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Blacks i while at Beulah Land, the troubled NBC miniseries about love and life or ian antebellum cotton plantation, has been billet* by its critics as television's Birth of a Nation - a loathsome conseienpp balm, portraying blacks happily shuffling through slavery. The criticism was part of the reason NBC delayed showing the film as scheduled last May, and entirely the reason that NBC ordered certain changes in the film and is now in the process of "selling" it to the press. FOR THE PAST few weeks, NBC has arranged special press screenings of the six-hour miniseries, followed by discussions with me neiworK s ueulah Land consultant, Dr. James Blasingame. And the press, for the most part, has left these sesions muttering "tempest in a icapoi, jusi as iNBt naa hoped. Indeed, Beulah Land doesn't seem especially racist or derogatory to an eye accustomed to such abominable historical romances as ABC's recently rerun Love's Savage Fury. And NBC's point that the institution of slavery is not the focus of Beulah Land, but the background, seems p Dorne out Dy tne rum. For the most part, the black slaves in Beulah Land go about their dreary tasks obligingly. They do not appear to be overly joyous, nor especially reluctant. Resigned. THIS IS what irks some blacks, who insist that the white-controlled movies and f? ?- I ?* icicviaiun ilUVC 1UI' SU lOIlg sought to ease white guilt over slavery by portraying it as essentially humane, the media owe some sort of balancing consideration, that is, the black point of view. For example, in one seemingly benign scene from the movie, a slave woman is shown suckling two children - one white, one black - at her breast. It's generally accepted that this arrangement was fairly common in the slave-owning South, and the scene would seem not inappropriate in a romantic period fiction. But Robert Price, a black writer and member of the Coalition to Stop the Airing of 'Beulah Land,' says, "That scene was conceived of, written and shot as a thing of joy, from a white man's point of view. "I would have like to have seen how the man who slept with that slave woman felt about it, and how she felt about it. Did she do it willingly? If so, There is no black point of view in this movie. AH, BUT that is what Roots did and Beulah Land, it can be argued, is not I orotest r ztors stri trying to be Roots. "Beulah Land" is, on its bottom line, a soap opera, nicely photographed but not especially probing. Or, as one woman opposed < tf> Roul/ih fyinW cniH "If ie not revolutionary television." i NBC, at last check, was | not in the revolution ? business. 1 But if NBC has been under fire for Beulah Land, it is nothing compared to the i strike problem confronting p all three networks and c threatening to cancel the j whole fall television season. [ The strike by 67,000 actors that has crippled the film s ana television inaustry a during one of its busiest s seasons heads into its 43rd tl day today, eclipsing the u longest-ever Screen Actors r Guild walkout against the Ii >1.5 billion industry. si tl PRODUCERS REJEC- w TED a new union proposal this past weekend, and tl although talks were continuing "off an on" there was n no sign of progress. And that pi means more trouble for TV networks that alreadv havp u scheduled reruns instead of nr new shows for their fall s lineups. F Contract talks continued B late Sunday between movie a and TV producers and union ?i Im r " " _i * Ti rseeu tsirn Inform. All informcition stric All methods of bird Convenient clinic h? I.()\v (:osl ic>r service VI) tosting/treatmer I Yc^nnnry leslin^ Family Planning | 1411 Barnwell St. Colurr Iii The la tost looks art waiting si for you. Whether you're *53 bound for a football game, or an evening out, you'll rate straight A in an outfit from Happy Dschery. Blasen by Austin Hill, Justin, Eva, In tv|niw. rrom 900 The , i/~ I I Harden Street In I Hbmmhmmbhmhhhh/. . A MBC mi Ike cont representatives of SAG and the American Federation of Film and Television Artists. The strike also has idled at least 20,000 non-striking craftsmen and technicians. The longest previous SAG walkout was in 1960, when Ronald Reagan, the GOP presidential candidate, was serving his sixth term as Dresident of the Guild. TWENTY YEARS ago, the mion was seeking com>ensation for use of movies >n regular television, plus a >ension, health and welfare >lan. That six-week strike was ettled when producers greed to pay TV residuals tarting in 1960. However, he producers refused the nion's demand for etroactive pay to 1948. nstead, they paid a lump um of $2,625,000 to establish le pension, health and rf?lfarp nlan Sunday's round of talks in | le current strike came on le heels of management's ejection of a new union roposal Saturday. "The chief negotiators for oth sides have been leeting today off and on," AG spokeswoman Kim ellner said Sundav. 1 argaining had broken down fter the first week of the frike. which beean Julv 21. ti Control! ation? :tly confidential 1 control available ours/location /S 2[>4-7rjr>[{ I lbia, S.C. / |i yi i ' niseries inues but resumed Aug. 21. "EVERYONE ASSUMES we'll meet day-to-day until it's settled," Ms. Fellner said, "but that's not certain. It all depends on what's on the (bargaining) table." Phil Myers, the producers' negotiating committee representative, said he could not "predict what will happen now." * Enroll Today j Offering Adult Clas .Clogging - Traditi Exhibitions, and Af .Mountain Style sc . Disco and Shag interested in joini AAnr r ? ? i ? r u^od rur more inrc Have Yr?u IMet Our New Pa?tn?,9 ISome Otl 1) Each Sunday ; locations Bates House 9:10 BlifiAC uuill ? ?~ W w WW ^ VMI II 2) Garry Harper morning worship Somethings arel 1) college Sund Educational Anne 2) Free lunch i following the 111 Thoefi i 1 fiSI SB? chai I- IF su,v Wmr pen 6:30 1306 Hamr aHHHHmBBHHHHnH I' KVVVV 1 7 mm Jade, Tiger E or Onyx Bead on an ton r^U ctlUJ rL^u pprf.tj io \juv\i v nn;u veimiii I THE JEWELRY "lf*? more than Jut I ai n 2909 Piatt Springs R IS 9-6 Mon. thi Pam Collin of Mountain 4441 De (Home c "Palmett< uuyyt Dwner: Pam Collin J.c.'s Palmetto Stat 3almetto Jr. Clogt Bxperience, Merr viational Associatioi Dancers. 3 Time w :iogger. ses in: onal Mtn. Clogging, jpalachian Mtn. Cloc juare Dancing ing the Team? call >rmation. Available 1 r MB jri* P V : i. Marsha ler Things Are N a bus will pick up i Russell House 9:0( after lunch will give His testi i survlfoc :hesame. lay School at 9: )X provided for col o'clock service \re Great :irst Baptist ship 8:30 am, 11 am (telei rtnel 19) and 7 pm, Bible i day School classes for train tons 9:45 am, Mid week pra^ ipm >ton St. Columbia : wnipicic Kpq or 2/$5.00 y Limit 2 H WAREHOUSE [1 tolher jewelry store. " d. West Columbia H rii Saturday B School Clogging ivine >f the dState jrs") is, Director of e Cloggers and jers, 15 years iber of the n of Mountain ; orld Champion , Precision, Buck, aging 738-0627 or 783for Bookings. 1 ill Edwards ew cool tt i students at 3 ! | ) Capstone 9:20 I smony at both j] 45 am in the I liege students I nave af i Church I rised live on wnok-tv. Study 9:45 am, Special j able retarded and deaf | yer service, Wednesday I 256-4251 I wwnwwwitMffiirarr