Ed Sullivan

Luther Vandross loves recording. Other singers may chafe at the painstaking labor involved -- the endless retakes, the constant fine-tuning, the intense attention paid to tiny details -- but not him. For Vandross, the studio is the place where dreams really do come true."

LOS ANGELES -- Michael Landon's last movie, a reunion of the gang from "M*A*S*H" and Francis Ford Coppola directing live television dramas were among the major programming moves announced by CBS yesterday.* "Us" is the two-hour movie pilot for a new series that Landon had been working on for CBS before his recent death. It will air during the fall premiere week of Sept. 16, Jeff Sagansky, the president of CBS Entertainment said yesterday at a press conference here.In the film, Landon plays an innocent man convicted of murder, who is released from prison after 18 years.

Has any generation been so enamoured with its past as the baby boomers? Has any generation been so courted by advertisers through a television industry that seems to be continually celebrating that past?Those are the kinds of questions some viewers may be asking themselves after the 1960s-and-'70s-nostalgia-rama CBS is serving up in prime time the next few days.Saturday night at 8, it's the "All in the Family 20th Anniversary Special." Sunday at 9, it's the "Very Best of the Ed Sullivan Show" with Carol Burnett as host.

LAST WEEKEND it was Lucy and Ricky. This weekend, it's Archie Bunker, Ed Sullivan and Mary Richards. No wonder they used to call CBS the Tiffany's of the networks.Unable to generate many destined-to-be-classic shows these days -- "Murphy Brown," maybe "Designing Women," but can you really see "Murder, She Wrote" getting enough votes for the Hall of Fame? -- CBS is dipping into its impressive past in search of viewers.Two are 20th anniversary specials, marking two decades since a pair of CBS' best comedies went on the air. Tomorrow night at 8 o'clock, it's 90 minutes of "All in the Family."