Marla Gibbs

"Another Evening of Jazz," featuring Charles Owens, will be presented at 8:30 p.m. Friday at Marla Gibbs' Vision Theatre, Los Angeles. Tax-deductible tickets are $20 in advance, $22 at the door or $50 for preferred seating and patron listing. Proceeds will benefit the Los Angeles Chapter of the Prairie View A&M University Scholarship program. For tickets or information, call (213) 755-3147 or (213) 291-1976.

Robert Townsend is working an agenda in his new film, "The Meteor Man," which he directed, wrote and stars in. It's about what happens when the decent, shy schoolteacher Jefferson Reed gets hit by a meteor and acquires the superpowers that enable him to combat the gang that is terrorizing his neighborhood. It's a fantasy intended to give inner-city black kids a superhero with real meaning in their lives.

Actor Robert Townsend will headline a night of comedy and live music at 8 p.m. on Oct. 27 to benefit The Vision: Crossroads National Education and Arts Center, 4310 Degnan Blvd. The education and arts center, founded by actress Marla Gibbs, sponsors acting classes and theater productions. Townsend wrote, produced and starred in the movies "Hollywood Shuffle" and "The Five Heartbeats."

Actress Marla Gibbs and County Supervisor Gloria Molina will receive awards Wednesday at the first Women's Day Luncheon of the Coalition for Women's Economic Development. The luncheon, beginning at 11:30 a.m., will be at Lawry's California Center, 570 W. Ave. 26, Los Angeles. Gibbs will receive the Entrepreneurial Leadership Award and Molina will receive the Women's Achievement Award. Information: (213) 489-4995.

The long-term effects of global warming are the subject of "The Fire Next Time," a four-hour TV movie that CBS plans to broadcast April 18 and 20. Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia star as a Louisiana couple who take their family on a journey north after the climate conditions destroy their home. Other stars include Marla Gibbs, Richard Fransworth, Louise Fletcher and Jurgen Prochnow.

I watched two episodes of "227" and was thoroughly disgusted. This show is as bad as "Good Times." As a college student, I get fed up seeing blacks in stereotypical roles. This show is no exception: Marla Gibbs plays a gossipy, passive housewife and her husband is super macho. And since when do black women sit on their porches all day long and gossip? Kim Carr, Northridge

A memorial tribute to actress Isabel Sanford, a star of the long-running television series "The Jeffersons," will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, 5230 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Sanford, the first black woman to win an Emmy for best actress in a comedy series, died July 9. She was 86.

Actress Marla Gibbs and the Leimert Park Merchants will host the first Winter Wonderland Street Festival at the Vision Complex in Leimert Park Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. A variety of entertainment ranging from high school marching bands to church choirs to jazz and blues bands to comedians will be offered. Games, pony and train rides and special Christmas book readings will also be available. Information: (213) 751-5050.