CHANGE, FAREWELLS MEMORABLE IN '97; DIANA GONE, ``SEINFELD'' ON WAY OUT, FIRST DOG BUDDY IN WHITE HOUSE.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Staff Writer

It was a year of transition in pop culture, a time when a backward episode of ``Seinfeld'' signified more than just a plot gimmick for a series that made TV history and is now waving goodbye.

The farewells, some shockingly unexpected, came fast and furious in 1997, providing many of the year's most indelible images. Chief among them were scenes of Britain's stunningly poignant reaction to the death of Princess Diana.

Those pictures came with sound, of course, and it was Elton John's hastily rewritten ``Candle in the Wind 1997,'' performed solo at the ornate Sept. 6 funeral, that became permanently linked to the Princess of Wales. More than 33 million Americans stayed up through the wee hours to watch the live broadcast, and a recording of John's song became the fastest-selling single in history.

There were other pictures, too, some as stark and unforgettable as the 39 Nike-clad members of the Heaven's Gate cult found lying in their bunks.

And the nation watched on live TV as a pair of would-be bank robbers in black body armor transformed a North Hollywood neighborhood into an outtake from ``Apocalypse Now.''

Witnesses gave the expected response: ``It was just like a movie.''

Another sort of history was made when Ellen DeGeneres shouted, ``Yep, I'm gay,'' from the cover of Time magazine. It was the first coming-out of a star on a network sitcom and suddenly, DeGeneres and her gal pal, film actress Anne Heche, were attracting the kind of wall-to-wall coverage usually reserved for indicted politicians or the Spice Girls.

Residents of a once-quiet stretch in Brentwood grudgingly said goodbye to street parking when the Getty Center, a $1 billion cultural Mecca atop a formerly barren hilltop, finally opened. Traffic on the San Diego Freeway (405) below, already nightmarish, got considerably worse.

The goodbye boy

``Seinfeld'' fans got a jolt last week when Jerry Seinfeld announced the most popular television comedy of the '90s will broadcast its last episode in May.

In 1997, VCRs across the country got a workout when a 40-minute video of Pamela Lee Anderson and hubby Tommy Lee in their natural habitat became an instant national obsession despite the fact that it had exactly six minutes of vague interest.

And as personal computers continued to creep up on everybody's doorstep, millions of subscribers to America Online, cyberspace's No. 1 on-line service, regretted their $19.95-a-month decision when it sometimes took hours to log on.

Among the year's big moments was O.J. II, the sequel, in which the ex-footballer and social pariah was held liable in civil court for double murder, almost 18 months after he was found not guilty in the criminal trial.

We also pondered media magnate Ted Turner's promise to turn over $1 billion in stock to the United Nations for social programs over the next 10 years. It was either that or colorize the first part of ``The Wizard of Oz.''

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck opened his Spago Beverly Hills and escaped the wrath of the KCBS (Channel 2) expose of dirty kitchens throughout the city. Local actors and screenwriters, some even patrons of the joint, were stunned when Jerry's Deli in Studio City was closed for a day.

El Nino, the warm-water phenomenon, wasn't. Yet.

Dolly the cloned sheep begged the question, ``Why sheep? Aren't they already all alike?'' Scientists must've been listening because toward the end of the year, there was talk of introducing a human gene into the process.

Oprah's TV book club sparked sales of a fictional Civil War memoir by first-time novelist Charles Frazier called ``Cold Mountain.''

Dueling Dylans

It was also a year when Bob Dylan bounded back from a dance with death to enter the top 10 for the first time in nearly 20 years to challenge son Jakob's band the Wallflowers in sales.

Chatterers chattered about Farrah Fawcett's stranger than strange appearance on ``The Late Show With David Letterman'' in which she acted as if she was already traveling on Hale-Bopp.

Celebrity biting reared its sharpened teeth when the painful activity became linked to sportscaster Marv Albert, boxer Mike Tyson and actor Christian Slater.

We also enjoyed Eddie Murphy's defense when he claimed to be offering a transvestite hooker a ride home at 4:45 a.m. in Hollywood when police pulled him over.

Good old Mars Pathfinder kept those cards and letters coming in the form of live pictures from Mars long after the skateboard-sized rover Sojourner was expected to run out of gas.

The movie industry got a boost when ``Scream 2'' made $33 million in a record December opening. ``Titanic,'' the most expensive film ever made, soaked up a ton of good reviews and looked to make its dampness felt at Oscar time.

In Miami, the mansion where gay hustler and killer Andrew Cunanan shot fashion designer Gianni Versace to death became a tourist attraction.

A stretch of desolate road not far from the new Getty took on an eerie glow after TV father Bill Cosby's real-life son Ennis was murdered during a robbery attempt. Trial in the case starts Feb. 17.

Fertility drugs provided Iowa's Bobbi and Kenny McCaughey with seven babies, and contractors, baby-care accessory companies and even an auto dealership chipped in with goodies for the family.

Help me, Reege

As for breakups, Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford stayed together after his extramarital hotel-room high jinks, but nothing could keep diet drug combo fen/phen married. The FDA demanded a recall after the discovery of heart-valve damage in frequent users.

Even occasional users of e-mail realized that once you've been bitten by the cyberbug, you can't live without it.

Actress Hunter Tylo struck a blow for pregnant model-types everywhere when a jury awarded her nearly $5 million for emotional distress and lost wages after she was fired from the ``Melrose Place'' cast because she became preggers. To show the jury she could be pregnant and sexy at the same time, Tylo, in her eighth month, wore tight miniskirts to court each day.

With no trial date in sight, the trail seemed to get colder in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. Colorado police say the 6-year-old model's parents remain under ``an umbrella of suspicion.''

Soothsayers predict 1998 will be a big year for channelers, numerologists, cultists and doom-mongers. Call it pre-millennium fever, but as the century ends, Bible numerologists claim the end is near.

But nobody said anything about Buddy, the first puppy, getting caught up in a bone-hiding scandal in '98.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1) TV star Ellen DeGeneres, left, made headlines when she announced she was gay and introduced gal pal Anne Heche.

Associated Press

(2) 1997 will be remembered as the year of the death of Britain's Princess Diana, here seen comforting rock star Elton John, center, at designer Gianni Versace's funeral.

Associated Press