However, as Oscar Hammerstein II was writing the lyrics, it developed its own inspirational overtones along the lines of an earlier Hammerstein song, "There's a Hill Beyond a Hill".

And "Victor/Victoria" was knocked out of the contest for best score by four minor Rodgers and Hammerstein songs from "State Fair."

"State Fair" (1945) - Thursday at noon on Cinemax - has four Rodgers and Hammerstein songs and the best comes first: Jeanne Crain's daydreamy "It Might as Well Be Spring."

That made it, as Mr. Meron says, "a 100 percent Rodgers and Hammerstein song that sounds like a new Whitney Houston record."

This Tarzan-and-Jane version of love ran through many other Rodgers and Hammerstein songs, most notably "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" (from "South Pacific") and "I Enjoy Being a Girl" (from "Flower Drum Song").

Yet she can sing snatches of favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein songs.

Christopher Plummer (Aristotle) is the stern and humorless patriarch who after many memorable Rodgers and Hammerstein songs finally thaws - Saturday at 8 p.m. on Channel 7.

The hitch: Only four Rodgers and Hammerstein songs that had not been used in a show before were deemed eligible.

Originally a cabaret show at Rainbow and Stars, "A Grand Night for Singing" has been expanded into a smooth two-hour entertainment in which five singers run through three dozen Rodgers and Hammerstein songs.

"Pore Jud is daid, a candle lightshis haid, " sang Telly softly from his swivel chair, his bass-baritone perfectly acceptable for the touching Rodgers and Hammerstein song.