ROC

PASADENA, Calif. -- It's Sunday afternoon tea at the posh Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and an elderly German couple on holiday are chatting casually over the gentle clink of fine china when Charles "Roc" Dutton arrives, looks in the lounge area and then hurries off, accompanied by his publicist and an assistant."

The criminal charge for which actor Charles "Roc" Dutton had been jailed was incorrectly reported in the Nov. 27 Today section. He was jailed on a manslaughter charge.The Sun regrets the errors.No limos for Roc."I always take a rent-a-car," he says, "and the first thing, I head to Greenmount Avenue to hang out. 'Hey, Roc,' they call, the guys, they come over, we hang together. It's just like it was, only it's always a bittersweet moment."That's Charles S. Dutton, formerly of Baltimore, Md., on the Baltimore drill: What he does when he returns from his life as award-winning Broadway, TV and movie star to the streets of the town that spawned him, imprisoned him and ultimately liberated him.Now he sits in a Washington restaurant, an imposing man in a double-breasted suit, starched shirt, power tie, gold watch, and waiters scurry nervously to please his whims, though of course he's far too decent to have whims.

In an arrticle in Thursday's editions, The Sun erroneously reported that Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's re-election campaign hired Charles Dutton to do one-minute ads on local radio. Mr. Dutton, who starred in the television series "Roc," is donating his time.+ The Sun regrets the errors.

The criminal charge for which actor Charles "Roc" Dutton had been jailed was incorrectly reported in the Nov. 27 Today section. He was jailed on a manslaughter charge.The Sun regrets the error.

Today includes music moguls on an "American Bandstand" special, and bumpy skiing moguls on CBS's evening Olympics coverage. Also, there's a hot "Roc" on Fox, and a Michael Jackson special, of sorts, on PBS.* "American Bandstand's Teen Idols" (8-9 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Dorian Gray -- well, make that Dick Clark -- acts as host for this potpourri of interviews, clips and nostalgia from one of TV's most durable and influential music series. NBC.* "The 1994 Winter Olympic Games" (8-11:30 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11)

Charles "Roc" Dutton came home yesterday, hoping to help save a small part of a generation of inner-city blacks he views as more imperiled than any that came before.In jammed auditoriums at three city schools, the Baltimore-born actor looked into the young faces and spoke of violence, of fear, of the pain of poverty and of temptations.The guy the students recognized instantly as the affable, bald garbage man on the Fox TV show "Roc" knows all about the temptations.Not far from Coldstream Park Elementary in Waverly, where he began the day speaking to high school students from throughout the city, he once played another role -- that of the youth who equated survival with being tough.

Social responsibility isn't the first thought that comes to mind at the mention of Fox Television. But at 8 tonight Charles S.Dutton vaults the network of Al Bundy and Bart Simpson to the head of the class in social conscience with a powerful episode of "Roc" about kids and guns.I know, NBC and "Blossom" did an episode on teens and guns a couple of months ago. But that show didn't have this kind of realism or impact.Most of all, though, it didn't have the star come before the cameras after the episode and, speaking directly to viewers, deliver one of the most passionate speeches about real-life guns, violence and race that you are ever going hear on TV. Dutton does that tonight, and he does it in a way that will make you listen, feel and think about what he has to say.The episode itself is moving enough.

LOS ANGELES -- Fox is going to use the NFL and a possible ripped-from-the-headlines movie on O. J. Simpson to jump start the fall season three weeks before the other networks.The first new Fox series will premiere on Aug. 26, and the big fall rollout will be Labor Day, Sept. 4, said Fox Entertainment President Sandy Grushow. The other networks are not scheduled to start their new seasons until Sept. 18."The NFL on Fox starts Sept. 4 and we are going to use that to roll out our entire prime-time lineup," Grushow said.

Just when you think the television gods have no mercy, along comes news that Black Entertainment Television has found a never-before-seen episode of "Roc" and is going to air it tonight."

Imagine, for a moment, the public outcry if the networks were to announce that, in the new fall season, ''Blossom'' and ''Married . . . with Children'' will be the only prime-time network television programs that would portray the lives of white people in America.Right. It couldn't happen. Audiences would not tolerate such a narrow portrayal of white people. The public would demand more diversity -- more dramas, more docu-dramas, more action, more soaps, more stories of love, more stories of hate, more triumph, more tragedy, more of a reflection of real life as we know it.But, if you can imagine how upset white television viewers would be by a steady diet of narrow depictions of their lives, perhaps you can begin to understand why so many black television viewers are upset to hear that the Fox Television Network has decided to drop ''Roc,'' ''Sinbad'' and ''South Central'' from their fall lineup.

