'PEACE'-ABLE KINGDOM

Much like the English language and rock 'n' roll, the TV Universe absorbs material from other sources and remakes them as its own.

Books ('Brave New World', 'Centennial'), movies, ('Madigan', 'Blue Thunder'), plays ('The Odd Couple', 'You Can't Take It With You'), comic books ('Superman', 'Batman'), comic strips ('Blondie', 'Garfield'), and even songs (the 'Gambler' series of TV flicks).

And so here we are with the prep school world of John Knowles' classic 'A Separate Peace' now enshrined in the firmament of the TV Universe.

This elegiac tale of loyalty, betrayal and all of the attendant primal emotions among the boys of Devon Academy before WWII has already been filmed back in the early 1970s. Now the TV Universe can embrace Gene and Phineas as its own.

Definitely 'A Separate Peace' will be adding the Devon Academy to its list of institutions of higher learning. But as to whether or not there will be other ways this TV movie can expand the universe, I'll have to depend on others to let me know.

I don't plan on watching it.

'A Separate Peace' was one of the most disturbing books I've ever had to read, second only to 'The Lord Of The Flies'. (And for me, that was traumatic!)

'A Separate Peace' is beautifully written, deeply moving, and not something I want to revisit.

And yet even so, I highly recommend everybody else should read it, or at least to watch this tele-version.

"A Separate Peace"
Showtime
Sunday 7:30 pm

BCnU!
Tele-Toby