Deadwood

"Deadwood," David Milch's richly layered take on an outpost of the Old West, begins its second season on HBO tonight with the arrival in camp of the telegraph pole, new prostitutes for an upscale whorehouse, and, most ominously, word that the Black Hills of South Dakota, in which the camp of Deadwood is contained, are to be divided up into three counties, each with a county commissioner.

In the self-consciously Chandleresque mystery saga "From Hollywood to Deadwood" (at the AMC Century 14), fledgling writer-director Rex Pickett wants to operate within the hard-boiled detective tradition, but his movie is merely scrambled. The story has all the tough, cynical conventions of classic film noir : private eye (or eyes, since this version has two heroes) sent off in search of a troublesome-but-beautiful brunette who turns out to be less femme fatale than tragic victim.

As predicted, voter turnout in Tuesday's elections appeared to be an all-time low, state officials said. Just 59% of registered voters participated in the election, Secretary of State March Fong Eu estimated. The exact figure will take some days to compute. The previous record low for a gubernatorial election was 44 years ago, during World War II, when 59.26% of the registered voters cast ballots. Effect of 'Deadwood' But there may be a catch in all the 1986 election discussion over low turnout.

A tree still grows on Stone Canyon Drive. In fact, several trees do, and will continue to do so now that UCLA has reconsidered its plan to cut several down to widen the street. The university won't say it, but two homeowners associations believe the buzz they made about the plan led to the decision to halt the chop job, which would have felled several large, old coast redwoods and California sycamores near the intersection with Sunset Boulevard.

Ford Motor Co. reported a 15% increase in first-quarter earnings as the nation's No. 2 auto maker benefited from strong truck sales, continued cost-cutting and improved performance in Europe. The record earnings--the firm's eighth consecutive increase in quarterly profit--came despite sharply higher marketing costs. Increased rebates, an estimated average of about $1,100 per vehicle, were offset by $400 million in cost reductions. Overall, Ford posted first-quarter operating profit of $1.

SomeTIME last year, in a moment of deranged grief, perhaps, over the impending demise of a flagship series, HBO hitched its wagon to "Carnivale," one of the most strained and portentous parables of the age-old struggle between good and evil ever to feature a prophetic dwarf.

James Glennon, a cinematographer known for his evocative camera work on the 1983 film "El Norte" and who also won an Emmy last year for the HBO series "Deadwood," has died. He was 64. Glennon died of prostate cancer Oct. 19 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Barbara Halperin, his agent. "He was the king of all sets," actress Laura Dern told The Times earlier this week. "He was the stand-up comic of the set, the meditative easer of all tensions for the crew.

Women had two roles in the traditional western: The bad ones staffed the saloons, and the good ones spoiled the fun. The virtuous lady journalist who comes to town in the 1939 Errol Flynn classic "Dodge City" signifies the end of the hero's rip-snortin', trail-drivin' days. Ladies require the protection of a civil society, and so Flynn is forced to pin on the sheriff's star.

The long, tall, rough-voiced appeal of John Hawkes -- a kind of sad, drifter charm -- is getting quite a workout these days. Hot on the heels of the second-season close of HBO's "Deadwood," in which Hawkes plays merchant Sol Star without the cliched bookishness usually given portrayals of Jews in westerns, he's in writer-director Miranda July's award-winning indie "Me and You and Everyone We Know" and has just wrapped a role in the "Miami Vice" movie.

YOU could say it is the best and worst of times for actor William Sanderson. Best because the third season of HBO's award-winning revisionist western series, "Deadwood," begins tonight at 9. And Sanderson, 58, is one of the best reasons to watch the violent, foul-mouthed sagebrush saga from creator David Milch ("NYPD Blue"). The Memphis-born Sanderson is a scene stealer as the oily -- and often creepy -- E.B.