Five Hours Isn't Enough For `The Jacksons'

"The Jacksons: An American Dream," ABC miniseries, 8 p.m. Sunday and 9 p.m. Wednesday, Channel 4. --------------------------------------------------------------- Hard on the heels of CBS' video biography of Frank Sinatra comes ABC's showcase documentary of another compelling name in American music - Michael Jackson, who began his career as part of the famed Jackson Five. Like the Sinatra series, this five-hour film, "The Jacksons: An American Dream," is in two parts.

Telling the story of the Jacksons is more ambitious and tougher to do than concentrating upon a single performer, as the Sinatra series did. Joyce Eliason's script tries to do three things - to tell the story of the Jacksons from the parents' point of view, to chronicle the rise of Michael Jackson to superstardom and to pay adequate tribute to the rest of the Jacksons, as a group. Cramming all that into five hours proves as impossible as was doing justice to the Sinatra saga in the same length of time.

Getting almost more screen time than anyone are Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as Joseph Jackson and Angela Bassett as Katherine Jackson, parents of the Jacksons.

Unfortunately, Joseph Jackson comes off like a monster and Katherine Jackson like a saint. According to this film, Joseph Jackson was a driven man - and there are times when "The Jacksons: An American Dream" comes off as a kind of male version of "Gypsy."

If the film is accurate, then the Jacksons paid a high price for

stardom. Bassett projects an engaging warmth as Katherine Jackson although the kind of life she led surely must have aged her more than Bassett's character ages in the course of the film.

Three performers portray Michael Jackson - Alex Burrall is first seen as tiny Michael (although Burrall isn't quite tiny enough to capture the petite dynamo the early Michael Jackson was). When stardom arrives, Jason Weaver portrays Michael, while Wylie Draper portrays the contemporary Michael Jackson, especially in a re-creation of the telecast of the 25th anniversary of Motown Records that reunited the Jacksons and serves as a highlight near the film's finale, with Draper doing a fair imitation of Michael's dancing abilities.

With so much emphasis on the parents and Michael, the rest of the family doesn't get a great deal of attention, especially when new actors keep turning up to play the performers at different ages. It becomes a blur of on-stage performances, in those wild "60s and "70s costumes, and off-screen squabbles as one or another of the Jacksons tries to get out from under Joe's thumb. As for LaToya and Janet, they're pretty much kept in the wings.

About the only other performers that matter are Billy Dee Williams, as Motown's guiding genius, Berry Gordy; Vanessa Williams, who portrays Suzanne de Passe, a successful producer (she was the executive producer of this series) and who evidently baby-sat the Jacksons on tour after she was instrumental in discovering them and getting them a record contract with Motown. Holly Robinson makes a glamorous Diana Ross.

Director Karen Arthur keeps the film moving smoothly, especially in scenes that capture the hysteria that surrounded the Jacksons at their peak, but the constantly-changing cast and the fragmentary aspect of Eliason's script never allows Arthur to get in-depth performances from the cast.

For Jacksons fans, the music will be reason enough to watch - there are 38 songs performed in the film, a number of them using Michael Jackson's voice on the soundtrack, and the music easily and happily recalls a certain period of American pop music, although the film never tries to anchor the action in a particular time. The rest of the world is kept firmly outside.

And while the film knows the greatest interest is in Michael Jackson, there's little attempt by Eliason to explain some of his more bizarre behavior. The closest the film gets is to re-create his home zoo and to intimate he spends a great deal of time by himself being introspective .

But then probably de Passe, about as savvy a producer as one could find, is probably already planning a sequel, concentrating only on Michael. --------------------------------------------------------------- `Jelly Roll' moves "Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway," PBS' "Great Performances," 10 p.m. Sunday, Channel 9. --------------------------------------------------------------- If you're searching for more showbiz biographies emphasizing the sadness behind happy performers, don't miss "Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway," a swiftly-moving hour spotlighting "Jelly's Last Jam," one of last season's big musical hits, based on the life and music of the legendary black composer.

It's a skillful blend of scenes from the actual production, scenes in a recording studio as the original cast album was made, and interviews with star Gregory Hines, composer/arranger Luther Henderson, who turned Morton's great music into a Broadway score, and especially writer/director George C. Wolfe who expounds at length upon what he tried to do in "Jelly's Last Jam."

According to Wolfe, Morton's life was a painful one because he considered himself Creole, rather than black, yet drew upon the black experience for his music. The dichotomy eventually destroyed him.

The extraordinary energy and involvement that has been remarked upon as an important key to the show's success comes across strongly in this hour, one likely to make you both want to see the show and buy the album. Worth the watch --------------------------------------------------------------- "When No One Would Listen," "CBS Sunday Night Movie," 9 p.m., Channel 7. --------------------------------------------------------------- Wife abuse is the heart of this docudrama, dramatized by Cindy Myers and directed by Armand Mastroianni with an eye for terrifying realism. Michele Lee plays the wife, James Farentino her explosive husband - both are terrific.

Familiar arguments about why a wife stays with an abusive husband are heard again but Lee and Farentino are so good they bring a new immediacy to the situation.

The device of the leads speaking to the camera doesn't work, however. It suggests a certain introspection that probably wasn't there in the real-life characters upon which they are modeled, based on their willingness to keep participating in behavior so clearly leading to disaster, one of the things that turns "When No One Would Listen" into a tragedy.

In many ways the film is a downer - but Lee and Farentino are so compelling, it's a mesmerizing one.