PBS SERIES ON U.S. CONSTITUTION SET

NEW YORK —  The announcement this week of a new four-part public television series focusing on the U.S. Constitution signals that public television plans to play a leading role in the coming bicentennial celebration of the historic document during 1987-89.

Merrill Lynch & Co. announced here Monday that it would join with the American Bar Assn. and San Francisco’s public television station KQED to underwrite the projected $2 million series as “the centerpiece” of a multi-pronged celebration titled “We the People.” Plans call for the series to be broadcast on public television stations starting in the fall of 1987, along with a parallel series scheduled for National Public Radio. A spokesperson for the series said that President Reagan is set to participate and that ABC’s Peter Jennings has been set to host.

Earlier this month it was reported that CBS News commentator Bill Moyers plans to return to public television next year with a 10-part series focusing on the Constitution, underwritten by General Motors. And public television officials said this week that at least two other major projects are in the works, at Pittsburgh’s WQED and Connecticut’s ETV.

“We plan to be as comprehensive as possible, because we think nothing is more relevant these days than the Constitution,” said Suzanne Weil, PBS senior vice president for programming, by telephone from Washington late Monday. She noted that half a dozen major Constitution project proposals have passed through her office in recent months, with “two or three still languishing for want of funding.”

The KQED series is to consist of four news documentaries, each dealing with current court cases and previous, landmark cases that center on constitutional issues such as freedom of expression, affirmative action, and equal rights.

According to Beverly J. Ornstein, KQED’s director of current affairs programming and executive producer for the new series, the project is more than one-half fully funded and scheduled to start production in San Francisco and other cities around the country in October. She said that Merrill Lynch has provided $1 million for the series and, under an unusual funding plan, that individual law firms around the country have so far contributed $300,000.

“The issues that most affect peoples’ lives, issues that make their blood boil when they turn on the evening news, are shaped by the living document that is the Constitution, but most people don’t realize this,” Ornstein said in a telephone interview. “The hope is that these kinds of programs will communicate the wonder of the document.”