TV PREVIEWS/MATT JFK overpowers Walton Even the Waltons aren't safe from 30th-anniversary JFK mania, as this most redundant of sweeps weeks continues. Good night, Jim-Bob, and let's all change the subject. First, though, comes Who Killed JFK: The Final Chap- ter? (**1/2, CBS, tonight at 9 ET/PT), CBS News' sixth ma- jor look into the subject, which makes you think maybe they (and we) should move on. But it can't be denied inter- est in the assns.sination remains strong. And Dan Rather, who was on the scene in 1963, re- cites a poll indicating most peo- ple think there was a conspira- cy of some sort, and 50% be- lieve the CIA was involved. What this says about the truth USA isn't as clear as what it reveals 0 about our cynical age. C T This two-hour CBS Reports ODAY devotes time to thumbnail his-

tories of the Kennedy presiden- • •

cy and the Lee Harvey Oswald FR biography before settling down with its main topic: the tragic ID events of Nov. 22, With comput- AY

er simulations of the ill-fated N ,

motorcade and a painstaking OV analysis of the Zapruder film, the clinical approach goes be- EMBER yorfd the merely graphic_ By Randy Tepper, CBS It's too grisly for words. REUNION: Richard Thomas, top, Michael Learned, left, and One segment finds Rather Ralph Waite reprise Walton roles for 'Thanksgiving Reunion.' 1

and conspiracy-bashing author 9 Gerald Posner (Case Closed) abundance of trite domestic 19 .

repeatedly freeze-framing the crises are meant to reflect a • 93 Zapruder film at its bloodiest nation in decline, a malaise moment, analyzing trajectory symbolized by JFK's murder. 30 of brain tissue and such. Yuk. John-Boy (Richard Thom- As in Frontline's Oswald doc- as), an unlikely "author-jour- umentary earlier this week. nalist" TV commentator in Posner does a convincing job 1963, is called away from his arguing the single-assassin the- Walton's Mountain homecom- ory. Yet the more I watch, the ing to TV-comment on the trag- less truly enlightened 1 feel. edy, leaving his girlfriend to One's queasiness intensifies get to know the family — not in the four-hour docudrama all of whom aged well. And JFK: Reckless Youth (**, fewer of whom learned to act ABC, Sunday and Tuesday, 9 Still, if we must revisit '70s p.m. ET/PT). More like end- TV families, better the Waltons less youth, in this uninspired than the Bradys. Despite the romp through his hanky-panky contrived Kennedy connec- days as a randy globe-trotting tion, several Hallmark mo- preppy. Think Doogie Kenne- By Gregory Heisler, ABC ments hit home, and those pixi- dy. Young Indiana Jack. RECKLESS': Patrick lated old Baldwin sisters (with Patrick Dempsey, an actor Dempsey plays a young JFK. their famous "recipe") are still from the Andrew McCarthy a stitch. As the Walton experi- school of forgettable leading ventures, though Cliff Robert- ence political awakening amid men, nails the accent, but that's son did it better in the movies. domestic bliss, this show grows about it in this exercise of Ken- The worst part of all this is on you like an old robe, thread- nedy as caricature, with sappy that the asqassination fouls up bare but comfy. Dynasty overtones of family A Walton Thanksgiving Re- No matter the movie's flaws, power play and steamy inter- union (**1/2, CBS, Sunday at 9 you may well think: God be lewds. Best part.: his PT 109 ad- p.m. ET/PT), in which an over- with them till they meet again.