephen Ives, will be collaborating on "The West," a look at the history of the American West (including, presumably, Utah).PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced they're presenting a $2 million grant to Burns for work on the 10-hour proj-ect, which is budgeted at $5 million.
Don't hold your breath in anticipation, however. "The West" won't be on the air until 1996.ANOTHER CAST MEMBER: The cast of NBC's "Nurses" will be growing soon - Florence Stanley has been added as a permanent cast member.
Stanley has made occasional appearances as the hospital's medical director. Now she'll be a regular.
The actress is best known for playing Bernice Fish on "Barney Miller" and its spinoff, "Fish."
She was also a regular on "My Two Dads" and currently provides the voice for Grandma Ethyl on "Dinosaurs."
Stanley is a fine comedic actress. But what "Nurses" really needs is some new writers, because the show is loud and obnoxious but not particularly funny.BUT NO BUBBLE GUM: If you're not content with collecting baseball cards and football cards and hockey cards, how about soap opera cards?
I kid you not - Star Pics Inc. has released a "Limited Edition" 72-card set featuring "All My Children."
Not only are there pictures of the characters on the front, but a quick rundown of the character's history is included on the back. For example, the Erica Kane card reads:
"All's fair in love and war if you're Erica Kane. She's infuriated, disgusted and enraged just about every woman in Pine Valley, and charmed, seduced and almost destroyed every man. Her first marriage to Dr. Jeff Martin was a disaster, beginning with the abortion she had behind his back. She then enjoyed flirtations with the womanizing Jason Maxwell, owner of the modeling agency where she began her career. When Jason wound up dead, Jeff was charged with the murder, but Erica's sweet mother Mona was the real killer. Erica's next doomed marriage was to Phillip Brent. After a miscarriage and a nervous breakdown, they divorced. She then shocked the town by taking up with Phillip's father, Nick Davis. Years and years later, Erica was briefly engaged to Charlie Brent, Phillip and her old-rival Tara's son. Erica and her twice ex-husband, Travis Montgomery, are the parents of her only child, Bianca."
I don't know which is more amazing, the existence of these cards or the fact that all these things have actually happened on "AMC."
How do they come up with this stuff?ANOTHER RETURN: Still another of the old cast members of "WKRP in Cincinnati" turns up on "The New WKRP in Cincinnati" this weekend - Tim Reid returns as Venus Flytrap.
The show has already featured Dr. Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) and Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson). And, of course, Arthur Carlson (Gordon Jump), Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner) and Les Nessman (Richard Sanders) are regulars on the new show.
But it's hard to shake the nagging feeling that the "New" version will never come into its own until they stop relying on guest shots by old cast members.