REMEMBERING THE PROMISE AND THE PAIN OF KENNEDY.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

WHAT WERE CBS executives thinking when they scheduled that miniseries on the Reagans? Not because the producers were trying to shove a liberal agenda upon presumed conservative viewers - although, that, too, seems ill-advised - but because if you check your calendar or TV listings, this is clearly the month to squeeze John Fitzgerald Kennedy for every last drop of drama he's worth.

It was 40 years ago this week that JFK ventured into Dallas - better- known those days as the City of Hate - and left in a coffin, spawning twin cottage industries of Camelot worship and conspiracy theories. On one hand, our youthful president became, like James Dean or Marilyn Monroe, another glamorous, frivolous martyr, while in a more sinister vein, everyone from the CIA to the Soviet Union, from the mob to the FBI, from pro-Castro Cubans to anti-Castro Cubans, was fingered for the hit.

There's not much about Kennedy, from his heroism to his womanizing, that hasn't been reported to the point of exhaustion. Nonetheless, a spate of specials new and old airing this week will remind us how the flickering promise of a better, more aspirant America was extinguished in front of the Texas School Book Depository.

The History Channel's new three-hour documentary, ``JFK: A Presidency Revealed,'' takes us on a walking tour of Kennedy's greatest (and worst) hits - the Cuban missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs, the civil rights movement and the Berlin Wall, the glamorous wife and the unrepentant womanizing - and filters it through vaguely recent revelations of Jack concealing his miserable health and the pharmaceutical brew concocted to help him deal with unending pain.

Because the medical cover-up (which inspired a story line on ``The West Wing'' a couple of seasons back) is the freshest material ``A Presidency Revealed'' has going for it, writer/producer/director David Taylor emphasizes - and probably overemphasizes - it. He details, for example, medications JFK took during the Cuban Missile Crisis, implying it may have affected his decision making yet acknowledging he handled the situation as deftly as any leader could possibly have managed.

A fairly ambitious interviewee list includes Sen. Edward Kennedy, administration officials Robert McNamara and Arthur Schlesinger, White House photographer Cecil Stroughton, Nikita Khrushchev's interpreter Viktor Sukhodrev, historians, journalists and even Cuban refugees. There are some odd detours - do we really need an interview with the ``Official White House Designer'' mooning over Jackie? - but for the uninitiated, or those just feeling nostalgic, ``JFK: A Presidency Revealed'' is a competent, mainly straightforward portrait.

It's not to be confused with ``The Kennedy Tapes Revealed,'' which Bravo uncorks on Friday and which isn't nearly as revelatory as it promises. Using some post-assassination interviews with Kennedy's brother and Attorney General Bobby as a jumping-off point, writers Philip B. Kunhardt III and Peter W. Kunhardt patch together a JFK-lite documentary.

Bobby's (and, by extrapolation, Jack's) bad blood with then-Vice President Lyndon Johnson and FBI head J. Edgar Hoover are desultorily noted, with one fairly interesting factoid - Johnson attributed JFK's death to ``divine retribution'' for international CIA misadventures - broached but scarcely pursued. Bobby seems circumspect on the tapes, interested more in leaving behind an official history rather than a warts-and-all portrait of the life and times of Washington in the early '60s. As such, it offers a superficial and scattershot narrative patched together from snippets of interviews.

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

JFK: A PRESIDENCY REVEALED - Three stars

What: Documentary on John Kennedy's truncated term in office.

Where: History Channel.

When: 8 tonight.

In a nutshell: Reasonable overview, if a bit preoccupied with the president's back pain.

THE KENNEDY TAPES REVEALED - Two stars

What: Interviews with Bobby Kennedy are unearthed to serve as a narrative through-line on the Kennedy presidency.

Where: Bravo.

When: 8 p.m. Friday.

In a nutshell: Fairly bare-bones and myopic but of possible interest to enthusiasts or the uninitiated.

Want more JFK? Camelot will burn bright this week across the TV spectrum as John F. Kennedy's legacy is dissected in every manner imaginable on this, the 40th anniversary of his assassination:

``JFK: Case Not Closed'' (Fox News Channel; 6 and 9 tonight) re-examines, with the assistance of new interviews and video-game-style graphics, the assassination. Did the Warren Commission get it wrong?

``JFK: The Day That Changed America'' (MSNBC; Monday at 6 p.m.) offers reminiscences from Gerald Ford (who served on the Warren Commission), Hillary Clinton and - no fooling - Jay Leno (NBC-MSNBC synergy in full bloom!), who no doubt will recall his first joke on the topic.

``The Kennedys'' (KCET; Monday and Tuesday at 9 p.m.) is an old ``American Experience'' documentary on the family's extended dynasty dusted off for the anniversary.

``President Kennedy Has Been Shot'' (CNN; Wednesday at 5 and 8 p.m.) interviews reporters who covered the story.

``JFK: Breaking the News'' (KCET; Wednesday at 8 p.m. and Nov. 23 at 11 p.m.) comes from the perspective of Hugh Aynesworth, the only journalist present at the assassination and both Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest and murder, who shares the particulars of his investigation.

``The Assassination of JFK: Investigation Reopened'' (Court TV; Tuesday at 9 p.m.) exploits our interest in forensics to examine the second-gunman theory.

``Peter Jennings Reporting: The Kennedy Assassination - Beyond Conspiracy'' (ABC, Channel 7; Thursday at 9 p.m.) likewise explores the sundry theories that haunt Dealey Plaza to this day.

``Unrivaled Access: The JFK Films by Robert Drew'' (History Channel; Saturday at 8:30 p.m.) collects the intimate films by the former Life Magazine correspondent following Kennedy in action, from running for the presidency to attempting to come to grips with the civil-rights crisis in the South.

- D.K.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1) The indelible image of John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's coffin is part of ``The Kennedys,'' on KCET.

(2) Two new documentaries focus on the presidency of John Kennedy, right, on the 40th anniversary of his death - including one based on interviews with his brother Robert.

Box:

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