Let The Goodwill Games - And The TV Coverage - Begin

Just a reminder, in case it somehow passed you by: The Goodwill Games start this week.

In a whirlwind of press releases about the Games, certain statistics stand out: there will be more than 2,500 athletes from more than 50 countries participating in 21 sports; TBS, the host broadcaster, will televise the Games to 42 million homes domestically, 1 billion viewers worldwide; cable subscribers will be able to view 86 hours of the Games over 17 days, 68 hours in prime time.

Not every minute of that time will be devoted to actual sports activities, however - a 10-man crew headed by Tim Garrigan will be providing more than 60 reports on various related events in Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane and the Tri-Cities.

Garrigan, who was instrumental in much of KIRO-TV's original programming from 1981 to 1989, will be working with Steve Largent, who will anchor these live reports, for which Garrigan says he will use all the latest technology available. ``We'll utilize Steve's personable style to capture the essence of the Northwest and relate that to our viewers,'' Garrigan said.

Also involved in covering the games will be 20 students from Seattle Central Community College's Applied Video Communication Program, working with TBS personnel in various capacities.

Although KING-TV has been designated the ``official Goodwill Games Station'' locally, and although KOMO-TV, KIRO-TV, KSTW-TV and KCPQ-TV will take notice of the games in their sportscasts, full coverage is available only via TBS on cable. That arrangement has caused a certain amount of grumbling. But the Games were the brainchild of TBS' Ted Turner - and since TBS is his baby, he's no more likely to let everyone carry the games than NBC would have been to share after paying a bundle for the exclusive rights to the Olympics in South Korea.

At the first Goodwill Games in 1986, TBS made segments of the coverage available on a syndicated next-day basis to various stations around the country (KCPQ-TV aired them here at that time). This time, however, Turner is not doing that.

Incidentally, Turner will hold a press conference at 3 p.m. tomorrow at the Seattle Center's Northwest Room, speaking, not surprisingly, on the beginning of the games on Friday.

Although the athletic events begin Friday and TBS will air its first coverage beginning at 5:05 p.m. that day, the official opening won't take place until Saturday, beginning at approximately 5:30 p.m. The performers for what is known as the Welcoming Ceremonies include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kenny Rogers, Bruce Jenner, The Moody Blues, Reba McEntire, and Kenny G. Larry King, the TV host for the entire event, will also host the Welcoming Ceremonies as well.

It will be interesting to see how recent world events affect the size of the viewing audience for the Goodwill Games. While the Games may be classified as mainly a sporting event in some views, Turner's long-held conviction of the importance of worldwide communication and face-to-face interaction between Soviets and Americans, at a time when President Reagan was cursing the U.S.S.R. as an ``evil empire,'' was certainly as instrumental in the creation of the original Goodwill Games as any athletic consideration. It's a theme that Turner has long championed in his original programming created for TBS, CNN and TNT.

Now, with tensions greatly reduced and widespread interaction taking place, the Games can both reinforce what has been happening. Much of the communication between the two nations has already surpassed what the original Games hoped to achieve. In other words, the emphasis in the second Goodwill Games has been moved from ``Goodwill,'' the prime reason for the first contest, to ``Games.'' So let the Games begin.

Video notes: ABC brings back the entertaining ``Anything But Love'' series for reruns, beginning at 9:30 tonight on KOMO-TV with a very funny episode in which a restaurant fire involving the series' principal characters gets various interpretations, ala ``Rashomon.'' ABC has ordered new episodes of ``Anything'' and the series should surface later as a midseason replacement. . . . HBO has a new edition of ``Not Necessarily the News'' at 8 tonight on cable. . . . CBS' ``Normal Life'' series comes to a welcome end at 8:30 tonight and its new ``Top Cops'' series, unavailable for previewing, premieres at 10 tonight, both on KIRO-TV. . . . ABC has a documentary, ``The Perfect Baby,'' unavailable for previewing, at 10 tonight on KOMO-TV. . . . KCTS-TV airs the conclusion of ``The Singing Detective'' at 10 tonight.

John Voorhees' column appears daily in The Times.