`Rockford Files' Returns, But The Plot Is Lacking

----------------------------------------------------------------- "The Rockford Files: I Still Love L.A.,"

9 p.m. Sunday, KIRO-TV. "Bionic Ever After?," 9 p.m. Tuesday, KIRO-TV. ----------------------------------------------------------------- CBS seems to be on a retro kick - hard on the heels of the recent success of a "Cagney & Lacey" reunion comes return appearances by Jim Rockford, of "The Rockford Files," and that bionic duo, Steve Austin and Dr. Jaime Sommers, better known, respectively, as "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman."

What's next? "Magnum Returns," "The Dukes of Hazzard Grow Up" and "Laverne & Shirley: The Golden Years?" "The Rockford Files" was a hit series for NBC from 1974 to 1980, with James Garner creating a private eye who was an ex-convict not above bending the rules a bit in the cases he was investigating. One of his best friends was a former cell mate, con artist Angel, played by Stuart Margolin, while Lieutenant Becker of the Los Angeles Police Dept., played by Joe Santos, was Rockford's nemesis.

Much is still the same in this new two-hour episode of the old series. His car is still being damaged, he still lives in a trailer on the beach, Angel and Becker are still around and it's still up to Rockford to solve cases everyone else is getting wrong.

The biggest difference from the old series to this new episode is the presence of Joanna Cassidy, who portrays an attorney who is Rockford's ex-wife. (They evidently married between 1980 and 1994 but it didn't work out.) Just about everything that could possibly go wrong does in the course of this episode - riots, fires, earthquakes - to the point where Rockford even considers leaving L.A.

But the real disaster here is man-made. The crime Rockford is attempting to solve is borrowed from the Menendez brothers, and it's so apparent who is guilty the story never holds one's interest. It's as if the story was added as an afterthought. Giving Rockford an ex-wife is a nice touch - except that Cassidy is such a terrific lady it's difficult to believe she would have the time of day for old beat-up Jim Rockford.

Fans of the series will undoubtedly enjoy this two-hour version - but I doubt it's going to bring about a revival of the series.

Neither is "Bionic Ever After?" going to do anything for the careers of Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner - nor do they need it. He's developed into a likable character actor and she's in demand for miniseries and TV movies in the Danielle Steel mold.

"The Six Million Dollar Man" was on ABC from 1974-78, with Wagner's "Bionic Woman" character introduced in 1975 and the two were romantically involved - till Wagner got her own ABC series, "The Bionic Woman," in 1976, which later moved to NBC and ended in 1978.

While there may not have been a huge clamor for a return of these two, Michael Sloan's script handles the reunion smoothly: Steve and Jaime are now nearly middle-aged and finally getting married. She's now a family counselor; he runs a charter boat service. And they both have various bionic aches and pains. But before the wedding takes place, their former boss, Oscar Goldman, again played by Richard Anderson, still heading the O.S.I. (Office of Strategic Information), lures them into one more mission.

Unlike the plot in "Rockford Files," this is a bit more interesting, involving terrorists and kidnapping a famous tennis star.

Does the bionic duo solve the case? Do they ever get married? If you have to ponder these questions, you must be new to TV. ----------------------------------------------------------------- You'll pull for her

"Following Her Heart," "NBC Monday Movie," 9 p.m., KING-TV. -----------------------------------------------------------------

This is a sweet little fable tailored to Ann-Margret's talents, and even if it's not very believable, you wish it could be true. Lee Grant directed and tries to make the film more moving than it ever can be, because of Merry Helm's soft-headed script.

When we first meet Ann-Margret, she's drab and plain, living in a North Dakota small town, married to an old grump who cares more for his pet bird than Ann-Margret.

The man is sick - literally - and soon dies. But his will keeps Ann-Margret from getting his considerable money - when all she wants is enough to visit Nashville and meet a pen pal with whom she's been secretly writing songs, via cassette. Her dream, you see, is to perform at the Grand Ole Opry.

She scrapes the money together for a bus tour to Nashville and her roommate turns out to be one of those gregarious lusty types, played to a fare-thee-well by Brenda Vaccaro - and in no time at all Ann-Margret is drinking sloe gin fizzes, being romanced by a lonely widower, played by George Segal, and knockin' 'em dead in Nashville.

Will Ann-Margret find happiness, true love and musical success?If you have to ponder those questions, you must be new to TV. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Too slow

"Fatherland," HBO movie, 8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and Dec. 5, 11 and 16. -----------------------------------------------------------------

For something a bit more original and suspenseful, catch HBO's newest TV movie, starring Rutger Hauer and Miranda Richardson, based on a novel by Robert Harris. The premise of the novel is to explore what the world would be like if the Nazis had won World War II.

Some of the film's best moments come at the very beginning as a narrator describes what has happened between 1944 and 1964, on the eve of a celebration for Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday. The high point of this event is a visit by the United States president, visiting Berlin to renew diplomatic relations between the U.S. and what is now called Germania.

A group of American journalists is also on hand to cover the event, one of whom is played by Richardson. She's chosen by a shadowy figure played by John Woodvine, for a special mission and is soon involved in a web of murder and state secrets, through which she meets an S.S. detective, played by Hauer, who already has his hands full trying to solve the deaths of several high-ranking figures. It all hinges on a terrible state secret Woodvine's character wants Richardson to bring to the attention of the American President.

Christopher Menaul, who directed "Prime Suspect" and "Lawrence After ) Arabia," does his best to give "Fatherland" a breathless pace and a sense of mysterious urgency, but the script by Ron Hutchinson and Stanley Weiser keeps slowing things down. There are too many bodies, too many details, too much confusion so eventually the film turns into just another conventional chase movie. The story should have been simplified and sharpened; the focus should have remained on what it was like to live in a world in which the Nazis ruled. That's the fascination here and it's too often overlooked.

Richardson is fine as a feisty American journalist (even though she's British) and Hauer is equally good as the detective who learns more about his government than he wants to know. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Superb viewing

"The American Revolution," three-part, six-hour series, 5 and 9 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, A&E. -----------------------------------------------------------------

An earlier war is at the center of this interesting new series from Greystone Communications, which produced A&E's "Civil War Journal," "The Real West," several episodes of "Biography" and specials on D-Day and the Titanic.

It's told in the familiar style of dramatized re-enactments of historical events, illustrated further by paintings and drawings from the period, original letters and documents read by well-known actors, tied together with narration (by Bill Kurtis) propelling the story along, supported by a musical score in the style of the period.

The result is an engrossing look at the founding of the United States, with equal emphasis upon the political, military and social aspects of the time - in other words, history told both entertainingly and seriously. It is, incidentally, co-presented by The History Channel, a new channel that will be spinning off of A&E beginning Jan. 1 but which won't be available in this area until many more channels open up on the cable systems.