Writer Reginald Rosebrings Sobibor to TVBy Frank Lovece

Here are three legendarywriters from the Golden Ageof TV Drama: Rod Serling,Paddy Chayefsky, ReginaldRose. Serling says, "There's afifth dimension beyond thatwhich is known to man," andgoes off and creates "The Twi-light Zone." Someone asksChayefsky, "So what do youwanna do tonight?" He goesoff to make that line famous in'iMarty." Rose watches themgo, and wishes them luck.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Both his friends will Passawav before their times. TheGolden Age of TV Drama willnass awav too. But Rose williurvive aird flourish. At 66, heis one of the last "social-con-science" dramatists. In "Es-cape from Sobibor" (SundaY'Rpiit tz), a CBS docudramaa6out the only successful massescaDe from a WWII deathcamil, Rose's script has asmuch heart and will as thecaptive Jews themselves.

"The executine Producer

has the same agent as I do, and(the agent) sent me RichardRashke's book," . Rose re-counts. "It was so comPelling,so ... horrifying. I knew I want-ed to adapt it."

The result features an inter-national cast including AlanArkin and Rutger Hauer ascaptives, some of whom aresti-ll alive and who served asconsultants. Shot on the out-skirts of Belgrade, Yugosla-via, "Escape from Sobibor"shimmers with verisimilitudeand detail that makes vivid notonlv the Nazi horrors, but alsothe" prisoners' day-to-daY lifeand,- incredibly, the survivialof music and love.

The multiple Emmy Award-winning Rose - whose scriPtsinclude the TV and movie ver-sions of "Twelve Angry Men"

- believes that, "The mostimportant thing to writeabout, for me, is injustice. So-bibor was an extreme exam-ple, yet it's an historical foot-note. That to me isincomprehensible, if for noother reason than the humandrama it presents."

The book, he notes, con-tained chapters .about otherWWII events, which Rosedropped to concentrate on thedeath-camp. Other chaPtersdeal with the aftermath of theescape, which in many waYSwas as harrowing as the camPexperience. Those chaPterswill form a projected sequel.

"I think chances are goodit'll happen," says Rose."There's enough material, be-cause after they escaped, theYstill had the German armY andanti-Semitic Poles huntingthem. It's important to get thisstory told," he says, "while thesurvivors are still with us."

Reginald Rose

Release the week of April 12-18' 1987