TODAY’S NEWS, TOMORROWS TELEVISION : SERIES

King World Productions and Merv Griffin Enterprises said that Pat Sajak willcontinue to host “Wheel of Fortune,” the most successful syndicated show in the history of television. Sajak’s contract has been renewed through the 1990-1991 and 1991-1992 broadcast seasons. “Wheel of Fortune” has been the highest-rated television show among all syndicated shows for 24 consecutive sweep periods since February, 1984.

MINISERIES

“The Civil War,” an epic 11-hour documentary that was five years in the making, will kick off PBSU prime-time TV season on five consecutive nights beginning Sept. 23. The comprehensive TV program, by producer and director Ken Burns, offers a definitive history of the Civil War through interviews, thousands of archival photos, period paintings, lithographs, newspaper headlines, newsreel footage of Civil War veterans and cinematography of the battle sites as they are now.

Production has begun on “Childhood,” a $6.5-million series of six hourlong programs that will offer an examination of how parents and societies have raised their children throughout history and across cultures. The programs, which are expected to premiere on PBS in the fall of 1991, will explore the lives of children across the world, past and present, through documentary sequences, dramatic vignettes, expert commentary, animation and anthropological film.

Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Plummer and Maximilian Schell will soon be heading to Leningrad and Moscow to film Turner Network Television’s four-hour miniseries “Young Catherine,” about the early years and rise to power of the 18th-Century Empress Catherine the Great.

MOVIES

Production was recently completed in Los Angeles on “Fall From Grace,” the NBC movie based on the personal story behind the rise and fall of Jim and Tammy Bakker’s televangelical dynasty. The drama, starring Bernadette Peters as Tammy Bakker and Kevin Spacey as Jim Bakker, is scheduled to air in May.

Heather Locklear plays a naive protege who is secretly out for Barbara Eden’s job as a White House news correspondent in “Dangerous Woman,” a CBS movie now in production in Washington, D.C.

“Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again,” the first live-action movie based on the enduring characters from the popular Archie comic books, will be produced for NBC and telecast this year. For the first time in the 49-year history of Archie comics, the wholesome teens will be seen as adults facing ‘90s problems and decisions, such as divorce, career changes and single parenthood. Casting has not been announced.

Carrie Fisher plays a successful corporate lawyer who must pay alimony to ex-husband John Sessions because he put her through law school in the TNT movie “Sweet Revenge.” Fisher’s only hope is to get Sessions to fall in love and marry a hired actress, played by Rosanna Arquette, so she can avoid the court order. The movie has been slated to air in July.

Brian Dennehy stars as the father in “Rising Son,” a TNT movie about a young man returning home from college to heated tensions with his father, who loses his job when the local factory suddenly closes. Newcomer Matt Damon stars as the son. The two-hour movie, now filming in Atlanta, is scheduled to debut in July.

SPECIALS

Turner Broadcasting System has renewed its contract with Dick Clark Productions for exclusive rights to televise the Golden Globe Awards through 1995. The ceremonies have aired on TBS the last two years. The Golden Globes, honoring the best in motion pictures and television, are awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.

CABLE

Healthlink Television, a new patient-education service for doctors’ waiting rooms, is scheduled to roll out in May to the offices of pediatricians, obstetricians, gynecologists and primary-care physicians. The service is expected to reach 20,000 waiting rooms by the end of the year. Healthlink is an information system that provides physicians with a state-of-the-art video system and programming, free of charge. The service will contain advertising.

SOAPS

Patsy Pease, who plays Kimberly Donovan on NBC’s “Days of Our Lives,” arranged to take a six-month leave of absence because she is pregnant. Pease didn’t want to subject her own pregnancy to the stress that would result from the story line of her character, who is also pregnant. The show hired actress Anne Howard to temporarily play Kimberly for the 11 shows ... Judith Chapman, who has played Anjelica Curtis on “Days of Our Lives” since 1988, has been written out of the story line. Chapman taped her last show in early March ... Greg Beecroft won’t be around as Duke Lavery (a.k.a. Jonathan Paget, a.k.a. Daniel Lund) on “General Hospital.” His last scenes will air Monday.