Banner Graphic, Volume 15, Number 150, Greencastle, Putnam County, 22 February 1985 — Page 20

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DAYTIME SPECIALS 5:20 ® FAERIE TALE THEATRE ‘Three Little Pigs' Billy Crystal, Jeff Goldblum and Valerie Perrine star in the classic tale of three daring pigs that match wits with a hungry woif. 2 12:00 ® A TALENT FOR MURDER An eminent mystery writer finds herself wrapped up in a real-life whodunit when she investigates her daughter-in-law s murder. Stars: Angela Lansbury and Laurence Olivier. (2 hrs.) 1:00 © AMOS & ANDY: ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSY Redd Foxx and George Kirby host this look at the Amos & Andy TV series, featuring interviews with cast members. (1 hr.) 5:30 3? AGAINST THE ODDS John Glenn And The Lunar Astronauts ’ Sophisticated technology combined with human courage and endurance resultea in the lunar landing. ® KING OF THE BEASTS Animated An accident-prone lion sheds his image and rises to become the king of beasts after he rescues Noah and the animals from a fiery ark DAYTIME MOVIES 6:30 ® ** * ‘Shinbone Ailey" (1971, Musical) Animated. Voices of Eddie Bracken, Carol Channing. (1 hr., 26 min.) 8:00 ® *★* “Tom Sawyer” (1973. Musical) Johnny Whitaker, Jodie Foster. (1 hr.. 44 mm.) 10:00 ® *♦* “Bridge To The Sun" (1961, Drama) Carroll Baker, James Shigeta. (1 hr., 53 min.) 1:30 ® ★** 'Twice-Told Tales" (1963, Suspense) Vincent Price, Sebastian Cabot. (1 hr., 59 min.) 4:00 ® “Shinbone Alley" (1971, Musical) Animated. Voices of Eddie Bracken, Carol Channing. (1 hr., 26 min.) EVENING 6:00 0 0 o©® NEWS ® OUT OF CONTROL “Rivalry" The rivalry between Hern and Angela reaches the boiling point. 0 DIFF’RENT STROKES ® MOVIE "Adventures Of Marco Polo" (1938, Drama) Gary Cooper, Basil Rathbone. (1 hr., 40 min.) ® JEFFERSONS © 3-2-1 CONTACT (R) g 03 SIOO,OOO NAME THAT TUNE © JIM BAKKER © ONE DAY AT A TIME 6:30 0 NBC NEWS ® NICK ROCKS: VIDEO TO GO O THREE'S COMPANY ® ALICE © CBS NEWS © BUSINESS REPORT © LET’S MAKE A DEAL © BEWITCHED 7:00 0 NEWLYWED GAME ® YOU CAN’T DO THAT ON TELEVISION “Bullying ' Moose learns the martial arts to protect herself. 0 WALTONS 0 ABC NEWS c? 0 CBS NEWS ® BARNEY MILLER © ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT Featured: Melissa Gilbert. ® NBC NEWS © MACNEIL / LEHRER NEWSHOUR © FAMILY FEUD © 700 CLUB Scheduled topic: child abuse. (1 hr.) © MANNIX 730 0 ® WHEEL OF FORTUNE QD DANGERMOUSE Four Tasks Of Dangermouse" DM must find yeti hairs and feathers from a vampire duck to save Penfold. 0 ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT Featured Melissa Gilbert O JEOPARDY ® BENSON © EVERY SECOND COUNTS © THREE’S COMPANY 8:00 0 ® MOVIE ★* “Time Bomb" (1984. Drama) Morgan Fairchild, Billy Dee Williams. (2 hrs) 0 MOVIE ★ ** “King Solomon's Mines" (1950, Adventure) Deborah Kerr. Stewart Granger. (2 hrs.) o© BENSON Benson goes undercover to find out if the lieutenant governor is taking bribes from a construction company. (R) q ® MOVIE ★ “Death Wish II" (1982, Dra-

Friday, March 1

Friday

Rex Smith is a former motorcycle cop turned federal crimebuster aboard a super sophisticated topsecret and experimental motorcycle, in ABC's "Street Hawk," airing Friday, March 1.

