A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

a Wright play the members of that family . Jane Fonda narrates the story . Voici

ng outstanding women of the 20th century are Angela Bassett , Candice Bergen , G

lenn Close , Blythe Danner , Laura Dern , Sally Field , Jodie Foster , Amy Irvin

g , Jessica Lange , Marian Ross , Mary Steenburgen , Meryl Streep , Marlo Thomas

 , Cicely Tyson and Alfre Woodward . On-camera interviews reflecting roles women

 have played in shaping the 20th century feature Roseanne Arnold , Hillary Rodha

m Clinton , Ruth Bader Ginsburg , Carol Burnett , Chris Evert , Betty Friedan , 

Lena Horne , Joan Baez , Erica Jong , Pat Schroeder and Gloria Steinem . Each pa

rt repeats the same night it premieres , and all six hours run again Saturday , 

June 18 . Monday night on The Nashville Network : Waylon Jennings , Billy Dean a

nd Canada 's Michelle Wright co-host the 28th Annual TNN Music City News Country

 Awards . Vince Gill , Alan Jackson and Reba McEntire lead with six nominations 

each in 14 categories . Winners are selected by the fans . Monday on Nickelodeon

 : `` Gumby , '' one of television 's most unusual animated characters , returns

 with 65 episodes from the 1957 series . The show runs Monday through Friday . O

n Monday , Nickelodeon also launches the second season of the popular `` Legends

 of the Hidden Temple , '' a weekday action-adventure game show that challenges 

mind and body . Also , beginning Monday , Nick at Nite adds two classics to its 

Monday-Friday lineup : `` I Dream of Jeannie '' and `` Bewitched . '' Scheduled 

to enrich the fall schedule is `` Taxi '' in early November . Tuesday night on T

he Disney Channel : The premiere of `` Walt Disney World Inside Out . '' Comedia

n Scott Herriot hosts the series ' first show , `` The Best of the Wets , '' a t

our of ways to enjoy Disney World 's two water-theme parks , 97 pools and 16 wat

er slides . Hulk Hogan guests . Repeats : Saturday and June 15 , 18 , 20 , 24 an

d 30 . Thursday on The Disney Channel : Marlee Matlin guests in the premiere of 

`` The Sound and the Furry '' on the `` Adventures in Wonderland '' series . She

 plays March Hare 's deaf cousin , who brings the language of signing and finger

-spelling to Wonderland when crabby Red Queen forbids the residents to talk . Re

peats June 15 . Thursday night on MTV at 9 p.m. : Actor/rapper Will Smith hosts 

the third annual `` MTV Movie Awards , '' an alternative to traditional movie-aw

ards shows with such categories such as Best Villain , Best Kiss and Best Act of

 Violence . Thursday night on USA Network : The premiere of `` Target of Suspici

on , '' starring Tim Matheson as an American who goes to Paris to oversee a merg

er of a perfume company and winds up accused of rape and murder . Naomi Kocher p

lays a sexy model who takes him on a tour of Paris nightlife , Agnes Sorel co-st

ars as an Interpol agent and Lysette Anthony plays Matheson 's wife . Repeats Ju

ne 12 and 18 .

 NEW YORK It was a particularly emotional moment at this week 's funeral Mass fo

r Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis when Maurice Tempelsman rose to read the poem he ha

d selected . Titled `` Ithaka , '' it spoke of discovery and of life 's journey 

, and Tempelsman added his own sorrowful coda about a journey that had been too 

short . `` So farewell , farewell , '' he concluded . `` Everyone was deeply mov

ed , '' one of the mourners in attendance said afterward . `` He read as if he '

d written the poem himself . It was so personal , so heartfelt . '' For the co-w

orkers , friends and family inside the limestone church , Tempelsman had become 

a familiar figure , someone they would expect to participate in the service , to

 stand at Onassis ' grave site with her children . But to those who knew him onl

y from magazine photos of Tempelsman and Onassis strolling through Central Park 

, the captions generally identifying him as her `` companion '' or `` friend , '

