TELEVISION\'Dream' takes new look at familiar subject.

Byline: Ray Richmond 

The dramatic trilogy "America's Dream" that premieres at 10:15 p.m. Saturday on HBO is a series of half-hour film shorts that frankly deal with racism from the African-American perspective in the years before the civil rights movement.

Often moving and powerful, they are adaptations of short stories penned by black writers Maya Angelou, John Henrik Clarke and Richard Wright, and produced by Danny Glover.

Glover also stars in the first of the three "America's Dream" films, "Long Black Song," portraying a hard-working farmer in 1938 Alabama whose bored wife (Tina Lifford) is tantalized by the sexual overtures of a traveling salesman (Tate Donovan).

The best of the trio comes second. Called "The Boy Who Painted Christ Black," it stars Wesley Snipes as the principal of a "colored" grade school in 1948 Georgia who risks a promotion to a statewide post by submitting a pupil's painting of a black Christ as part of a "State Pride" competition. Snipes gives a brilliant performance as a man caught in a moral dilemma.

Concluding things is "The Reunion," set in 1958 Chicago, in which a talented pianist (Lorraine Toussaint) confronts the snooty daughter (Susanna Thompson) of a wealthy white family for whom she and her parents once worked as servants. It deals with issues of humiliation, bitterness, pride and redemption.

While "America's Dream" sometimes tries too hard to make its points and winds up being preachy, it is smart, classy and always compelling. It also makes you think.

Not much of a 'Case': The ABC TV movie "A Case for Life" (9 p.m. Sunday on KABC-Channel 7) is a film about abortion that manages to avoid taking a position on the issue. A balanced, thoughtful story on this emotional topic would be welcomed, but "Case" has a plot that is straight out of implausibility central.

Valerie Bertinelli portrays a mother who is faced with the prospect of death unless she undergoes a therapeutic abortion to correct a rare heart condition that requires major surgery. Passionately opposed to abortion, she chooses her baby's life over her own (in a matter of speaking). Mel Harris ("thirtysomething") is the cold but devoted attorney sister who conspires with her brother-in-law (Brian McNamara) to force the life-saving abortion through a lawsuit.

The performances are all swell, but the script by Emmy winner Vickie Patik ("Do You Remember Love?") is rife with manufactured melodrama - tugging at the heartstrings to avoid tipping the prejudice scales in any direction.

Perhaps what the film is trying to say is that litigation is the answer for everything - and that network television at last has concocted a way to turn abortion into a neutral issue, lest a single viewer grow alienated.

It's dead, Jim: James Garner looks tired. I mean really tired, the kind of tired that screams, "If I have to do one more 'Rockford Files' movie, I swear, I'll drive my Firebird off a cliff!"

Yet here he is again, going through the motions as the ever-exasperated James Rockford in "The Rockford Files: Godfather Knows Best" (9 p.m. Sunday on KCBS-Channel 2), a typically lighthearted outing that illustrates how the steam is running out of the "Rockford" engine.

Whereas the old "Rockford" series came by its charm naturally, this one forces it. And there is nothing more cloying than forced charm.

It also doesn't help that Garner no longer seems particularly thrilled to be there. Instead of presenting Rockford as a sad sack, he's now painting the character as a quietly grumbling kvetch.

Perhaps that's just a natural evolution. But whatever it is, the Rockford magic just isn't there anymore.

Sunday's movie, subtitled "Godfather Knows Best" and the fourth flick in the resurrected "Rockford" series, actually has nothing to do with horse's heads and offers we can't refuse.

Rockford, you see, is the godfather to the hard-luck son of Jim's police lieutenant pal Dennis (Joe Santos). The boy, Scotty (Damian Chapa), is panhandling in the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica when he's rescued from trouble by the godfather.

But because Scotty got into a tussle with a prissy millionaire couple (Barbara Carrera and Maxwell Caulfield) while begging cash, the next thing you know he's being fingered for the murder when the wife gets axed.

It's up to Rockford to make everything better. We know he will, and that he'll look pained while doing it. But this is strictly Rockford-by-numbers.

He's baaaaaaaaack: One of the reasons that 1990 was such a good year is that it was the year NBC canceled "ALF" after four mostly annoying seasons. ALF was finally dead, and the wisecracking 228-year-old alien figured to stay that way.

Wrong. This is network television, remember.

That's right. The furry, junk-food-scarfing Alien Life Form (that's what ALF stands for) is back. And while he's on a new network (ABC) and minus the family that housed him (the Tanners), he has managed to wangle himself a new TV movie: "Project: ALF" (9 p.m. Saturday on KABC-Channel 7).

The good news is that this at least isn't an "ALF" reunion special. The better, more surprising news is that it's actually pretty cute. Even funny.

The plot is pretty standard family escapist fare. In "Project: ALF," the Tanners have been relocated in the Witness Protection Program, and ALF has been languishing for the past six years on a military base getting grilled by shrinks but living in high style with his very own casino, satin sheets and all the burgers he can devour.

But when the uptight Col. Midfoil (a sharp, over-the-top turn by Martin Sheen) demands that ALF be rubbed out, it's left to a couple of military scientists (Jensen Daggett and William O'Leary) to kidnap (alien-nap?) him and house him until his safety can be assured.

Paul Fusco is in vintage form as the voice of ALF, and Ray Walston (as a perplexed motel manager) and the underrated Miguel Ferrer (as a rogue NASA scientist) give the whole thing spark.

This film is far more engaging than it has any right to be. The throwaway lines illustrate some clever writing, such as when one of the kidnappers mentions that the only place ALF could blend in undetected is "the Neverland Ranch."

And you've got to love any movie that borrows from the Eagles' song "Take It Easy," showing ALF discussing that a girl in a flatbed Ford was "slowing down to take a look at me."

There are worse ways to spend Saturday night than with "Project: ALF." If that comes as a shock to you, trust me, it shocks me even more.

THE FACTS

The film: "America's Dream."

When: Premieres 10:15 p.m. Saturday.

Channel: HBO.

Starring: Danny Glover, Wesley Snipes, Jasmine Guy, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Tate Donovan, Lorraine Toussaint and Carl Lumbly.

Grade: B+

The film: "A Case for Life."

When: 9 p.m. Sunday.

Channel: KABC (Channel 7).

Starring: Valerie Bertinelli, Mel Harris and Brian McNamara.

Grade: C

The film: "The Rockford Files: Godfather Knows Best."

When: 9 p.m. Sunday.

Channel: KCBS (Channel 2).

Starring: James Garner, Stuart Margolin, Joe Santos, Damian Chapa, Dan Lauria, Barbara Carrera and Maxwell Caulfield.

Grade: C+

The film: "Project: ALF."

When: 9 p.m. Saturday.

Channel: KABC (Channel 7).

Starring: Paul Fusco as ALF, Martin Sheen, Jensen Daggett, William O'Leary, Miguel Ferrer and Ray Walston.

Grade: B

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO

Photo Mel Harris, left, and Valerie Bertinelli star in "A Case for Life," at 9 p.m. Sunday on KABC (Channel 7).