David Bowie will be a prime-time star...

David Bowie will be a prime-time star for ABC June 3. The network will present an hourlong special taped on Bowie’s “Glass Spider Tour.” Also appearing on the show will be Peter Frampton and Charlie Sexton.

Michael Gross, who plays the loving father on “Family Ties,” and David Soul, who played a policeman on “Starsky & Hutch,” are spreading their acting wings--or their images, at least--in “Bloody Friday,” a TV movie that will air on NBC next season. They will portray cold-blooded killers. Tracking them are FBI agents played by Doug Sheehan, Bruce Greenwood and Ronny Cox.

“Alive From Off Center” will return in July for its fourth season as public television’s avant-garde variety show. Among the artists whose work will be showcased this year are composer John Zorn, video director Zbigniew Rybczynski, choreographer Blondell Cummings and the Canadian dance troupe La La La Human Steps.

In her first role since winning an Academy Award nomination for “Fatal Attraction,” Anne Archer is starring in “Leap of Faith,” a TV movie that CBS plans to broadcast next season. She plays a woman who learns that she has a fatal illness but refuses to accept it and sets out to heal herself. Sam Neill co-stars as her husband.

A three-part series called “The Philippines,” to be produced by Stanley Karnow and Andrew Pearson for KCET Channel 28, has received partial funding from the Public Television Programming Challenge Fund. Other proposed PBS series that recently received money from the fund were “Making Sense of the Sixties,” a six-part series about life during the 1960s, and “The Power Game: How Washington Works,” a four-part series about Washington, based on the book by Hedrick Smith.

“Reading Rainbow,” the public-TV series that encourages children to pick up a book and read for pleasure, will bolster its lineup of reruns with five new programs this summer. LeVar Burton will return as host and, in one of the new installments, will take viewers behind the scenes on the TV series on which he now co-stars, “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Perry King, formerly of “Riptide,” has the starring role in “The Man Who Lived at the Ritz,” a four-hour TV movie for first-run syndication. Based on the novel by A. E. Hotchner, it’s a suspense story about a man living in Paris in 1940 who gets caught in the middle of the struggle between the Nazis and the French Resistance. Also in the cast are Leslie Caron, Joss Ackland, David McCallum, Maryam D’Abo and David Robb.

“Newton’s Apple” will have a new host when it returns to PBS for its sixth season this fall. He’s David Heil, director of outreach programs and services at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. He’s a former high school science teacher who has degrees in biology and mathematics. Former host Ira Flatow will continue with the weekly program as a guest commentator.