' he was more enigmatic . It took her death to fully reveal the central role tha

t the very private Tempelsman a man who shared her home , though a man who remai

ns married to another woman had come to play in her life . They were the same ag

e , 64 , though her enduring loveliness and his stocky plainness made him appear

 older . They shared many things : summers on Martha 's Vineyard , interests in 

art and antiquities ( Tempelsman is a collector ) , fluency in French , an avers

ion to publicity . In the public mind , Tempelsman must possess special qualitie

s to have attracted such a regal and celebrated woman . But his admirers , who a

re many , can see the relationship the other way around : Onassis must have been

 far more than a famous beauty to have intrigued such a cultured and scholarly m

an . `` It shows her seriousness and the depth of her intellect , '' says Phil B

aum , acting head of the American Jewish Congress , where Tempelsman has been an

 active trustee . `` For those of us who cared about Mrs. Onassis , it was comfo

rting it was terrific to know she was with somebody who was a good , generous an

d gentle man , '' says Roger Wilkins , who was an Agency for International Devel

opment administrator during the Kennedy Administration and has known Tempelsman 

for years . A Belgian-born Jew , Tempelsman and his family fled Europe in 1940 a

nd came to New York , where his father established a diamond brokerage . The ind

ustry has always been dominated by families , and Maurice joined his father 's f

irm as a teenager , just as two of his three children and a son-in-law have join

ed his . He is chief executive officer of Lazare Kaplan Inc. ( 1993 gross sales 

: $ 166 million ) . Headquartered on Fifth Avenue , it is one of the largest U.S

. companies specializing in the import , cutting and sale of diamonds ; its cust

omers include Tiffany and Cartier . Tempelsman is also the general partner of Le

on Tempelsman & Son , which has investments , mining and mineral trading interes

ts around the world , particularly in central and western Africa . Africa has be

en an abiding interest ; Tempelsman has friendships and business alliances of 30

 years ' duration there , glides easily through its political and economic circl

es , is a connoisseur of African art . `` He 's a player in that scene , '' says

 Chester Crocker , former assistant secretary of state for African affairs . Unt

il Wilkins succeeded him several months ago , Tempelsman served as chairman of t

he board of the nonprofit African-American Institute , which fosters African dev

elopment and cooperation between Africans and Americans . In terms of wealth , T

empelsman is not in the Aristotle Onassis league : By Forbes magazine 's calcula

tions , his personal worth didn't reach the $ 300 million threshold needed to la

nd on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans . He is a prosperous man none

theless . That was his 70-foot yacht , the Relemar , berthed at the Vineyard , o

n which Jacqueline Onassis hosted the vacationing First Family last summer ; Tem

pelsman was at the helm . He met Jacqueline Kennedy when she was still a young s

enator 's wife and he was supporting JFK 's presidential aspirations . Tempelsma

n has long been generous to Democratic Party candidates , last year contributing

 more than $ 83,000 to the Democratic National Committee , the Democratic Senato

rial and Congressional campaign committees , and individual campaigns . But it w

as apparently not until after Aristotle Onassis ' death in 1975 , with the twice

-widowed Jacqueline living in New York , that they began spending time together 

. Tempelsman was one of the financial advisers who helped her multiply the repor

ted $ 26 million settlement she received after Aristotle Onassis ' death . Publi

shed estimates of Jacqueline Onassis ' wealth have varied wildly $ 100 million ?

