Keeping A Stereotype Alive In "Spearfield's Daughter," A Woman Uses Her Sex To Get Ahead

On television, stereotypes die hard, as Spearfield's Daughter illustrates. This mini-series strives to keep alive the cliche that women reporters rise to the top of their trade more by sleeping around than writing well.

Is it any excuse that this six-hour sleep inducer was produced in Australia? I think not. After all, Germaine Greer came from there, and few of us can match the altitude of her raised consciousness.

But if you have no trouble imagining that sheets and pillows produce more star female journalists than typewriters and tape recorders do, Spearfield's Daughter is available for your inspection beginning at 8 tonight on WGBS (Channel 57). The concluding half of this syndicated show will air tomorrow night at the same time.

If your feminist ire is aroused by the premise of this potboiler, don't drive out to 20th Street and throw rocks at WGBS. One hundred and seven other stations bought this turkey and plan to let it fly at various times this month and next, so Channel 57 is far from unique in its program selection and scheduling.

A virtually unknown actress, Kim Braden, portrays Cleo Spearfield, the star of this soporific saga. Nothing Braden does in Spearfield's Daughter indicates that she deserves more than continued obscurity.

Three performers of considerable talent have been corralled to join Braden in this dubious charade, possibly after being run down and lassoed. One is the estimable Nancy Marchand, who should have known better. For five years, she played publisher Margaret Pynchon on the best newspaper series ever done, the old Lou Grant show.

Cleo's first lover and eventual husband, Tom Border, is played by Steve Railsback, who was stunningly good as the murderous maniac Charles Manson in the memorable 1976 mini-series, Helter Skelter. Cleo's second lover and greatest benefactor, an English press plutocrat called Lord Jack Cruze, is played by Christopher Plummer, a fine actor in every respect. Neither Railsback nor Plummer is challenged to produce more than routine posturing and emoting in Spearfield's Daughter.