Tube Notes

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

• LOCAL INTEREST: Women's College Volleyball, about 7 p.m. (live), KFVE. Michigan at Hawai'i.

• TONIGHT'S MIGHT-SEE: "Dateline: Witness to an Execution" (7 p.m.) and "The Chamber" (1996, 8 p.m.), both NBC. The subject turns to capital punishment, both real and fictional. First, "Dateline" revisits and updates a 1997 report. It looked at condemned killer Patrick Rogers and the changes in him during his 12 years of imprisonment; it also visited the mothers of the victim (a young policeman) and the killer. Then comes "The Chamber," based on John Grisham's dark look at an impending execution. The convicted killer (played by Gene Hackman) is a vile Ku Klux Klansman. Seething with hatred of blacks and Jews, he set bombs and terrorized people.

Now the killer's grandson (Chris O'Donnell) arrives. Long ago, he changed his name, moved north, became a big-city lawyer and tried to shed his family's past. Still, he can't shake it. He takes over the defense of a man he hates, while trying to learn more about his roots. This is a dark story, which may repel audiences. However, it's populated by an impressive cast. Faye Dunaway and Lela Rochon help guide O'Donnell through the Mississippi ways. Bo Jackson, of baseball fame, plays a guard.