ABC's `Elvis' Explores The Early Years Of The Presley Legend

All those Americans who continue to sight Elvis Presley were obviously looking at ABC, home of the new ``Elvis'' series, which premieres at 9:30 tonight on Channel 4. It immediately follows ``Roseanne,'' but henceforth will air at 8:30 p.m. Sundays.

The gimmick of ``Elvis,'' a half-hour series, is to focus on Presley's early years, to explore the incidents and music that influenced both the man and the performer. It's such a natural, it's amazing it took TV this long to create this series.

Michael St. Gerard does the Elvis impersonation here and he does it remarkably well, capturing the look as well as the quiet politeness of the young Presley. Ronnie McDowell is credited with the vocal re-creations. Millie Perkins plays Gladys Presley, while Billy Green Bush portrays Elvis' father, Vernon.

In the premiere episode, St. Gerard sings ``My Happiness,'' the ballad Elvis recorded as a present for his mother, as well as ``Money, Honey,'' performed in a club setting. In Sunday night's episode he records ``That's All Right, Mama,'' which a Memphis disc jockey airs and which is an instant hit. At the end of the episode, young Elvis, looking skyward, says, ``There's a storm comin', Mama.'' She looks at him knowingly and says, ``I know, honey, I know.''

While the idea of ``Elvis'' is to explore his roots, these first two episodes are pretty thin stuff (although I doubt the legion of Elvis fans will mind). But ``Elvis'' is unusual enough, and St. Gerard good enough, that there's real potential here, especially if it eventually is done with the thoughtfulness and care of the NBC series ``Boone,'' which focused on a Presley-esque young hopeful during this same period.

``Elvis'' needs to be rich with detail and atmosphere, and rid of such hindsight dialogue as cited here. These rather stilted episodes play like what Hollywood used to call your standard ``biopic.''

A great man recalled: The fourth episode of PBS' ``Eyes on the Prize II,'' at 9 tonight on Channel 9, vividly recalls that watershed year, 1968, which saw the deaths of the Rev. Martin Luther King and Sen. Robert Kennedy, a growing disenchantment with the Vietnam War, the Poor People's March on Washington, D.C., and growing racial unrest throughout the nation. Terrific film clips and reminiscences combine to make ``The Promised Land'' one of the most powerful episodes in the series. To anyone who experienced those years, this report brings it all back in an unusually well-done assessment of the period.

A night off: As if to prove ``Frontline'' can have fun as well as focus on problems, tonight's episode of the PBS series is ``Miss U.S.S.R.,'' airing at 8 on Channel 9. It's about the first national beauty contest in the Soviet Union, an event that will satisfy both girl-watchers and those seeking insight into a nation in the throes of glasnost.

It's the work of British filmmaker Richard Denton, whose excellent British series, ``Comrades,'' also aired on PBS. This hour is both entertaining and informative - and sometimes downright funny. There's all the commotion of any beauty contest, especially backstage. The pageant, at once both sexy and old-fashioned, is a hoot, especially the clips of the screen tests the Soviet candidates did in lieu of the ``talent segment'' familiar to American viewers. But not to worry - the Soviets haven't dumped the swimsuit category, some entries of which might raise eyebrows even on the Riviera. At the same time, the hour offers some sharp observations about how Soviet women see their role in society.

There goes the neighborhood: The newest rock group favored by pubescent groupies is New Kids on the Block, five squeaky-clean guys whose choreography is more inventive than their music. Cable's Disney Channel has given the Kids their first TV special, which premieres at 8 tonight.

It was taped during the Kids' world tour last year, and the onstage performance segments alternate with offstage antics, all of which are filmed in the contemporary fashion that makes everything look like a jeans commercial on MTV. Kids will love the hour; adults can use it to find out why their kids have turned New Kids into one of the hottest groups around.

Video notes: Channel 5's Jim Compton begins a three-part report tonight on similarities and differences between Seattle and San Francisco on KING-TV's 6 p.m. news. . . . CBS airs the three-hour episode that concludes ``Family of Spies'' at 8 tonight on Channel 7. . . . Channel 28 begins a four-part PBS series, ``Hard Drugs, Hard Choices,'' at 8 tonight; Channel 9 will begin airing it at 10 p.m. Sunday.