EDITORIAL ROUTING 8-16-94 To: ENTERTAINMENT ai EDITORS: NEA is discontinuing the Star View column. The final release will be dated Aug. 23. Serial mom June Lockhart remembers her roles By Frank Lovece ‘They don't make TV moms like they used to, Nowadays, we've got bully- ing manipulator Roseanne Connor, unwed jet-setter Murphy Brown and weary divoreee Grace Kelly. Don't even get us started on Peg Bundy — ‘who, ironically, is one of the very few stay'at-home moms on TV. NNo, the frilly-aproned, pie-making, domesticated nuclear’ mom of yesteryear is virtually gone from the tube. And quintessential TV mom June Lockhart, ofall people, says this is a ood thing, “TV moms get in bed with their husbands now!” she cheerfully whoops, more Auntie Mame than Mom. ‘Lockhart, though best known as farm ‘mom Ruth Martin on TV's “Lassie” and cosmic mom Maureen Robinson on “Last in Space,” has played her share of non-mom roles, particularly in a slew ‘of campy horror movies such as “Troll” (0986) and “C.H.U.D. I: Bud the Chud” (2988). And when the sprightly 69-year- old does gueststaras a mom, she's less Ruth Martin than Ruth Hemingway — John Larroquette's elegant con-artist mother on “The John Larroquette Show.” ‘The latter is actually closer to Lockhart’s own rambunctious self Despite her prim image, the actress — who hosted the recent PBS spe- cial “The Story of Lassie” and does a sly tum in the Meg Tilly-Eric Stoltz seriocomedy “Sleep With Me” —is a lovably loud bal of fire. “Til tell you who was right up my alley,” she announces: “Murphy Brown's mom (Avery Brown, played the late Colleen Dewhurst). Sie was a person — she eame in with a life of her own and did her stuff with Murphy and then went back to her own life. Tt was nice to see a mom who brings in her own persona for a change.” Lockhart comes from theatrical stock: Parents Gene and Kathleen were well-known Hollywood charac- ter actors, with her father once nom- inated for a Supporting Actor Academy Award (for 1938's “Al fiers’) She made her stage debut at 8, and her film debut at 12, appearing with her parents in “A Christmas Carol" (1938). After a spate of films in the 1940s, including a starring role in the cult-classic “She-Wolf of London” (1946), she segued to TV quiz shows and live dramas. “Lassie” began on TV in 1954, but Lockhart didn’t come on until four years later. The series began with ‘Tommy Rettig as Jeff Miller and Jan Clayton as his widowed mom, Ellen ‘ll tell you who was right up my alley: Murphy Brown’s mom. She was a person — she came in with a life of her own and did her stuff with Murphy and then went back to her own life. It was nice to see a mom who brings in her own persona for a change. ‘Then Lassie was adopted by the Martin family — Jon Provost as Timmy, Cloris Leachman as mom Ruth. When Leach- man left the show soon afterward, Lockhart took over her role “She really ran that farm,” Lock- hart says of her character, with a sort, of motherly pride. “The father was always off trying to grow a bean crop that never came in. She was the one getting the kids off to school and baking things for church, and had the organization under her thumb. We did one episode at the Grand Canyon, in which she was able to say she'd ‘grown up as the daughter of a park Superintendent around various na- tional parks, and so that would natu- rally make the character sensitive to trees and the environment and a mals. She was obviously a well-ed cated and well-spoken woman.” Lockhart stayed on until 1965, when “Lassie” shifted to the forest-ranger vyears. Lockhart shifted to light-years, as astrophysicist Maureen Robinson on the fantasy-adventure “Lost in June Lockhart Space” (1965-68). Yet despite the show's enduringly kitschy popularity, Lockhart laments how it devolved from relatively straight science-fic- tion to outlandish kiddie fare, “The show in the beginning episode was very provocative in terms of a family dealing with space,” Lockhart recalls, “Then the story went into an- other direction, and there was less ‘emphasis on the family.” ‘And on familial affection. “An edict ‘came down that Guy (Williams, who played her husband) and I could not, touch each other — not even to take ‘my hand to help me down from the ‘spaceship! The reason they gave was that it embarrassed children to see parents being affectionate. Can you be- lieve that idiocy? Isn't that pathetic? We checked back with CBS, and the (network) guy came back and said, ‘You won't believe it, but it's true.* Now, I was raised in a most demon- stratively affectionate family. I don't think my father passed my mother without giving her a little pat, a litle touch. But no, not here,” she recounts, still exasperated after all these years. Lockhart went on tothe final two sea- sons of “Petticoat Junction” (1963-70), and then a long career of soaps, movies, ‘TV guest shots and voiceovers. She's a mom and grandmom herseif, with grown daughters Anne and Junie (the former one-time regular on “Battlestar Galactica” and a recurring player on “BJ and the Bear”). But also, “Tve been a director of First Federal Bank of Cal ifornia for 13 years, and I'm chair. ‘woman of its Community Reinvestment ‘Act committee.” She's also published humorous vignettes in such publica- tions as The New Yorker magazine and ‘The New York Times. 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