TELEVISIONTV Violence Bill: A senior Democratic senator...

TELEVISION

TV Violence Bill: A senior Democratic senator on Thursday introduced a bill that would ban the broadcasts of all network and cable TV programs with “gratuitous violence” for 16 hours each day--between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. “The time has come for action,” North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad said at a news conference announcing the bill. “I do not believe that voluntary initiatives to curb the violent content in television programming are sufficient to reduce media violence.” Conrad’s bill also calls for a TV rating system similar to that for movies and for all new TV sets to be equipped with devices allowing parents to block out objectionable programs. He said there was convincing evidence that TV violence contributes to violence in society and that “the American people do not want their children and families exposed to the extraordinary violence . . . in the entertainment media.” Broadcasters, who have argued that government-imposed program restrictions would violate their constitutional free speech rights, now show viewer warnings prior to programs with violent scenes. Conrad is behind the Citizens Task Force on TV Violence, which has been in the forefront of the so-far unsuccessful campaign to push Congress on the issue.

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The People’s Choice: Tim Allen was nominated Thursday in both the TV and film categories for the annual “People’s Choice Awards,” a populist fete airing March 5 on CBS. Other TV nominees include Kelsey Grammer and Jerry Seinfeld, who joined Allen with favorite male performer nods; Candice Bergen, Brett Butler and Roseanne, in the female performer category; and the series “Home Improvement,” “Roseanne” and “Seinfeld” (favorite comedies), and “ER,” “Melrose Place” and “NYPD Blue” (dramas). Other nominees, chosen by a “representative sampling” of more than 5,000 Americans, include “Forrest Gump,” “The Lion King” and “The Santa Clause” (favorite movies); Garth Brooks, Vince Gill and Alan Jackson (favorite male musical performers), and Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Reba McEntire (female musical performers).

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That’s All, Folks: NBC confirmed Thursday that “Saturday Night Live” star Mike Myers, perhaps best known for his “Coffee Talk” and “Wayne’s World” skits, has left the show, reportedly because he was tired of commuting to New York and wanted to stay closer to his Los Angeles base. His last program was the Jan. 21 edition hosted by “Frasier” co-star David Hyde Pierce. NBC called Myers’ departure an “amicable agreement.”

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‘Mia Farrow Story’ Scheduled: The Fox network, still basking in its better-than-usual ratings for Tuesday night’s “The O.J. Simpson Story,” has scheduled its two-part movie “Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story” for Feb. 28 and March 2. Patsy Kensit (“Lethal Weapon 2”) stars in the title role, with Dennis Boutsikaris (“Boys on the Side,” “Dream Team”) playing Woody Allen.

MOVIES

British Film Saviors?: British directors and brothers Ridley Scott (“Alien”) and Tony Scott (“Top Gun”) have bought Britain’s Shepperton Studios in a $19-million deal designed to secure the future of the British film industry. The brothers reportedly plan to spend an additional $16 million upgrading the studios, one of only two British facilities suitable for major films, and use their Hollywood contacts to attract American feature films to the 26-acre site near Chertsey, Surrey. More than 600 feature films have been made at Shepperton since it opened in 1932, including the British hit “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and Sylvester Stallone’s “Judge Dredd.”

QUICK TAKES

The Liverpool, England, house where a teen-age Paul McCartney rehearsed with John Lennon is up for sale. The three-bedroom row house, where McCartney lived with his family from 1955 to 1964, is already a tourist attraction. McCartney’s initials are still scrawled on the wall in his former bedroom. He is said to have found the acoustics in the bathroom excellent for the guitar. . . . Romanian-born composer and music scholar Roman Vlad was named Wednesday as the artistic director of Milan, Italy’s, renowned La Scala opera house. Vlad, a previous superintendent of the Rome Opera, replaces Alberto Zedda. . . . Singer Marie Osmond is doing her first TV sitcom pilot, playing opposite Betty White (“The Golden Girls”) in a Disney TV project for ABC. Osmond, a ‘70s TV star with brother Donny Osmond in the variety show “Donny & Marie,” plays a single mom with a daughter who moves in with her own mother, played by White. . . . Singer Jon Secada, following in Whitney Houston’s footsteps, has signed on as the latest pitch voice for AT&T;’s TrueVoice long-distance service. Ads featuring Secada’s singing will begin airing later this month.

Quotable: “I’m not completely recovered or anything, because it’s such a drastic operation. They almost cut you in half and they move all your insides around. But I’m not dying and that’s magnificent--that’s just the best news in the world.”--Musician David Crosby of Crosby, Stills & Nash, discussing his Nov. 20 liver transplant operation on tonight’s “Entertainment Tonight.”