BEHIND THE SCENES Producer of Elvis special offers a Barry Manilow treat By Frank Lovece He helped Elvis make his comeback. Now director/ producer Steve Binder hopes to do the same for Barry Manilow. Steve Binder The scale is somewhat dif- ferent, but Binder says the latest Manilow TV special proved as much fun in its own way as Presley’s leg- endary 1968 ‘Comeback Special.”’ And the title of his latest project couldn’t agree more: “Barry Manilow: Big Fun on Swing Street!” It airs Monday, March 7, on CBS. Along with the Elvis spe- cial, Binder directed the concert film “The T.A.M.I. Show” (1964) as well as TV specials for everyone from Danny Kaye to Diana Ross. He won an Emmy for Barry Manilow’s first special in 1977; he now produces the children’s show ‘‘Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” And he’s leased the rights from Michael Jackson for a projected TV series based on Beatles songs. The new Manilow special “is sort of a 10-year reunion for Barry and me,” says Binder. ‘‘He’s had kind of a dry spell, and maybe this will help get him back in the spotlight. I’m a great believ- er in timing and luck, and we've talked about doing this project for two years. This must be the right time. With my good luck,” he jokes, “that’s the way it seems to go!” Both Binder and “Big Fun” have more than luck going for them. The special is an ambitious musical fan- tasy, the kind you used to see in Technicolor on a big movie screen. The guest per- formers are no slouches, ei- ther. Among them: jazz sing- ers Carmen McRae and Phyllis Hyman, musical greats Gerry Mulligan and Stanley Clarke, and those doo-wop-salsa-calypso crit- ics’ darlings, Kid Creole and the Coconuts. Ironically, “Big Fun” might give the Kid as much exposure as Manilow, yet the band was a last-minute replacement. ‘We originally had a segment based on a song that Barry did with Mi- ami Sound Machine,” Binder explains. ‘‘But then their re- cord companies clashed, the duet couldn’t be released, and we asked Kid Creole.” So overall, did Binder have fun doing the special? “T was pre-med in college, so this is like a hobby. I always enjoy it,” he says, “and I never look at the clock.” Release the week of March 6-12, 1988