TODAY’S NEWS, TOMORROW’S TELEVISION : SERIES

Actor and child advocate David Birney has been set to host and narrate “Raising Kids,” a 13-part PBS series designed to answer parents’ questions about child-raising. The new series, scheduled to debut in April, will turn to national authorities on child behavior to guide parents through problem areas--from choosing the proper child-care facilities to protecting children from racism.

MINISERIES

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World,” about an expedition for living dinosaurs in the heart of the Amazon, will soon begin production as an $8-million miniseries starring Oliver Reed as Prof. George Challenger and Donald Pleasence as his archrival Prof. Summerlee. It is not yet known whether the four-hour miniseries will air on network or syndication.

MOVIES

When 8-year-old Elijah Wood witnesses the murder of his father, child psychologist JoBeth Williams is hired by the police department to help the boy remember what he saw in the CBS movie “Child in the Night.” Tom Skerritt joins the cast as a concerned police detective. The production is under way in Seattle.

Edward Woodward, who starred as “The Equalizer” on the CBS series, will take his turn as master detective Sherlock Holmes in “Hands of a Murderer,” a CBS movie now in production in England. The cast for the new Holmes adventure also includes John Hillerman of “Magnum, P.I.” fame as Watson and Anthony Andrews as Moriarty.

When novelist Willa Cather died in 1947, she forbade any adaptation of her works for film in her will. But now, her 1913 novel “O Pioneers!” has entered public domain, and the race is on. Production has begun on the novel for a PBS adaptation for “American Playhouse.” Meanwhile, Lorimar Television has joined forces with the Hallmark Hall of Fame series to produce “O Pioneers!” as a two-hour TV drama to begin production in the summer. The story recounts the valiant struggles of a young woman who, at the turn of the century, tames the unyielding Nebraska land she inherits from her father.

The woman’s cable channel Lifetime will present its first original film, “Stop at Nothing,” in July. The movie is about a female private detective who is hired to be the bodyguard of an 8-year-old girl. Lifetime is also planning the movie “Sudie and Simpson” based on Sara Flanigan’s novel “Sudie,” about the friendships of a poor Southern girl and a middle-aged black man during the T40s in rural Georgia.

Turner Network Television has entered into an agreement with Citadel Entertainment to develop and produce “Robeson,” a two-hour movie about Paul Robeson’s emergence as a world-famous performer and his early campaigns for equal treatment for blacks. The movie will air on TNT in 1991.

SPECIALS

In “The Magic of David Copperfield XII: The Niagara Falls Challenge,” the Emmy Award-winning illusionist is chained to a raft and dropped 175 feet into the raging rapids. Other tricks up his sleeve: walking through a solid plate-glass mirror and making a 750-pound motorcycle disappear. The CBS one-hour special airs March 30.

A 90-minute “video memoir” with former President Richard Nixon will be presented on May 4 as a special edition of the PBS foreign affairs series, “American Interests.” “Richard Nixon Reflects” will feature Nixon’s thoughts on Watergate, the media, domestic U.S. politics and the changing Communist world.

Writer, actress and comedienne Ruby Wax takes an intrepid film crew to her 20th high school reunion in Evanston, Ill., in “Class of T69: Ruby Wax.” Bravo, cable TV’s cultural channel, will air the sardonic comedy special on March 24.

As part of National Consumers Week from April 22 to 28, consumer advocate David Horowitz will present a three-hour, prime-time cablecast April 23 on CNBC. “CNBC’s Consumer Survival Special” is an interactive program that will allow viewers to phone in their questions.

CABLE

NBC is launching a $1-billion joint venture with three partners to bring the first high-power direct broadcast satellite service to the United States by late 1993. Sky Cable will be the first U.S. direct broadcast satellite service to allow millions of American viewers to receive an extra 108 new cable channels. It will deliver a wide range of programs through a revolutionary new 12-by-18-inch dish antenna, which can be installed virtually anywhere, and will be priced between $250 and $300.

NEWS

NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw will take an in-depth look at the new trends in movie making, the recipe for success at the box office and the changing business of film production in “The New Hollywood,” an NBC News special to be telecast in prime-time on March 21. Among those interviewed on the program will be Robert Redford, Robert DeNiro, Sally Field, Spike Lee, Sydney Pollack and Oliver Stone.

Kimerly Montour, Fox Broadcasting’s new vice president for network news development, is planning to start a nightly national network newscast or news service next January for the seven Fox-owned stations and the Fox network’s 128 affiliates-most of which do not have newscasts. Fox chairman Barry Diller has told affiliates that the news program may be sort of a news “wheel,” a program that could run an hour but be shaped so stations could use only half an hour or 15 minutes of it, depending on their needs.

SPORTS

For the first time, the U.S. Sports Academy’s Awards of Sport ceremony will be televised nationally. TBS Superstation will carry the live event on April 29. The sixth annual awards program honors superstar athletes, sport artists, sports media personalities, coaches and international leaders who promote goodwill through sports.