Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 48

FRIDAY, RJLY 27, 2001 THE HARTFORD COURANT Frances Horwich Dies; Led 'Ding Dong SchooP 'Planet' Remake Is A Great Apescape By SARAH E. RICHARDS CHICAGO TRIBUNE week, said Diana Borri, director of new media and unofficial station historian. Within a month-and-a-half, NBC decided to broadcast the show nationally. It ran for four years and won a Peabody Award. The network appointed Mrs.

Horwich supervisor of all children's programming, and soon after, "Ding Dong School" won a George Foster Peabody Award. The show eventually moved to New York and When Miss Frances asked millions of preschoolers "How are you this morning?" on the "Ding Dong School" show each day, she was not merely greeting them. She was shepherding a revolution in children's television programming. Frances R. Horwich, as Miss Frances, didn't rush ahead to present the daily craft or read the daily story.

on horseback. The music by Burton's favorite composer, Danny Elfman, cranks up the heat of battle, though the score owes a great debt to the much imitated "Mars" section of Gusfav Hoist's "The Planets." But whatever its sources, this return to "Planet of the Apes" proves Burton's most muscular commercial picture since "Batman." And unlike Jack Nicholson's Joker, Roth's Thade is a monster to take very seriously. PLANET OF THE APES is directed by Tim Burton and written by William Broyles Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, based on the novel by Pierre Boulle. Director of photography, Philippe Rousselot. Production design by Rick Heinrichs.

Costume design by Colleen Atwood. Edited by Chris Lebenzon. Music by Danny Elfman. Makeup effects designed by Rick Baker. Featuring Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Charlton Heston, Kris Kristofferson, Estella Warren, Paul Giamatti, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, David Warner, Evan Dexter Parke and Luke Eberl.

Running time: 100 minutes. Rated PG13for graphic depictions of savage violence and murder and moments that might frigh ten younger children Excellent; Very Good; Good; Fair; it Poor FROM PAGE Dl genres, too. The new "Planet" begins as a variation on "2001: A Space Odyssey," also released in 1968. With a touch of the man-and-chimp relationship in "Project with Matthew Broderick, Burton opens with a shot of a strange black hand on the controls of a spacecraft The monkey's paw belongs to Pericles, a chimp trained by Mark Wahl-berg's Capt. Leo Davidson, and points to the film's central idea: the connection between men and primates.

It is 2029, but the chimpanzees are being used as they were in early space missions: to go where no man has gone before. Thus Pericles zooms off into the unknown from the space station Oberon. Davidson volunteers first to investigate a troubling shape in space and is rejected because of military rules. But when the chimp and his pod disappear, Davidson disobeys orders and flies out to find his pet After a "2001" plunge to a strange' jungle planet, his perilous adven-ture begins. Crashing into a pond, and escaping the pod, Davidson then finds himself in a replay of the 1968 "Planet." Apes, now in em; bossed Roman armor, round up humans in rags, including principal characters played by Kris Kristofferson and Estella Warren, a ready-made Sheena.

The Roman feeling increases with the introduction of Paul their guide. They also free Daena's father, Kristofferson's Karubi, an adorable little girl adopted by Thade's spoiled niece and the boy TivaL played by Luke Eb-erL This sequence, with its far cical romp through ape bedroom's as various simians prepare for bed, plays less amusingly than Burton had hoped. But with the band of humans and their ape confederates, including Ari's silverback bodyguard Krull, the huge and elegant Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the runways from Apeville constitute a veritable United Nations of creatures. Giamatti's absurd Limbo is their prisoner andfooL In hot pursuit are Thade and his enormous second-in-command, Michael Clarke Duncan's rumbling body-crusher Attar. As it moves from the dark jungle city, designed by Rick Heinricks as a gothic series of cave-like rooms with lots of vines, into sunlit natural terrain, "Planet" becomes a sort of biblical war movie.

