The Lion's Pride

 ((Fri. (15), 8-9 p.m., CBS))

By TONY SCOTT

Filmed in Africa's Serengeti Plain by the Discovery Channel. Exec producer, Tim Cowling; producer, Mick Laczorowski; producer-camera, Sophie Buck; writer, Michael Olmert; editor, Chris Wade; music, Guy Michelmore. Narrator: Malcolm McDowell. It's back to Africa's much-photographed Serengeti Plain and its lion population as Sophie Buck and her crew move in for an even more intimate study of lions' living habits. First of at least three specs that Discovery Communications Inc. is supplying to CBS this season, and it's not all pussycats gamboling by a long shot. It's nature raw, and it spares little. Buck's work took time 14 hours a day over a two-year period and incredible patience as she moves in close enough to record lions' breathing patterns. The lionesses form distinct colonies or sisterhoods wherein they raise the kids, forage for food and rest. The males are part of the lions' pride to procreate and to defend the family, and that's about it. Their presence in the pride isn't permanent; after a good two years, their duties done, they poke around to start a new family circle. Riveting seg involves a male approaching a female and her cubs. She hisses because she knows he'll destroy her offspring if he and she mate, and the domestic drama boils over as he snatches a cub. And glares. Buck or one of her fellow cameraworkers captures a Gainsborough portrait of three lionesses yawning into the long day. Happily not much fuss has been made over cutesy cat-like shots, but there's a beguiling study of three to four lionesses greeting and grooming one another. Food's on their minds after 20-hour naps, and the docu gets in good shots of potential meals as warthogs, wildebeests, even baboons move into focus. Michael Olmert's sharp script points out that lions are speedy but are not always as swift as some of their would-be prey. One particularly forlorn lion stands staring at a roaring train of wildebeests; supper just shot by. Olmert dispels several myths that have been accepted that males don't forage for food, for instance and has the good sense not to sentimentalize over the animals. The lions steal food from other creatures, chase down what birds of prey have caught, back off when they know they're going to lose. They're animals striving to survive and perpetuate the species. A mating scene reveals the principals turning testy with one another. Sub-adult male lions, patient with cubs because of the mothers' fierceness, have little status until they grow the mane. But there are shots of the lion en famille, and it's pastoral if misleading. The camerawork's excellent, and Chris Wade's editing builds to suspenseful encounters. A singularly special moment comes as a wornout female is banished from the pride and sets out alone to nothingness. But there's no room for sentiment. The prides have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, and survival has been of the fittest. Law of the jungle. Tony Scott