Ramin Bahrani's Goodbye Solo is the best in a stream of new independent movies, including Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy, that bring feature films the intimate focus and sneaky power of regionally flavored short stories - the sort you'd find in a first-class magazine such as Oxford American. It's intelligent and emotional, not studied or sappy. Bahrani wrings honest humor and meaning from a two-character tale. The movie is about farewells and flying solo. It's also about the mistake of treating a certain span of life as a bye week in a sports season.

This article was published yesterday in some early copies of The Sun but was replaced in later editions by former President Gerald R. Ford's obituary. We are reprinting it today for all Sun readers. CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. --Oblivious to the Washington debate over what to do with Iraq, a clutch of Marines in damp flak vests and helmets kneel in the chilly dark, headlamps shining on notebooks where they are carefully printing K-Roc's instructions for their next mission. Like most of his squad, K-Roc, the slender Lance Cpl. Adam Koczrowski, is barely out of his teens.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C.-- --Oblivious to the Washington debate over what to do with Iraq, a clutch of Marines in damp flak vests and helmets kneel in the chilly dark, headlamps shining on notebooks where they are carefully printing K-Roc's instructions for their next mission. Like most of his squad, K-Roc, the slender Lance Cpl. Adam Koczrowski, is barely out of his teens. He and many of his guys are veterans of one or two tours in Iraq where their unit, Charlie Company, has lost 22 dead. They got back from Iraq in May, and they're about ready to go again.

SEATTLE - Attackman Mark Millon scored four goals, including the first two-point tally of his Major League Lacrosse career, to lead the Baltimore Bayhawks to a season-opening 24-18 victory over the Rochester Rattlers in front of 9,136 at Seahawks Stadium last night. Led by Millon, the Bayhawks' offense ignited for 19 goals, including five two-point markers, which tied the MLL record. Boston had scored five two-pointers against Bridgeport on July 27, 2002. Millon teamed up with midfielder Gary Gait to give Baltimore a quick 2-0 lead in the first 1:50 of the game.

THE ESTIMABLE ACTOR, director and ex-con Charles S. "Roc" Dutton offers a grim -- yet not inevitable -- view of the future. In a recent interview with The Sun, Mr. Dutton, who directed the powerful HBO mini-series "The Corner," said: "The prison is being planned for the 17-year-old black kid who's not even born yet. There's a cell being planned for him. That's an industry now." Probably true. Maryland, for example, is completing a maximum security wing in Cumberland. It's a 512-bed fortress to house many of the state's most violent offenders -- a frightening number of whom are currently in inadequate dormitories at the state's 7,000-bed Jessup complex.

PASADENA, Calif. -- It's Sunday afternoon tea at the posh Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and an elderly German couple on holiday are chatting casually over the gentle clink of fine china when Charles "Roc" Dutton arrives, looks in the lounge area and then hurries off, accompanied by his publicist and an assistant."

The criminal charge for which actor Charles "Roc" Dutton had been jailed was incorrectly reported in the Nov. 27 Today section. He was jailed on a manslaughter charge.The Sun regrets the error.

The criminal charge for which actor Charles "Roc" Dutton had been jailed was incorrectly reported in the Nov. 27 Today section. He was jailed on a manslaughter charge.The Sun regrets the errors.No limos for Roc."I always take a rent-a-car," he says, "and the first thing, I head to Greenmount Avenue to hang out. 'Hey, Roc,' they call, the guys, they come over, we hang together. It's just like it was, only it's always a bittersweet moment."That's Charles S. Dutton, formerly of Baltimore, Md., on the Baltimore drill: What he does when he returns from his life as award-winning Broadway, TV and movie star to the streets of the town that spawned him, imprisoned him and ultimately liberated him.Now he sits in a Washington restaurant, an imposing man in a double-breasted suit, starched shirt, power tie, gold watch, and waiters scurry nervously to please his whims, though of course he's far too decent to have whims.

In an arrticle in Thursday's editions, The Sun erroneously reported that Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's re-election campaign hired Charles Dutton to do one-minute ads on local radio. Mr. Dutton, who starred in the television series "Roc," is donating his time.+ The Sun regrets the errors.

You did not see it on your television screen. Its Ground Zero included such decidedly non-TV-glamorous sites as Cleveland and Philadelphia. But the television story of the year is the affiliate raid that Rupert Murdoch, CEO of Fox Broadcasting, pulled off last May at the expense of CBS, NBC and ABC.Even though it was seven months ago, the aftershocks continue to rumble with great force through the television world.NBC's recently filed petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)