A Holiday With Clinton, Sports, Specials

A speech by President Clinton, a large assortment of war movies, plenty of sporting events and a few specials highlight today’s Memorial Day television programming.

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Presidential Address: CNN and C-SPAN will have live coverage of President Clinton’s speech at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington at 10 a.m.

CNN will also have live coverage as Clinton lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery at 8 a.m.

Some veterans, upset over Clinton’s opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, had conducted a postcard campaign to discourage Clinton from making these appearances.

Sports: Although baseball is the team sport most associated with Memorial Day, a basketball game figures to be the day’s most watched sporting event. The New York Knicks face the Chicago Bulls in the fourth game of their NBA Eastern Conference final at 12:30 p.m. on Channels 4, 36 and 39.

However, there still will be plenty of baseball games to see. KTLA-TV Channel 5 carries the Dodgers-St. Louis Cardinals game at 11 a.m. ESPN begins at doubleheader at 1 p.m. when the Chicago Cubs play host to the New York Mets, in a game that will also be carried by WGN. The Philadelphia Phillies visit the Cincinnati Reds in ESPN’s second game at 4:30 p.m. The San Diego Padres meet the Atlanta Braves at 4:30 p.m. on TBS and KUSI-TV Channel 51 in San Diego.

Before baseball, ESPN will present four hours of tennis coverage of play in the French Open, beginning at 6 a.m.

Movies: Ted Turner has long campaigned for global peace and understanding, but two of his cable networks will present war-movie marathons today.

TNT continues its 50-hour marathon at 7 a.m. with “Kelly’s Heroes”; “Where Eagles Dare” at 10 a.m.; “The Guns of Navarone” at 1:30 p.m.; the colorized version of “Objective, Burma!” at 4:45 p.m.; “Beach Red” at 7:45 p.m. and “The Naked and the Dead” at 10 p.m.

TBS presents “Midway” at 7:05 a.m. followed by the “Missing in Action” trilogy at 10:35 a.m., 12:35 p.m. and 2:35 p.m. TBS returns to the war theme after its baseball coverage with the colorized version of “They Were Expendable” at 7:35 p.m.

Other Programming: KCET-TV Channel 28 devotes its entire prime-time schedule to World War II-related programming. “Women of Courage,” a look at American women who flew military aircraft during the war, airs at 8 p.m.

At 9 p.m., Sissy Spacek has the title role in “Verna: USO Girl,” a 1978 “Great Performances” production about a not-too-talented entertainer who draws the romantic attention of a young Army captain (William Hurt).

With children home from school, Disney-owned KCAL-TV Channel 9 substitutes a six-hour syndicated package of youth-oriented Disney programming for its usual lineup of confessional, tell-all talk shows and the noon news.

“On Vacation With Mickey and Donald” (9 a.m.) is a compilation of six cartoons featuring the prominent animated rodent and duck; six military-related cartoons are presented in “An Officer and a Duck” (10 a.m.); “The Black Hole” (11 a.m.) is a 1979 live-action science fiction film; “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad” is the 1949 animated version of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “The Wind and the Willows,” narrated by Bing Crosby and Basil Rathbone.

KCAL’s regularly scheduled two-hour block of contemporary Disney made-for-television animation follows from 3-5 p.m.