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PAOCM Rich Little blasts off in new directions FINE TUNING by Chuck Bins After his appearance on "The Judy Garland Show" in 1964, impressionist Rich Little became a ubiquitous com­ modity on U.S. network television. He starred in the ABC comedy series "Love on the Rooftop" from 1966 to 1971, made guest appearances on series rang­ ing from "Love American Style" to "Hawaii Five-O," became a frequent face on "Hollywood Squares" and splashed his characterizations on virtual­ ly every major talk and variety show. He even landed his own variety show on NBC in 1976, although it only survived for six months. Three years later, in 1979, he pulled up the stakes on net­ work television and headed for the ver­ dant pastures of cable TV. Little is following up with "Rich Little's Robin Hood," which he just finished writing and expects to produce through his own production company in the near future. Little will again portray all the characters, with the voice of Groucho Marx as Robin Hood, Carole Channing as Maid Marion, John Wayne as Little John and Raymond Burr as Friar Tuck. He's also in the midst of writing a movie comedy about two angels, in a vein somewhat similar to "Heaven Can Wait," and he just purchased the rights to a book called The Dynastar Menace, a who-done-it in space, which Little said could make an interesting movie. As his award-winning "Christmas Carol" made clear, this performer has a knack, not only for impressions, but for writing--a talent he says he wishes he had more time for. (He currently writes about 50 percent of his comedy material.) Last year, this versatile performer made his film debut in the dramatic role - of a Harvard professor in "Dirty Tricks," starring Elliott Gould, Kate Jackson and Arthur Hill. Little, wanting to use the en­ tire spectrum of his talents, says he would snap up more dramatic roles if he could find them. And he concludes, more serious than not, "If I can't find the roles, I'll write them myself." TV COMPUtM MKVtCCt. INC Little quickly became, if not the king of cable, at least the king's jester. His specials, like "Rich Little and the Great Pretenders" in which he introduces new impressionists on his stage show at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, pepper the Home Box Office schedule. vJrnOIC®lKHi This season the Canadian-born im­ pressionist, now 40, moves into another area--syndication--hosting a new strip series, "You Asked For It," airing weekdays on over 100 stations in the United States and Canada and in over 35 foreign countries. "You Asked For It" is an expanded ver­ sion of the popular 50s series of the same title that was the forerunner of to­ day's reality programming. Viewers are invited to send in their ideas for televi­ sion segments dealing with strange or unusual events, interesting personal­ ities, unique hobbies and achievements, historical happenings or exotic places. The show employs more than a dozen film crews working on locations around the world to satisfy viewers' requests. The program also includes studio acts-- jugglers, magicians, singers and a generous portion of animal acts. Little amuses the audience wi*h anecdotes and introduces the acts and the filmed segments with an impression wherever appropriate. What attracted Little to the show? "I liked the fact that it was going to be shown around the world--that intrigued me. Also I liked the format and the caliber of the show," he said. The pro­ ducers, Sandy Frank Productions, gave the show a first-year budget of $18 million (an all-time high for syndicated television), "so I knew it was going to be a big show." Creative freedom Although Little is still good for an occa­ sional guest appearance on a network talk show, he all but eschews the net­ works now that he has carved out a com­ fortable niche in other areas. "I'm really either into pay-TV or syndication--those are the only things that interest me anyway. I'm not really, really interested in doing too much on network TV anymore because there really isn't too much to do. There's no variety, unless you want to do "The Mandrell Sisters," and I don't think that's a good show." While Little acknowledges the exposure of network TV ("Commercial TV is still the biggest advertisement you can have"), creative freedom is what keeps him loyal to cable. "Pay-TV has just been great," Little en­ thused, pointing to the success of "Rich Uttle's Christmas Carol," which was ex­ tremely popular when it aired on HBO, and on the CBC in Canada. (Little wrote this take-off of the Dicken's classic himself and portrayed all the char­ acters.) "The networks wouldn't go for something like that unless it had Loni Anderson or Bob Hope or Erik Estrada in it. The networks only th'nk of faces." Popular comedian-impressionist Rich Uttle consciously avoids the three major U.S. networks now that he has ensconsed himself in cable and is host of the interna- tionally syndicated "You Asked For It."