Business Notes Entertainment

% The sudden death of raunchy raconteur Redd Foxx during a rehearsal for his new TV series, The Royal Family, deprived America of one of its most popular comedians -- and may have cheated CBS of a hit. Foxx's much-anticipated return to TV, opposite co-star Della Reese, was producing respectable ratings for the network in a long-lagging Wednesday-night time slot. CBS has only three more episodes featuring Foxx. While replacing him will be difficult, since the show was tailor-made for Foxx, the network hopes to keep the series alive. One possibility: a new male lead, perhaps two-time star Sherman Hemsley (The Jeffersons and Amen), who already has a development deal with CBS. The strategy is risky. After the suicide of comedian Freddie Prinze in 1977 NBC replaced him with a child actor in Chico and the Man, and the network hit swiftly became an also-ran.