Its sermon has to do with man's inhuman- ities to other species, as Leo explains zoos to Ari. Burton maintains a balance between action sequences and quieter moments, and the visual canvas affords some striking images, with the red tents of Thade's warriors glowing like magic lanterns on the rocky volcanic formations and dark iconic images of armored apes Giamatti's orangutan slave trader Limbo, a simian variation on Peter Ustinov's Len-tulus in "Spartacus." Giainatti's comical, pusillanimous Limbo contrasts with the film's mad emperor figure, Tim Roth's teirifyingly vicious and scheming Gen. Thade, who wears the masterpiece of Rick Baker's makeup designs, a diabolical chimp face. Roth also emits piercing shrieks, and his stunt double takes spectacular leaps. With such an explosive, volatile villain, "Planet of the Apes" evolves into a battle of wills between the fascistic Thade and the liberal humanist Ari of Helena Bonham Carter, looking a bit like Michael Jackson at times in her glamorpuss makeup.

Ari, a clever embodiment of radical chic, takes home Davidson and Warren's Daena after using her wiles on Limbo. Her daddy, David Warner's sage Sen. Sandar, is tossing a dinner party, and Burton and his writers insert a bit of social satire, with Thade, who covets Ari, as the rude guest who humiliates Davidson by prying open his mouth and searching for his soul. Warner's senator opines that "youth is wasted on the young," Roth's Thade snarls that "Extremism in defense of apes is no vice," and it sometimes feels a bit like Will Self Swiftian novel "Great Apes." Fed up with the household, Davidson andDaena easily escape their cages, with Ari as 'jjpv' liW a.iMii.ni1i...iiii II in then to Los Angeles, where it went into syndication production until Mrs. Horwich retired in 1964.

No matter her degree of success, Horwich was known for standing by her principles. When "Ding Dong School" products, such as Smiling directly at the camera, Miss Frances waited for the children on the i other end to respond. Then she would continue the conversation, perhaps exclaiming in her slow, kind voice: "That's wonderful!" For many children, who had grown accustomed to program hosts introducing car FRANCES R. HORWICH, better known as "Miss Frances" of NBC's "Ding Dong School," helped change children's television. She died July 22.

Despite Troubles, Salon Gains Readers LiiM if lS Silvia out ftiaro I art tablets or pencils, flooded the stores, she insisted they be inexpensive and educational. When NBC prodded her to produce a 60-minute program, Horwich said young children should watch no more than a half-hour. When the Federal Communications Commission allowed six commercials during a half-hour show, Horwich said she would do four. When an advertising executive announced that he got a BB gun account for the show, Horwich said she would not promote guns. Born in Ohio in 1908, the former Frances Rappaport graduated from the University of Chicago and taught elementary school in Evanston for several years before earning her master's in education at Columbia University in New York.

She returned to Illinois and worked as a supervisor of nursing schools in Chicago, director of kindergarten in Winnet-ka and received her doctorate from Northwestern University. She served as director of a school in New York and held positions in several early education associations. In 1931, Rappaport married Harvey Horwich, who died in the early 1970s. She is survived by five nieces and two toons during the early days of television, Miss Frances was one of the first television personalities to engage them and listen to what they had to say. She was also one of the first with a doctorate of education to develop a children's show, said industry experts.

Horwich, 94, died July 22 of congestive heart failure in the Scotts-dale Healthcare Center in "Most of the children's shows produced at the time were along the line of Bozo," said Barbara Williams, member of the board of governors of the Chicago chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. "Then along came Miss Frances. Miss Frances respected children for what they knew and what they could do. She promoted radical ideas like being down at the children's level and not standing above them," Williams said. Horwich, who was chairwoman of the Roosevelt College of Education, now Roosevelt University, based "Ding Dong School" on the theory that adults should address children slowly and clearly to stimulate speech.

When the show premiered in 1952 for NBC's Chicago affiliate, it was such a hit Miss Frances received about 5,000 letters in the first salon.com EneiuJbfLiriaM SALON GCAft- All tf 6Un.ci ill informative conversation, one-stop shopping on the latest political buzz, and potential friends from all over the world, does Salon not get out of the basement and turn a profit?" one reader asked. No information on the delisting hearing was available at press time. A Nasdaq spokesman said any information about the proceeding would have to come from Salon. Patrick Hurley, senior vice president for Salon's business operations, had no comment on the delisting this week but told the San Francisco Chronicle, "We're just slogging along like the rest of the media companies." :iUluxd.ltiM ill Artie It bv ditt aii3.3im.;.iir.ijwiiiiv9 tiu.riU.uar..;juf4iiiux WJCIfcECllijUiitil Cxara gao.itf aad ffttt AndOlalKKK Salon.com July H. 2001 In PolKta Naarhajiha IfmauliMBaiTarihf aiaaUaaA aaarialy, a friar axibhai atlla what ha MM aha.

