Friday, June 25, 1999
Cincinnati native in new soap
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati native Rodney Van Johnson, last seen in James Brolin's Pensacola: Wings of Gold syndicated series a year ago, has landed a role on NBC's Passions, which replaces Another World on July 5.
Mr. Johnson plays T.C. Russell, “the handsome and intelligent, but often hot-tempered” high school coach. It's a fitting role, because he set University of Cincinnati's high-jump record before graduating from UC in 1984.
The Landmark Christian High School graduate sold advertising for a Tampa TV station before moving to Los Angeles in 1991. He has appeared on Grace Under Fire, Mad About You, The Jamie Foxx Show, Sweet Justice, Blood Brothers, Rumors, Port Charles and The Young and The Restless.
He's also made many commercials, including playing a sleepy teacher for Procter & Gamble's Folger's coffee. (He didn't tell anyone that his mother, Ruth Johnson-Watts, worked for P&G.)
Also starring in Passions are Juliet Mills (The Nanny and the Professor), Ben Masters, Kim Johnston Ulrich, Tracey Ross and Liza Huber, daughter All My Children star Susan Lucci.
STAR POWER: Thanks to a Forest Park businessman, and the TV Land cable channel, Don Knotts will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this year.
Greg Akers, co-owner of Hometown TV/Toon Art which makes Andy Griffith Show T-shirts and merchandise, started the campaign in 1997 to raise funds for the star for the actor, who won five Emmys as Barney Fife.
Mr. Akers had collected about $2,600 when TV Land executives agreed to pay for the balance of the $15,000 star. (The nominating party must pay $15,000 for its installation.)
“I thought it was going to be a lot easier than it was,” says Mr. Akers, who also has merchandise rights for I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, Looney Tunes, Gilligan's Island, the Three Stooges and Abbott & Costello.
Andy Griffith moves to TV Land in January after 23 years on WTBS.
NO GO: The annual Mayberry Squad Car Rendezvous near Troy, Ohio, which has attracted Mr. Knotts and other Andy Griffith Show stars in recent years, will not be held this year.
Bob and Diana Scheib, who have hosted the Andy Griffith reunions since 1993 at their farm, are taking the summer off. But they're planning a Mayberry rendezvous in July 2000.
RADIO HISTORY: WVXU-FM (91.7) soon will start compiling a three-CD set about Cincinnati radio in the 1930s, a project that has been discussed since the station released Cincinnati War Years (1941-45) in 1991.
Mike Martini, a staff producer and radio historian, will assemble the project, says Jim King, general manager.
The 1930s documentary will include Red Barber, who got his professional baseball announcing start at WLW-AM in 1934, and Red Skelton's Avalon Time, his first network radio show done from WLW-AM in 1938. Mr. Martini also has recordings of Eddie Albert, the Mills Brothers, Durward Kirby, Fats Waller and bandleader Burt Farber, Cincinnati radio stars of that decade.
Anyone who has audio collections that can be loaned to the project should call Mr. Martini at 458-3162.
WVXU-FM also has produced CD documentaries about the D-Day invasion(D-Day Plus 50 Years); Mr. Barber's career (Red Barber from the Catbird Seat); and Ruth Lyons (Let Me Entertain You: A Ruth Lyons Memoir).
OFF THE BENCH: Cris Collinsworth's Guinness World Records: Primetime, dropped from Fox's fall lineup, has been picked up as a midseason replacement. Guinness has returned for the summer at 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 29 (Channels 19, 45).
Fox has ordered 13 episodes each of Guinness and World's Wildest Police Videos, and seven episodes of World's Funniest, for midseason.
Last fall, Mr. Collinsworth juggled three TV gigs — as an analyst on the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show and HBO's weekly Inside the NFL, and hosting the Guinness series.
CLASSIC TV: Alice and The Real McCoys join the Nashville Network lineup next week. Two episodes of The Real McCoys (1957-63), starring Walter Brennan and Richard Crenna, will air 4-5 p.m. weekdays. Linda Lavin's Alice (1978-85) also plays back-to-back 6-7 p.m. weekdays.
RADIO WAVES: Don Merrill, formerly of WKRC-TV and WRRM-FM, has been named local announcer of All Things Considered on WNKU-FM (89.7). He replaces Jay Hanselman, who has become a full-time reporter for the Northern Kentucky University station.
CBS NEWS: CBS Evening News weekend anchor John Roberts, 42, will replace Scott Pelley as White House correspondent. He will continue to anchor the Sunday Evening News. Mr. Pelley, 41, will join the staff of 60 Minutes II.
AROUND THE DIAL: A couple of music notes today: The Pretenders perform a street concert on NBC's Today show (7-9 a.m. today, Channels 5, 22).
Vince Gill performs in an Austin City Limits Special (8 p.m., Oxford's Channel 14), followed by Styx: Return to the Paradise Theatre (9:30 p.m., Channel 14).
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