News & Notes

Fox: Slow It Goes
Has Fox bitten off more than it can chew? Last spring the three-year-old network announced its most ambitious fall season yet, with 10 new series and a development list of no fewer than 50 made-for-TV movies. But as September nears, none of the promised films have been scheduled and the debut date for one of Fox's biggest new series — Babes — is running weeks behind. ''We're going about the development process in a mature, step-by-step way,'' insists Fox spokesman Brad Turell. ''Right now our attention is on our new series — the movies are our last priority. But we said we would have a Monday-night movie, and we will, starting sometime in November. We're completely comfortable with that time frame.''

Logo A-Go-Go
VH-1 has received dozens of angry letters over the past three months, and the music channel's executives couldn't be happier. Since June, the cable network has been broadcasting a semi-transparent VH-1 logo in the lower-right corner of the screen throughout every video, and many viewers find it extremely distracting. ''We're getting lots of complaints,'' says Sal LoCurto, VH-1's director of music programming. ''But we view that as positive — it shows that people are watching. We have a real problem distinguishing ourselves from MTV. The logo helps reinforce our own identity.'' LoCurto says he hasn't heard any complaints from vid directors or musicians — ''nobody has accused us of defacing the videos'' — but he's shrinking the logo just the same. ''It'll be a bit more subtle in the future, but we're definitely going to keep it up on the screen. We really like it, despite all the hate mail.''

How Sweet The Sound
A few years ago Bill Moyers was in a plane over London, gazing out his window, when an old hymn popped into his head. ''This refrain just kept coming through my mind,'' he recalls. ''So I took out my notebook and wrote '''Amazing Grace'' — who wrote it and why?''' On Sept. 12, Moyers will broadcast the answers in Amazing Grace, an 80-minute PBS history of one of the best-known and most beloved hymns of all time. ''There's a wonderful story behind this song, full of irony,'' Moyers says. ''It was written by a white slave trader in the 18th century, and then it became popular again in the 1960s, during the civil-rights movement.'' The documentary includes performances by Judy Collins, Johnny Cash, and the Boys Choir of Harlem, but some of its most moving moments come from just plain folk, like the inmates in a Huntsville, Tex., prison who tell how the hymn helps them deal with being behind bars. ''This is your only chance in here,'' one says. ''This is it. The only way out is up.'' Says Moyers, ''There's something about this song that speaks to the sublime in everybody. It speaks to the spirit of awe and wonder. I've never met anyone who wasn't moved by it.''

Gourmet Lite
After a 19-year absence, Graham Kerr is galloping back onto syndicated TV. Starting Sept. 17, the 56-year-old ''food communicator'' (as his press release puts it) will be whipping up light recipes (like reduced-calorie beef stroganoff and fettuccine Alfredo) on Graham Kerr, a half-hour cooking show to be broadcast on more than 100 stations. ''Years ago I was known for my rich cream and brandy dishes — all these incredibly lethal recipes,'' Kerr says. ''I used to think nutritionists were ladies in white uniforms ith trembling tablespoons. But I've discovered that nutrition is really very important. I want to show that you can make these great dishes less lethal but still keep the flavor.'' Kerr's last cooking show, The Galloping Gourmet, left the air in 1971, after he was hurt when a vegetable truck rear-ended his motor home in San Francisco. ''It was an empty vegetable truck,'' he recalls. ''I've often thought that somebody was trying to tell me something.''

Red Eye
Here's an odd bit of talk-show trivia: Sally Jessy Raphael is contractually obligated to wear the same pair of oversize red-framed eyeglasses on every show. ''Two years ago I went to my producers and asked them to let me change my glasses,'' Raphael told Entertainment Weekly. ''They said, 'Absolutely not.' These glasses are a trademark for me. I'm stuck with them.'' Ironically, Raphael says the same producers tried to get her to dump those red frames when the show began eight years ago: ''They sent me to this big optical store and told me to buy a bunch of other frames. I picked the ugliest ones I could find-big, heavy, clunky ones-so the producers decided the red ones looked best after all. Back in those days nobody wore red eyeglasses — now every blond wears them.''