`Child Of Rage' Boasts All The Elements Of Believability

Child abuse is such a trendy TV topic that there has been a plethora of documentaries, talk shows and TV movies exploring the subject - but I don't recall any with quite the impact of CBS' "Child of Rage" which airs at 9 p.m. tomorrow on KIRO-TV.

Phil Penningroth's script is based on a true story of Catherine, a young girl adopted, along with her younger brother, by a minister and his wife. The foster parents know nothing of the child's background - laws of privacy keep this information from them - and it soon becomes apparent Catherine is seriously disturbed, although on the surface she seems almost a model child.

With the help of therapy and a sympathetic social worker who reveals the children's background, progress toward dealing with her past abuse is made - although the final remarks at the close of the film indicate the child is not yet home free.

What sets "Child of Rage" apart from previous efforts to make us aware of the terrible affects of child abuse are the performances, under Larry Peerce's outstanding direction, especially that of 8-year-old Ashley Peldon whose performance as Catherine makes the little girl in "The Bad Seed" look like Little Mary Sunshine.

Peldon, who has appeared on "Guiding Light," is never less than convincing, whether she's being a hellion - or a little angel. Her performance is mesmerizing - and she receives excellent support from Mel Harris and Dwight Schultz as the foster parents, Samuel Grifaldi as Catherine's brother, and Rosana De Soto as the social worker. Penningroth's script gives all of them dimension and believablity, too, resulting in characters living a drama that gets and holds our attention and sympathy.

Old one: The TV season seems a bit brighter with the return of CBS' "Northern Exposure," which begins its fourth season at 10 tonight on KIRO-TV with a delightful episode in the best tradition of this engaging series, combining off-beat humor with just a soupcon of serious insight.

Maggie (Janine Turner) starts off the episode in high spirits, looking forward to her 30th birthday - only to be brought down by everyone else's comments on what a bummer that must be. This story line co-exists nicely with Maurice's decision to write his memoirs and Marilyn's decision to learn to drive. It's the kind of episode that reinforces the rightness of the show's recent Emmy Award.

New one: ABC's "Laurie Hill," which premieres at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on KOMO-TV, arrives with good credentials: It was created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black, who created "Wonder Years." Alas! "Laurie Hill" is perfectly awful. It has a lovely star in DeLane Matthews, playing a doctor in a small town, but everything about the series is so calculatedly hokey and the domestic traumas so overwrought as to be ridiculous.

Worst of all is the character of Laurie's husband, played by Robert Clohessy, who spends the half hour whining because his wife doesn't get home in time for dinner - while he sits on his duff and contributes nothing. It doesn't help much that their child is played as unbearably cute by Eric Lloyd.

Video notes: KCPQ-TV begins airing a new syndicated series, "Catwalk," about teenage musicians trying to start their own band, at 8 tonight. . . . NBC shows the better-than-expected tabloid movie, "Fergie & Andrew: Behind the Palace Doors," reviewed in yesterday's TV Times, at 9 tonight on KING-TV. . . . British actress Millicent Martin turns up as the new nanny on CBS' "Murphy Brown" at 9 tonight on KIRO-TV. . . . "Kids in the Hall," the Canadian comedy troupe seen regularly on the Comedy Central channel, moves to 9:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, starting tonight, plus episodes at 11 and 11:30 p.m. Saturdays. New episodes will be seen on HBO, starting in October, and they'll move to Comedy Central in January. . . . On this week's episode of PBS' fine "Listening to America with Bill Moyers" series, the new episode is "Reagan Democrats: Up for Grabs," a program reporting from Michigan and airing at 9 p.m. tomorrow on Tacoma's KTPS-TV. . . . KCPQ-TV is showing repeats of this season's "Star Trek: The Next Generation" on Tuesdays, starting at 10 p.m. tomorrow. . . . The Discovery Channel premieres a weekly half-hour series, designed to appeal to those who cannot get enough animal shows, "Those Incredible Animals," a magazine show hosted by Loretta Swit, at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday . . . Andee Beck, TV columnist for the Tacoma Morning News Tribune, discusses the new TV season with Mike Siegel on "One on One" at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday on KTZZ-TV.