ma) Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland. (1 hr., 35 mm.l 0 © MOVIE **★* "The Wizard Of Oz” (1939, Fantasy) Judy Gariand, Ray Bolger. (2 hrs.) ® MOVIE *★* “The Black Marble” (1980, Drama) Robert Foxworth, Paula Prentiss. (2 hrs.) ffi WASHINGTON WEEK IN REVIEW © NATURE OF GOD © MOVIE **!4 "The Memory Of Eva Ryker" (1980, Mystery) Natalie Wood, Robert Foxworth. (3 hrs.) 8:30 0 €D WEBSTER Caught in an embarrassing situation, Katherine's explanation to Webster only leads to further confusion for the youngster. (R)Q © WALL STREET WEEK Guest: T. Boone Pickens Jr., chairman and president, Mesa Petroleum Co. CD TODAY IN BIBLE PROPHECY 9:00 0 © STREET HAWK Norman's former girlfriend may be embroiled in an illegal arms selling operation at a major research facility. 0(1 hr.) © GREAT PERFORMANCES "Koyaanisqatsi" Views of the American landscape are juxtaposed with images of cityscapes in this critically acclaimed 1983 film without dialogue or narration. Philip Glass composed the musical score. (1 hr., 30 min.) CD LESEA ALIVE 10:00 0 ® MIAMI VICE When Crockett tries to help an old friend free herself from a debt to a gangster, he is arrested by Internal Affairs. (R) (1 hr.) 0® NEWS 0 © MATT HOUSTON As Matt tries to find out if young Peg Allyson has been coerced into joining a religious cult, C.J. is gravely injured by one of the cult leader's disciples. (R) Q(1 hr.) ® MOVIE * "Private School” (1983, Comedy) Phoebe Cates, Betsy Russell. (1 hr., 37 min.) 0 © DALLAS Pam and Sue Ellen finally see the patient they travelled around the world to find; J.R. and Cliff create a big stir. 0(1 hr) CD DWIGHT THOMPSON 10:30 © BACKSTAGE AT THE COTTON CLUB Gregory Hines. Maurice Hines and Lonette McKee discuss the real Harlem nightclub and the Francis Ford Coppola film in which they star. 11:00 0 0 o©® NEWS O NEWLYWED GAME ® WKRP IN CINCINNATI © INDIANA LAWMAKERS © SOLID GOLD COUNTDOWN ’B4 A retrospective of top hits by Dan Hartman, the Pointer Sisters, Huey Lewis & The News, Laura Branigan, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper, Irene Cara, Scandal; Kool & the Gang. Thompson Twins. Culture Club, John Waite, Deniece Williams, Rick Springfield, Kenny Loggins. Ray Parker Jr. (2 hrs.) © PRAISE THE LORD © ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS 11:30 0 ® TONIGHT Host: Johnny Garson. Scheduled: Robert Blake, Christie Brinkley.

J, ”*■

O MOVIE * King Kong Vs Godzilla" (1963, Science-Fiction) Michael Keith, Harry Holcomb. (2 hrs., 15 min.) 0 BARNEY MILLER ® MOVIE **’/4 "The Hunger" (1983. Fantasy) Catherine Deneuve. David Bowie. (1 hr., 37 min.) 0 MOVIE ★★'/a "The Pride And The Passion” (1957. Adventure) Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant. (2 hrs., 5 min ) ® LOVE BOAT © MOVIE **’/a “The Trial Of Billy Jack" (1974, Drama) Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor. (2 hrs., 40 min.) © BLESS ME, FATHER ffl THE SAINT 12:00 0 ABC NEWS NIGHTLINE 12:30 0 ® FRIDAY NIGHT VIDEOS 0 ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT Featured: Melissa Gilbert. ® MOVIE **% "Zorro" (1975, Adventure) Alain Delon, Stanley Baker. (2 hrs., 30 min.) © TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE The twin sister of a dead computer whiz tries to bring her brother back to life. 1:00 0 NEW YORK HOT TRACKS Scheduled: new videos by Madonna ("Material Girl") and Al Jarreau. Also, a video featuring winners of the “New York Hot Tracks" dance contest. (1 hr.) © ABC ROCKS © MOVIE *★ "Return Of The Master Killer" (1980, Adventure) Wang Lung Wei, Liu Chia Hui. (2 hrs.) 1:15 ® MOVIE ** "The Last Fight" (1983, Drama) Willie Colon. Ruben Blades. (1 hr., 26 min.) 1:30 © ABC NEWS NIGHTLINE 1:45 0 MOVIE ★ *'/? “The Terror" (1963, Horror) Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson. (1 hr., 30 min.) 2:00 0 ® NEWS © WEATHER © CASEY TREAT ® NEWS © TODAY IN BIBLE PROPHECY 3:00 ® MOVIE * Death Wish II” (1982. Drama) Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland. (1 hr., 35 min.) ® INDEPENDENT NEWS © MANNA FOR MODERN MAN 3:15 0 MOVIE *’Y “Night Of The Blood Beast" (1958, Science-Fiction) Michael Emmet, Angela Greene. (1 hr., 45 min.) 3:30 ® MOVIE “Dirty Money" (1972, Drama) Richard Crenna, Catherine Deneuve. (2 hrs.) 4:00 © MARYLIN HICKEY 4’30 © NATURE OF GOD 4:45 ® MOVIE **★ "Tom Sawyer” (1973, « Musical) Johnny-Whitaker, Jodie Foster. (1 hr., 44 min.)