 $ 200 million ? `` His counsel resulted in increasing her assets substantially 

, '' was all a discreet Tempelsman spokesman would say . By the early '80s , tho

ugh Tempelsman described himself in a Fortune interview as a family friend , he 

and Onassis were quietly but unmistakably a couple , seen at small dinner partie

s and low-key cultural events . According to the spokesman , Tempelsman moved in

to Onassis ' rambling Fifth Avenue apartment overlooking Central Park about 1988

 . His wife of more than 40 years , Lily , lives across the park on the Upper We

st Side . Yet it was rare to hear or read a word of opprobrium about Tempelsman 

and Onassis ' relationship , even from New York 's cattier columnists and insati

able tabloids , which never tired of running her photograph . It was almost as t

hough the press and public had decided she was entitled to grow old with someone

 . His acceptance by her family probably helped quiet criticism ; `` John and Ca

roline have come to feel quite close to him , '' his spokesman says . `` They we

re a well-matched and distinguished couple , '' says Vivian Lowery Derryck , pre

sident of the African-American Institute . Onassis occasionally accompanied Temp

elsman to small institute dinners with African leaders . His demeanor toward her

 was unfailingly `` comfortable , respectful and loving , '' Derryck says . `` A

nd she respected and admired him and held him in great affection . '' As Onassis

 ' illness progressed , Tempelsman was omnipresent , escorting her home from the

 hospital , supporting her on her last walks through the neighborhood , keeping 

vigil by her bedside with her children as she died . Friends say they have sent 

notes of condolence but have not wished to intrude on his evident grief . Friend

s and associates portray him as a man of Old World courtliness , courtesy and er

udition . `` You know from what he says , as well as what he doesn't say , that 

there 's a lively and fertile mind operating there , '' Crocker says . `` This i

s a world citizen we 're talking about , at home in almost any culture he finds 

himself in . ''

 WASHINGTON When the Federal Reserve pushed down short-term interest rates to un

usually low levels in 1992 and kept them there throughout last year , the centra

l bank made no bones about the fact that one reason it did so was to help a U.S.

 banking industry that had been wounded by big losses on loans . Low short-term 

rates widened the spread between the interest rates the banks had to pay deposit

ors to get funds and the rates they charged borrowers . In addition , the low co

st of funds enabled the banks to make money by investing in medium-term securiti

es , such as two- or three-year Treasury notes , municipal bonds and other items

 , that carried higher rates . These opportunities allowed banks to turn in reco

rd profits and largely restore their battered balance sheets even though the tot

al amount of loans on their books stopped growing . Banks ' investments in secur

ities surged while lending to businesses , to consumers and for real estate stag

nated . This switch reflected both banks ' reluctance to lend and businesses ' a

nd consumers ' reluctance to borrow . On the lending side , the banks ' previous

 large loan losses had made them much more wary about extending credit , particu

larly for real estate deals . Covering those losses had sharply reduced the amou

nt of capital many institutions had on hand to stand behind their operations , i

n some cases to critically low levels . On the borrowing side , the 1990-91 econ

omic slump greatly reduced the demand for credit from businesses that were cutti

ng back rather than expanding . This combination caused total loans and lease fi

nancing at banks not to grow at all for about two years . Meanwhile , however , 

bank purchases of investment securities rose significantly as institutions took 

advantage of the opportunity to use low-cost money from depositors to buy notes 

and bonds that paid a higher return . `` Usually in a recession what happens is 

that banks have very little demand for loans , so they put their money into secu

rities , '' said Joseph Wahed , chief economist at Wells Fargo Bank in San Franc

isco . When the slump ends the process normally reverses itself , though this ti

me it was very slow in happening . `` The volume of loans has been one of the so

ftest part of the recovery , '' Wahed said . `` On the West Coast it has been zi

lch , '' though that has begun to change and loan demand elsewhere has turned up

 significantly . Securities purchases also were encouraged by a change in bank r

egulation . Several years ago regulators substantially increased the amount of c

apital a bank must have relative to its portfolio of securities , loans and leas

es . Each type of loan and security is weighted according to its degree of risk 

, with regular commercial and industrial loans carrying a 100 percent weight , h

ome mortgages 50 percent and U.S. government securities zero because there is no

 risk of default . That means that there is no capital required to stand behind 

government securities owned by banks , which makes the cost of funding the secur

ities ownership effectively lower than that of a commercial loan . That differen

ce has given the banks an incentive to keep buying securities , analysts said . 

