'MASTERPIECE THEATRE' TELLING AMERICAN STORIES.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

``Masterpiece Theatre'' has been civilizing the television landscape for 30 years, and just now did it occur to someone to try to mix some American stories in among the British classics. ``Masterpiece Theatre's American Collection'' premieres tonight with ``Cora Unashamed,'' based on a Langston Hughes short story from the '30s.

``Cora'' focuses on the relationship between a maid (Regina Taylor) from the only black family in a small Iowa town and her employers, Lizbeth (Cherry Jones) and Arthur Studevant (Michael Gaston). Cora had a child out of wedlock with an itinerant white man, and when she loses the child, she embraces the Studevants' daughter (even their names are similar - Cora's girl was named Josie; the child she unofficially adopts as her surrogate daughter is Jessie).

As Jessie grows older, her mother increasingly imposes her dreams of flight from the small town onto her daughter, who is ill-equipped to deal with the pressure: To Lizbeth's dismay, Jessie just wants to marry the son of a Greek immigrant. Of course, no good can come out of this situation.

Hughes' work is slim, slight and, by today's standards, fairly quaint. Screenwriter Ann Peacock and director Deborah M. Pratt have expanded the story greatly (virtually no scene in the film actually appears in Hughes' story, though many were suggested by it) and bring greater shadings to his characters (they've also, apparently in the name of political correctness, discreetly eliminated Cora's drunk father). Some of their tinkering doesn't work, but most of it does; in particular, and with a lot of assistance from Jones' measured, bracingly intelligent performance, they've made Lizbeth a truly human monster.

Jones' Lizbeth is a privileged priss who has just barely accepted that her lot in life is to be a big fish in a tiny pond, and she wields her petty clout mercilessly; her thin facade of civility is nowhere nearly as persuasive as she believes it to be. Her world is very small, indeed, and Jones embodies her character's frustrations, hypocrisies and trivial niceties perfectly.

Gaston, likewise, does subtle work as a successful breadwinner but ineffectual man who has more or less checked out of his own life. Taylor's role is written in more symbolic terms: All that's required of her is to convey upright dignity and decency. Nonetheless, she's extremely effective in the film's climactic scene. ``Cora Unashamed'' is a modest drama that, in its unassuming manner, is quietly moving.

``CORA UNASHAMED''

What: ``Masterpiece Theatre's American Collection'' drama about a maid attempting to remain servile to her employers under difficult circumstances.

The stars: Regina Taylor, Cherry Jones.

Where: KCET.

When: 9 tonight.

Our rating: Three stars

Creators can't follow 'Rugrats'

The folks who brought you ``Rugrats'' don't exactly do for junior high school what they did for infancy in ``As Told by Ginger,'' a new animated series debuting tonight on Nickelodeon. Our heroine is a 12-year-old girl straddling the social spheres between the cool kids and the nerdy ones, with the requisite pesky brother and vast reserves of nail polish.

Tonight's episode is a bit dismaying for parents - Ginger succumbs to peer pressure from a shifty, manipulative kid by considering theft. Whether she actually commits the crime is left ambiguous, and she demonstrates guilt, but gains the respect of all the popular kids: A great lesson for the kids. My young stepdaughters thought the story was realistic, but admitted the show wasn't very funny; my 10-year-old, displaying the savvy of a veteran critic, opined, ``Pilots are never funny.'' Clearly, she's been paying attention to network TV the past two seasons.

``AS TOLD BY GINGER''

What: The travails of junior high, animated by the folks behind ``Rugrats.''

Where: Nickelodeon.

When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays.

Our rating: Two stars

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Regina Taylor, left, and Molly Graham star in the ``Masterpiece Theatre'' production of Langston Hughes' ``Cora Unashamed.''

(2) Ginger, bottom right, leads kids through the adventures of junior high school in Nickelodeon's ``As Told by Ginger.''