ha laaki al Gaargt W. Baah ly Caiy Tannf In Audio BKkaL. Wart I cm pnaaaml gm a tacewy rpaactf Or tht Malt hut taayb aat aoch a pni aha The larger issue is that it's difficult to get people to pay for content that was formerly free, and that Internet sites may suffer if they impose fees. net sites of Salon and The New downturn. But many wondered Yorker.

how and why the magazine has Many readers say they would arrived at this predicament, pay whatever it takes to make "Why, for the quality of arti- sure Salon weathers the current cles, the fantastic graphics, lively FROM PAGE Dl Talk, a sophisticated forum for topics from arts to workplace is-, sues; the proposal would also give users access to the Well. A message posted Tuesday to users of the Table Talk forums announced that Table Talk would be temporarily closed to new registrations, and that pay-for-chat (with service plans at $15 or $10 a month) was being proposed. Those who want premium content would pay for that separately. Some readers were not happy, particularly because they are also footing a monthly bill for Internet service providers. "After happily ponying up for Salon Premium, I am not amused about forking over more cash," one user wrote.

"Suckamundo. Table Talk dies today, folks," another wrote. "Making this a subscription service is a sure prescription for its death, especially at these rates read another posting. Scott Rosenberg, Salon managing editor, countered with: "What's happening here, to be clear, is an effort to keep Table Talk alive. Our choices were, to be blunt, difficult: Either shut it down or try this.

We didn't and don't want to shut it down. So we're trying this." Steve Outing, founder of a forum for Internet writers, said the trend now increasingly is to charge for online information. But charging for chatting on message boards is unusual. "That's the first time I've heard a general public online community charging or mandating a charge," Outing said. "I have a hard time believing that the idea will fly." The larger issue, Outing said, is that it's difficult to get people to pay for content that was formerly free, and that Internet sites may suffer if they impose fees.

"It's so easy for members to say, screw this, we'll start something on our own," he said. Indeed, that's already been suggested, in a roundabout way, on the Table Talk bulletin boards. One reader, who is founding a "TT RefugeesContingency list" asked other users to forward him their e-mail addresses, to keep in touch and possibly set up a new online community in lieu of Table Talk. The Internet is already home to thousands of "list-server" discussion groups and we-blogs that function in similar ways. NORTHEAST i si i'n' A place where time stops Inside the pediatric intensive care unit of Connecticut Children's Medical Center.

Courant Staff Writer Hilary Waldman keeps watch. For the people who work there, the parents who find themselves bedside, and the journalist-witness, nothing is ever the same. ft 1.11 tW. Ifc.MIt..- Kkv. time stops.

This Week's In Individual Runners Welcome Live Music Elite Race Health Expo Bushnell Park Hartford August 2, 6:20 p.m. BENEFITS MAYOR MIKE'S KIDS NORTHEAST Also: Lary Bloom goes inside the heart of a true baseball fan Daryl Perch on the charm bracelet and the person she used to be Dob Chaplin suggests not-so-girly Pinot Grigio MedSpan 1 11 1.1, Connecticut Options Salon has also set up a dls- Vm Light Power Colin McKnroe on why wc like celebs to sell us stuff and readers write in response to "Amy and the Jews TVNortuutoi-ftr, F.xamoMi.i.Y l)nn Ri.vr.fl cussion thread to suggest ideas for keeping Table Talk alive (and more important, to ensure that Salon survives). Among the ideas: finding a deep-pocket patron; forming an alliance of websites that would charge monthly fees, similar to a cable TV payment plan; or even merging the Inter- ()C Courant. CUHHE6IK.UT wuriaoi Mil INFORMATION: (203) 481-5933 or Jbsports.com NORTHEAST Sundays In The Courant.