In addition , there is still a significant spread between the banks ' cost of fu

nds and yields available on notes and bonds that is encouraging their purchase e

ven though lending activity has picked up . `` There is still a lot of money aro

und the system that is not being used fully , '' Wahed noted . `` Banks have a l

ot of money with nowhere to go . '' And that is probably one reason that lending

 has picked up as well . While banks have been quick to raise their prime lendin

g rates it is up from 6 percent to 7.25 percent this year in line with the Fed '

s increase in short-term interest rates to maintain the unusually large gap betw

een their cost of funds and the prime , they have been trimming the cost of cred

it in other ways . A report from senior loan officers at banks released by the F

ed this week showed a continued easing of credit terms , including reduction in 

the spread between the prime and actual loan rates , reduced collateralization r

equirements and higher lines of credit . The principal reason given for the easi

er terms , the Fed said , was increased competition among lenders . However , th

e terms on commercial real estate lending have been eased only very slightly . M

any metropolitan areas still have gluts of empty office space , and banks remain

 wary about making loans secured by such real estate . The bulk of the increase 

in real estate lending shown in the chart has been for single-family home purcha

ses or refinancings . Altogether , the trends suggest a banking system that is b

ehaving in more a normal fashion than it has for several years . However , the c

ontinued high level of securities purchases suggests that banks are a long way f

rom being at the stage of the credit cycle when they begin to sell the notes and

 bonds in their investment portfolios to get the cash to meet strong loan demand

 . As Wells Fargo 's Wahed said , the banks are flush with money , and that 's t

he key reason that the rates they are paying depositors have gone up so little d

espite the rise in short-term money market rates this year .

 HOLLYWOOD Welcome to Bedrock , a town proud of being `` First With Fire . '' Th

e locals eat at Roc Donald 's ( `` Over 18 Dozen Sold '' ) , watch George Lucas 

' `` Tar Wars '' at the drive-in , get their gas at the Chevrock station and the

ir information via the Cave News Network . You were expecting maybe `` Middlemar

ch '' ? Whatever else people say about `` The Flintstones , '' no one will claim

 that a chance to make a truly great motion picture was frittered away here . A 

live-action cartoon in every sense of the word , this re-creation of the long-ru

nning television series about suburban life in 2,000,000 B.C. has been carefully

 designed to be as bright and insubstantial as a child 's toy balloon . Like `` 

The Addams Family '' before it , this is one of those clever , lively and ultima

tely wearying pieces of showy Hollywood machinery where a glut of creativity has

 gone into the visuals with only scraps left over for the plot and the dialogue 

. But then , given its source material , what more could anyone have expected ? 

