Sam Malone’s Going To Seattle To See Frasier

Sam Malone lives! Ted Danson will reprise his libidinous character from NBC’s “Cheers” when he reunites with his former co-star, Kelsey Grammer, on an episode of “Frasier” Feb. 28. James Burrows, who has directed both shows, will helm the segment. No story line yet.

Also, Danson will star in a four-hour NBC miniseries based on Jonathan Swift’s classic “Gulliver’s Travels.” The project, to be executive-produced by Robert Halmi Sr. (“Scarlett”), is set for the fall.

And speaking of ‘Cheers’ people

Newcomer Pat Finn has been cast as star George Wendt’s kid brother in CBS’ new sitcom “Under the Hood.” Like Wendt, Finn, 29, is a Chicago-area native and former member of the Second City comedy troupe. Says he: “I’m a Leo and I know my state capitals.” No launch date for “Hood,” about two Milwaukee brothers with a radio show about cars.

‘Amazing Grace’ set for spring

In a Monday meeting with TV critics, Warren Littlefield, the president of NBC Entertainment, had a plug for “Amazing Grace,” which comes up this spring.

It stars Patty Duke as a newly ordained minister and single mother of two, “who is struggling to get her life back on track … after surviving a painful divorce and battling an addiction to prescription drugs and a near-death experience (that) led the former emergency room nurse to make a few changes in her life.”

The series, promising a rare venture into prime-time “religion,” may not be quite what Littlefield had in mind. Meeting earlier with the press, the Rev. Duke confessed that “we rarely use the word g-o-d” in the series and that “I’ve chosen not to use the word “Jesus”’ at all.

Liz Taylor miniseries a go

Sherilynn Fenn (“Twin Peaks,” “Boxing Helena”) has won the lead in NBC’s miniseries about Elizabeth Taylor, to air during the May “sweeps.” La Liz recently lost her court battle to stop the project.

Black themes on CBS

Although African Americans have routinely been stuck in TV’s sitcom buffoon ghetto, CBS is infusing its winter and spring schedules with a trio of dramatic projects that revolve around black themes.

This includes “Under One Roof,” a weekly drama series about a multigenerational middle-class family in Seattle, starring James Earl Jones and produced by Thomas Carter (“Equal Justice”).

Sidney Poitier and Regina Taylor (“I’ll Fly Away”) head the cast for “Children of the Dust” (Feb. 12, 14), a four-hour miniseries that explores the history of black frontier towns in post-Civil War Oklahoma territory.

Also, Charles Dutton (“Roc”) and Alfre Woodard (“Crooklyn”) star in a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie version of “The Piano Lesson” (Feb. 5), August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about one African-American family’s struggle to understand its ancestral legacy.

Costner films TV miniseries

Movie superstar Kevin Costner is behind another big event -“500 Nations” - in CBS’ cycle of new programs about people of color. The $8-million, eight-hour documentary miniseries, scheduled for April, ambitiously explores the history of American Indians with a combination of computerized animation and Ken Burns-style still-photo storytelling.