'ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE' TO BE A DIFFERENT COSBY SHOW.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

If you think Bill Cosby's return to a half-hour family series will mean a return to the happy Huxtables of "The Cosby Show," think again.

Casting is now under way on Cosby's version of the Britcom, "One Foot in the Grave," for CBS - and details are emerging as to the differences and similarities between the new show and the original.

Cosby will, for instance, have to cope with an adult daughter described as "twice divorced and given to causes and fads. ... She was once involved with a cult ... later an alcoholic, and is now in the throes of therapy." Her therapist has the daughter convinced all her problems issue from one source: Dad. And, according to casting notices, "she's determined to make him pay."

Cosby will have a little granddaughter to baby-sit on the show, plus a wife described as "50ish, naturally gracious, who has an easy way with people." OK, that part sounds like a Huxtable.

"One Foot in the Grave" is set to begin shooting in the spring for fall debut, with beleaguered CBS pinning oh-so-many hopes on Cosby to do for the "eye" network what he did for the peacock with his "Cosby Show" success on NBC.

You might remember the photos of CBS prexy Peter Lund with his pants pockets inside-out in November, when Cosby's $1 million-an-episode deal was announced.

Surrender Dorothy: Yes, Janet Jackson is portraying Dorothy Dandridge in her new, much-played "Twenty Foreplay" video, her record company confirms, the latest shot in the dueling Dandridges battle going on between her and Whitney Houston.

You may recall, Whitney snapped up film rights to the forthcoming "Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography" last fall - and an announcement was made that a script was being penned by the book's author forthwith. That was after Janet had talked literally for years of her plans to play the ill-fated '50s film siren.

It looked like a clear victory for Whitney. But Janet, we understand, has not given up Dandridge, and, as one industryite puts it, she has "marked her territory" with the new video. Time will tell.

The big screen scene: An end-of-April start date has been set for the untitled Columbia sci-fier starring Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. The pic marks another exciting "go" project for Danny DeVito's Jersey Films. Set in a futuristic society inhabited by genetically perfected humans and "Invalids" - people made the old haphazard way - it has Hawke as an imperfect male trying to pass for one of the ubermenschen. Uma, if you haven't guessed already, is among the perfect.

The inside track: Legendary guitarist Carlos Santana is already talking about a follow-up to "Carlos Santana's Influences," his first instructional video released late last year. In fact, the DCI Music video, which features Santana interpreting the playing styles of three of his influences (Bola Sete, Gabor Szabo and Wes Montgomery) could be the beginning of a line of such videos - if he can continue to do them his way.

"I didn't want to do a technical, rudimental, note-for-note, chord-for-chord video. I wanted to introduce people to American royalty, which is what Sete, Montgomery and Szabo are. ... They're our Mozarts and Beethovens. I'd like to do another one on guitar players - and I'd like to do the same with women singers like Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holliday and Dinah Washington. I learned a lot from Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick in how they phrase ... after awhile I wouldn't listen to guitar players anymore. I would listen to singers."

Faraway places: Country legend Mel Tillis heads to Japan in February for a command performance at the Officer's Club in Okinawa - where he made his singing debut 43 years ago.

Here at home: Folks around these parts are thrilled that tourists finally will have a chance to see that Hollywood has much to be proud of. Rising in the heart of Beverly Hills is the Museum of Television and Radio, and Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank is in the process of creating a museum of Hollywood memorabilia.