TV & VIDEO - Nov. 17, 1987

Carroll O’Connor won’t have to shed much of his Archie Bunker persona for his role as Bill Gillespie, the bigoted police chief in a TV adaptation of the 1967 Academy Award-winning film “In the Heat of the Night.” MGM-TV, which made the announcement Monday, also will turn the movie, which starred Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier, into a possible TV series for NBC. No word yet on who will hold down the role of the Philadelphia detective played by Poitier. Filming begins late this month in Hammond, La.