Lifetime Channel Offers `E.N.G.,' A Fine Canadian Series

As time passes, the profile of cable's Lifetime channel becomes more clearly defined and indicates that it has become one of the most promising of the basic cable channels.

Although Lifetime originally saw its audience as basically female, and opted for shows like its magazine show, ``Attitudes,'' it has begun adding enough varied programming until its audience would now seem to be almost anyone interested in good programming.

One of the earliest indications of this came when Lifetime had the good sense to pick up ``The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd'' when NBC couldn't see its potential. It not only aired all the original episodes, but ordered a great many more, with the result that the series has remained popular and its star, Blair Brown, received another Emmy nomination this year.

Another fine example in this vein is the purchase of the Canadian series, ``E.N.G.,'' to begin with a two-hour pilot at 5 tonight, before the series begins its regular run of hour-long episodes at 7 p.m. weeknights.

``E.N.G.'' stands for ``electronic news gathering'' and is set in the newsroom of a fictional Canadian TV station - it has much of the energy and authenticity of ``Broadcast News'' - without the laughs. That doesn't mean ``E.N.G.'' doesn't have humor - but the humor grows out of the large cast of characters, headed by the splendid Sara Botsford, who, in the pilot, is the station's temporary news director, until the permanent director comes along. He is played by Art Hindle, the only performer who may be familiar to American viewers.

The other major character is a cameraman, played by Mark Humphrey, though many other characters flesh out the story and give it a richness. ``E.N.G.'' reminded me of a TV-news version of ``L.A. Law.'' The pilot includes the station's coverage of a hostage situation that is as tense as any I've seen in any American series, whereas the second episode, which airs Monday night, is more an ensemble piece about the day-to-day life in the TV newsroom than it is about a specific incident.

Any American network would be lucky to have a series as good as ``E.N.G.'' on its fall schedule.

Most cable channels have to look to reruns in order to (A) fill their schedules and (B) draw in viewers who want to see the series again, and Lifetime has made some good choices besides ``Molly Dodd.'' Beginning at 8 p.m. Monday, right after ``E.N.G.,'' Lifetime will begin airing reruns of ``L.A. Law.'' It has also picked up the wonderful ``Tracey Ullman Show'' from Fox and it will air Mondays through Fridays at 11 p.m., beginning Monday, and 1:30 and 10 p.m. Saturdays.

While Ullman's imaginative and entertaining series had terrible ratings on Fox, it was, nonetheless, one of the funniest, most unusual comedy series to come along since the heyday of ``The Carol Burnett Show.'' If you missed it on Fox, here's your chance to make its acquaintance - and if you were as fond of it on Fox as I was, you'll welcome this chance to see it again.

More and more, a channel's own made-for-TV movies help give it stature - and bring in viewers. Ted Turner's TNT channel has already produced some excellent TV movies, and while USA Network's TV movies are generally a couple of cuts below, still some of its blood-and-gore movies have been marked by imagination and style.

Lifetime's first TV movie was a recent thriller with Karen Allen that made little sense, but its second film, ``Sudie and Simpson,'' to air at 9 p.m. Sept. 11, seems to have more promise. It co-stars Louis Gossett Jr. and Sara Gilbert (of ``Roseanna'') and is a drama about the friendship between a poor white girl and a lonely black man in rural Georgia in 1943. Plans are already under way for Lifetime's third TV movie, ``Storm and Sorrow,'' to star Lori Singer in a docudrama about Molly Higgins, an American involved in climbing Peak Lenin in the U.S.S.R. in 1974. It will air in November.

As of now, Lifetime hopes to have a night of all-original programming by next June.

Video notes: KOMO-TV airs the recent Cousteau documentary, ``Borneo: Forests Without Land,'' at 2 p.m. today. . . . KCTS-TV airs an hour special, ``One of Ours: Young Scoop Jackson,'' at 7 tonight, commemorating the late senator's death on Sept. 1, 1983. . . . Fox's new ``Haywire'' series premieres at 9:30 tonight on KCPQ-TV, preceded at 9 p.m. by the season premiere of Fox's ``Totally Hidden Video'' series. . . . KOMO-TV repeats its excellent ``Overworking Women'' documentary at 6 p.m. tomorrow. . . .

John Voorhees' column appears daily in The Times.