'CARTER' COMES UP SHORT ON PERSONALITY.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

'American Experience's'' documentary miniseries ``Jimmy Carter'' comes at a propitious time, in the wake of the former president's Nobel Prize Award. And, as written, directed and produced by Adriana Bosch, it's an even-handed and respectful film that examines Carter's strengths and drawbacks in equal measure.

On the other hand, given what recent history the film covers, it's curiously bloodless in its depiction of the man, making it feel like history at arm's length rather than something full-bodied and vibrant. Bosch speaks to Carter's wife Rosalyn and son Chip, but not to Carter himself, so while it tells us of his accomplishments and failures, it never quite gives us a sense of the guy at the center of what he deemed America's ``malaise'' of the 1970s. Like the Carter presidency itself, it's decent but curiously ineffectual.

Part 1, airing tonight, is titled ``Jimmy Who?'' and covers his life in Georgia up to the early days of his presidency. It follows Carter out of Plains into the Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he became the first of his family to pursue higher education. He married smitten sweetheart Rosalyn a month out of the academy and his star rose until he left his assignment in the submarine Seawolf to take over the family farm in the wake of his father's death.

This didn't please Rosalyn, who was relieved to be done with Georgia; ``I pouted for about a year,'' she recalls with a laugh. Carter, too, got restless and entered politics, losing the governor's race to segregationist Lester Maddox in 1966 but winning office in 1970 - though he implicitly courted the segregationist vote, his inaugural speech made it clear he would pursue a progressive civil rights agenda.

That suggests Carter understood a thing or two about the manipulative nature of politics, but once he won the presidency in 1976 in a tight race in which the grim specter of Watergate dragged down Gerald Ford just enough, Carter seemed to grow a political tin ear. Interviewee after interviewee discusses the fact that he had moral courage but no sense of how to deal with other politicians, whom he equated with the corrupt back-room wheeler-dealers he contended with back in Georgia.

Tuesday night, Part 2, ``Hostage,'' covers Carter's human-rights victories, particularly his triumphant Middle East Peace Accord, but his catastrophic handling of domestic problems such as inflation and the gas shortage. And, of course, there was the original clash between the Middle East and America - the Iranian hostage crisis - that looks practically quaint in today's context.

Bosch's documentary seems to give short shrift to the good works Carter has performed after his humiliating defeat to Ronald Reagan in 1980. It has been said that Carter was the only man who used the presidency as a stepping stone to further greatness, and it is in large part his tireless post-office humanitarian efforts that earned him his Nobel Prize, but Bosch seems to tack on this material just so her film doesn't end on the downer note of the second presidential election.

The film was completed before the announcement of Carter's win, so Bosch can be forgiven for not emphasizing it somewhat, but the casual handling of that material does point to her news sense.

Carter's vice president, Walter Mondale, declares of his former running mate, ``He didn't want to hear something was good for him politically - he wanted to hear what was right.'' Perhaps that's why this film feels so distant despite its covering recent history - it seems like ages since that sentiment was expressed in Washington.

JIMMY CARTER - Two and one half stars

What: ``American Experience'' documentary miniseries on the 39th president.

Where: KCET.

When: 9 tonight and Tuesday.

In a nutshell: Solid history lesson, but fails to adequately bring out the personality of its subject.

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``American Experience's'' documentary miniseries ``Jimmy Carter'' is strong in history, but fails to deliver without comments from the former president.