Actually , someone must have at least hoped for more , because press reports ind

icate that somewhere between 32 and 35 writers ( `` almost as many people as sig

ned the Declaration of Independence , '' mocked Daily Variety ) had a hand in th

e script . It was finally credited to Tom S. Parker & Jim Jennewein and Steven E

. de Souza , but any piece of writing where the most notable words are `` Yabba-

Dabba-Doo ! '' is not going to be up for any Writers Guild awards any time soon 

. That , as anyone who watched the 1960s TV series remembers , is the war cry of

 Fred Flintstone ( John Goodman ) , devoted family man , operator of a Bronto-cr

ane at the Slate & Company quarry and mainstay of the Water Buffaloes bowling te

am . Though Fred ( who both here and in the cartoon strongly resembles Jackie Gl

eason in `` The Honeymooners '' ) likes to say , `` In my cave , I reign supreme

 , '' really his wife , Wilma ( Elizabeth Perkins ) , calls the shots . And best

 friends and neighbors Betty ( Rosie O' Donnell ) and Barney Rubble ( Rick Moran

is ) also have sizable places in his heart . The best thing the film that bears 

his family name has done is to whimsically imagine and create a world where ever

ything , up to and apparently including Fred 's head , is made from stone . Prod

uction designer William Sandell , `` Jurassic Park '' special-effects supervisor

 Michael Lantieri and the entire production team have done splendid work in this

 area , turning Bedrock into a shiny place that always diverts the eye . Most fu

n are a host of animatronic beasties designed by Jim Henson 's Creature Shop to 

do everyday tasks , like a lobster lawn mower , a woolly mammoth shower and some

thing called a pigasaurus that replaces the TV series ' vulture as a heavy-breat

hing garbage disposal unit . If these devices are unexpected , `` The Flintstone

s '' plot devices are less so . The main idea , identical to the one that powers

 `` The Hudsucker Proxy , '' has Slate & Co. evil-doers Cliff Vandercave and Sha

ron Stone ( Kyle MacLachlan and Halle Berry ) searching for `` an ignorant stoog

e '' to help them fleece the firm . Fred is obviously their man . But his bogus 

elevation to vice president turns him into a dreadful snob and causes a rift bet

ween the Flintstones and the Rubbles . From such acorns do $ 45 million films gr

ow . Though `` The Flintstones '' willn't disappoint those who 've been looking 

forward to seeing the venerable cartoon made human , its pleasures are not subst

antial or lasting enough to convince those who lean toward thinking it all sound

s rather feeble . Under the direction of Brian Levant , whose most notable previ

ous credit was `` Beethoven , '' the acting in the movie , from star Goodman to 

Elizabeth Taylor 's well-publicized cameo , is , not surprisingly , cartoonish ,

 with svelte and sexy villains Berry and MacLachlan registering best , as villai

ns often do in animation . And even the gaudy and amusing production design , wi

nning though it is , can hold one fascinated for only so long . Even at a lean 9

2 minutes , `` The Flintstones '' ( MPAA rating : PG for `` mild innuendoes '' )

 eventually makes you want to change the channel and see what else is on .

 PILSEN , Czech Republic The once prosperous Czech arms industry , whose technic

al know-how had made Czechoslovakia the world 's seventh-largest weapons exporte

r , is struggling to survive in a post-Cold War market where some of its best po

tential customers have been blacklisted by the United States . Pressure from the

 Clinton administration scotched a $ 90 million deal last year in which a newly 

privatized Czech company would have sold Iran six Tamara radar systems that the 

manufacturer claims is capable of detecting U.S. . B-2 `` stealth '' bombers . M

ore recently , Iran showed interest in buying an upgraded version of the Soviet-

designed T-72 tank that a consortium of Czech companies , the RDP Group , has un

dertaken to produce . But just last month , sources said , the Czech Foreign Min

istry bowed again to Washington 's wishes and blocked the deal . The Czech gover

nment , eager to clean up its old image as a global merchant of death , has in f

act accepted U.S. proscriptions on arms sales to nations deemed to be supporters

 of international terrorism . These include Iran , Iraq , Syria and Libya all po

tentially major customers of the Czech arms industry . In the 1980s , the old co

mmunist-ruled Czechoslovak federation exported arms worth up to $ 1.5 billion an

nually , much of it to those same `` terrorist nations '' but also to more benig

n customers , such as Egypt and India . Its most infamous export was doubtless t

he odorless chemical explosive Semtex , which has been used widely by terrorists

 to blow up passenger jets and public buildings . After the fall of communism in

 1989 , President Vaclav Havel crusaded for an end to arms exports as a means of

 cleansing Czechoslovakia of its `` terrorist '' taint . But such idealism soon 

gave way to the economic reality that the country had to export those products i

t could best produce and that included weapons . Therefore the government now en

courages arms exports , but under a new and tighter export-control law adopted b

y parliament in February that requires the case-by-case approval of the ministri

es of foreign affairs , defense , trade and the interior . Nonetheless , Western

 diplomatic sources here say the RDP Group `` bears close watching , '' particul

arly its chairman , Lubomir Soudek , who has visited Iran and reportedly tried t

o sell turbines and other heavy machinery for a nuclear power plant there . Foll

owing the division of Czechoslovakia into separate Czech and Slovak republics in