BUSY BROKAW SPEAKING UP FOR `GREATEST GENERATION'.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Tom Brokaw, who usually has plans by now for some exotic summer vacation - he's kayaked in Russia, gone trekking in Nepal - isn't focusing on any extended, far-flung getaway this year. He's too busy preparing and promoting ``The Greatest Generation That Ever Lived.''

That's the ``Generation'' that grew up during the Great Depression, fought in World War II and brought America to unprecedented prosperity in the '50s. That also happens to be the golden oldies generation, which isn't considered prime bait by advertisers. So, where is the commercial appeal of the show that's being prepared as a prime-time news special?

Brokaw is taking his case to the people - the younger people.

``I've talked about the special on the Conan O'Brien show. I talk about it during college addresses,'' he says. ``I try to make it user-friendly, explaining that by the time their parents or grandparents were in their 20s, they were battling for their lives and to save the world. Now, we get excited when we take a whitewater rafting trip.''

Brokaw, who will travel back through the '30s with the generation that changed the course of history, says no air date has yet been set for the hourlong show. ``There's still too much work to do.'' And too much pitching.

Meanwhile

One of Tom Brokaw's favorite stories of the year ``is how America is thriving. We've probably never seen better times. The economy is rocking along, there's no threat of war, gas is at an all-time low, the deficit is getting wiped out.''

So, does that mean we should forgive the president any moral lapses?

Responds Brokaw, ``I think Gary Hart was the catharsis for that sort of thing. After that, people said, `It's not our business.' President Clinton's approval ratings have never been higher. Like (Senate Majority Leader) Trent Lott said, `Maybe if he gets another woman, he'll have 100 percent approval.'''

Here `n' there

Will Smith is just now saddling up for the big-screen ``Wild, Wild West.'' Shooting will be done locally, so Will doesn't have to worry about being within rushin'-to-the-hospital range when wife Jada Pinkett gets ready to deliver their firstborn in early summer.

Fresh out of the closet, not to mention the men's room, George Michael has been asked to appear at this summer's Gay Pride Day festivities in London. No word yet on his yea or nay. The Gay Pride fests have gathered momentum, and ever-bigger crowds, in the United Kingdom during the past decade.

Therrrrrrre's Johnny!

The answer is, telling jokes in Swahili. And the question, in the tradition of Johnny Carson's old Carnak the Magnificent routine, is: What's Carson been up to lately? Carson and his wife, Alex, love Africa, especially Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, where they've been on numerous photo safaris. (``No TV, no newspapers. ... They don't know who I am, and they don't care,'' he said a few years ago.) That love has blossomed to the point where America's king of late night TV emeritus, 72, now speaks fluent Swahili - according to his former band leader Doc Severinsen, who pops up in a special report about Carson on tonight's installment of ``Extra.'' Reports have Johnny entertaining crowds of locals with jokes and magic tricks, speaking Swahili only. Further proof that Carson's into Africa in a big way - his yacht is named Serengeti.

New view

Bruce Davison has just completed playing the doctor who gives a blind man - Val Kilmer - his vision in the forthcoming big-screen ``Second Sight.'' ``He has no visual memory, and when he gets his sight, he can't function, though he was a functioning person as a blind man,'' says Bruce. More than anything else, however, he says the movie ``is a love story between Val and Mira Sorvino.''

Davison, whose credits run the gamut from ``Willard'' and ``Longtime Companion'' to the current ``Paulie'' (in which he's a villainous medico), tells us that ``this is my doctor year. I'm working my way out of suffering dads and lawyers.'' In a departure even for him, Davison plays a character he describes as ``a Jewish slum lord'' on this Sunday's installment of ``Touched by an Angel.'' ``My manager said, `Do it. Who else is going to give you a shot at playing a part like that?' It's like asking Hans Brinker to play it, you know? It turned out great!''

With reports by Stephanie DuBois.

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3 Photos

Photo: (1) Tom Brokaw

Making it user-friendly

(2) Will Smith

Worry-free saddling up

(3) Bruce Davison

``This is my doctor year''