Can lower prices lure consumers to buy cassettes?

c. 1985 N.Y. Times News Service NEW YORK cassette outlets, it costs only $24.95 to buy “Raiders of the Lost Ark’’ and only $29.95 for “Purple Rain,” but a lot more for “The Empire Strikes Back” or for “Tootsie.” Just pennies less than SBO, to be exact. That remarkable price gap is not- testament to the films’ relative popularity. To the contrary, all four have been best sellers. Rather, the big difference reflects a fundamental divergence of views on pricing and marketing among the companies that produce video The basic question is whether lower prices can'- lure, consumers into buying video cassettes, rather than renting them, as is overwhelmingly the practice now. Most cassettes of movies nowsell for about SBO at retail, while they can be rented overnight for $2 to $5. The jump in the number of households with VCR’s to 16 million from 10 million a year ago has prompted some producers to try to alter the market structure. They are betting that slashing prices to a much lower range can greatly change consumption patterns, spur sales and produce a profitable business in volume. By contrast, others consider that effort hopeless; and still others contend that sales can be improved, but the recipe should be imaginative marketing, not price cutting. ‘‘As an industry, we’re making up the rules as we go along,” said Jon Peisinger, president of Vestron Video, an independent producer in Stamford, Conn. “There can’t be any hard-and-fast rules for an industry in the growth mode we’re in.” At present, only one video cassette in 10 is sold directly to a consumer. The other nine are sold to retailers, who rent them out. Instructional material, music video and children’s cassettes have somewhat higher sales percentages, but renting, rather than buying, is clearly the norm. Producers do not share in retailers’ revenues from rentals, so if they believe a cassette will flourish only as a rental item,.their concern is how high a price retailers are willing to pay. “One school of thought says if you lower the price, you will only be giving the stores cheaper rental inventory,” said Richard Kelly* president of Cambridge Associates, a marketing company in Stamford, Conn. “If prices are cut in half, sales have to be qbadrlTpled ’before' pTdfits are

matched.” Paramount Video, the acknowledged leader in price cutting, said its consumer surveys and experiments with cassettes that retail for $25 seem to show that lower prices do dramatically increase sales. “We did research two years ago that showed that $19.95 was the point where 88 percent of consumers said they would buy a tape,” said Robert Klinginsmith, executive vice president at Paramount. The figures at $25 were “almost as good,” he added, explaining the rationale behind the “25-25” promotion that Paramount designed for three months around the Christmas season. It lowered prices of 25 hit titles, including “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “An Officer and a Gentleman,” to $24.95 The promotion resulted in sales of 1.3 million cassettes “three and one-half times more than we needed to sell to break even at higher prices,” Khnginsmith said. Despite that success, the conventional view among major producers is that most people will watch movies only once. Thus they continue to concentrate on cassettes for rental. CBS-Fox, Warner Home Video and Universal, analysts say, have been cautious about lowering price levels. MGMUnited Artists Home Entertainment has been somewhat more willing to cut prices, but the company is still cautious. These companies say they make title by title decisions for items they consider “collectible”— a category that often includes film classics and movies with cult followings that attract audiences who would want to watch a cassette over and over. Vestron Video, for instance, sold 800,000 copies of “The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller” at $29.95.That cassette was based on the title song from Jackson’s album. Lower prices have already opened up new markets for cassettes, such as record stores, book stores and large merchandizing outlets including K Mart Still, the issue is confused by the varied prices of movies that made the best-seller list at Christmas, the industry’s best period. No. 1 on the list was “Purple Rain.” a movie featuring the rock star Prince. Put out by Warner Home Video, it retailed at $29.95. But No. 2 was CBSFox s “The Empire Strikes Back,” the second movie in the Star Wars trio, which sold for $79 98. >- - . .