The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 148

I JP (COURIER-JOURNAL NBG's Tinker tells it like it is bad said. As a result NBC became "the last place to market your program wares If you were a producer." For their part, the affiliates seemed willing to offer patience and to lower their expectations; perhaps a strong third-place finish or two while waiting for the ideal NBC to materialize. After alt NBC has been In third place and headed In the wrong direction for six years. "It's been tough," said H. Lee Bryant of KTAL in Shreveport, La.

"I've been with NBC for 30 years. This Is the first time In at least four years that they (the network's administration) have developed any sense of cohesiveness." "I think there's a very upbeat feeling here," said David Jones of KARK In Little Rock. Ark. "Mr. Tinker is a good programmer and a great businessman.

I'm very high on him. They seem to have It together as far as planning." "It's the best schedule I've seen since Pat Weaver (head of the network from 1954-55)." said Jack Harris of KPRC in Houston, after seeing the presentation of NBCs coming shows. "I personally like shows that I'm not ashamed of, shows that I can be proud to broadcast There's more quality there than I've seen in a long time. I think it's reflective of the Tinker Influence." There were some grumbles about some aspects of the Tinker regime, notably NBCs poor daytime programming. "I think they've addressed the nighttime problems very well," said Harris.

"They're not going to catapult overnight to No. but there's progress. But I dont think they've made any good programs in the daytime." Indeed, NBCs programming presentation sort of skipped by daytime and trying to accomplish it by frantic manipulation of the schedule. Three years of Silverman put NBC in the worst competitive shape It has ever been in; the affiliates were ready for low key. "My predecessors spoke of people and programs and plans," said Tinker, "always a projected superstructure built optimistically on the solid foundation of proud and long NBC success In years gone by None of the dreams, none of the expectations had become reality." Tinker's soft-sell approach might be seen as Its own form of hype, but It neatly fits Tinker's strategy for NBC Tinker has made it clear that he means to fashion NBC after his own MTM Enterprises, which produced successful television shows by associating with what Tinker called "the 'A' group of writers and producers." The plan Is to bring that "A group" writers and producers of such shows as "Lou Grant" and "Taxi" to NBC and to keep them there by giving their programs every chance to succeed.

Tinker admitted slow progress In that line (not all of NBCs 11 new fall shows are precisely what Tinker would like to put on the air) for two reasons. First NBC had to clear out all the product that Silverman left behind, a lengthy process on which Tinker blamed NBCs dismal showing In the past season. The other hindrance is NBCs relatively poor reputation In Hollywood's so-called "creative community." Tinker said. "In Its frantic attempts to compete In recent years, NBC has jerked around Its schedule, moving programs too often and usually with negative results," Tinker development prompting some affiliates to raise the matter at a closed-door business session Tuesday afternoon. NBC had some surprises for them.

"Flamingo Road," the moderately popular prime-time soap opera that NBC canceled this year, is on the boards as a possible daytime show with many of the cast members returning. And the network has tentative plans to bring Wlllard Scott the popular "Today" show weatherman, to daytime with his own game show. Other grievances were pre-empted by Tinker himself In the course of his speech of contrition. Affiliates might have asked, for example, why NBC continued to jerk Its schedule around even after Tinker's arrival. They didnt get the chance.

"Even In recent months after I arrived," Tinker admitted, "we have been guilty of program moves and changes too frequently, too quickly and too futllely. The excuse is that we've been trying to wring the last drop of value out of the program material at hand. It's been a mistake in almost every case." What might have been a major affiliate concern coming into the meetings was the persistent rumor that NBCs parent company, RCA, was eager to unload the sputtering network. RCA Chairman Thornton Bradshaw smoothed that issue in the first session Monday, expressly denying that RCA had any intention of dumping NBC So the affiliates left town happy, with nothing much more than a loose pledge from Tinker to get good people and good shows. Seldom in network television have so many hopes been raised so high by so small a promise.

For NBCs woebegone affiliates, it was enough. By PETER J. BOVER Lm Anftu Tinwt HOLLYWOOD The representatives of NBC's affiliated television stations convened here a few days ago, their network low and in descent After the first year under new network chairman Grant Tinker, revenues are off and program ratings are dismal Yet, most of the affiliates left town in astonishingly good cheer, apparently convinced that their network Is bound for recovery. What transpired at the 1982 NBC affiliates convention was a demonstration of master salesmanship on the part of Tinker and his executive corps. The approach was unique and simple: Eschewing the hype and brash predictions for fast success that usually fill the air at these gatherings, Tinker Co.

tended toward sober examination of the network's shortcomings. The tone was something close to contrition. "You're not going to hear any jokes," Tinker told the affiliates in his opening remarks Tuesday. "Winners tell jokes and I'm certainly not standing here a winner. Let's talk about losing something we all know a little bit about" And, talk about losing he did, enunciating NBCs manifold problems from schedule instability to bad programming.

The whole thing seemed more like group therapy than an affiliates meeting. And It worked. "He's a good man," said Stanley Hubbard of KOB in Albuquerque, N.M., raising his glass to Tinker, "a good man." That feeling was near-unanimous among the affiliates interviewed, and It was an important point for Tinker. mm NBC's Grant Tinker didn't tell jokes or paint rosy pictures recently when he addressed representatives of the network's affiliated stations. His speech struck some observers as an act of contrition.

Affiliate support is important to even the strongest network, and crucial to a network rebuilding. Unhappy stations can foul a network's plans a hundred ways. Including the refusal to carry all of the network's programs. These NBC affiliates have been wooed in other bad times by other new network chiefs. In May 1979, Fred Silverman made his first appearance at an NBC affiliates convention as network president NBC then, as now, was mired In third place In prime-time ratings.

Stiver-man's approach was to talk big and move fast, promising quick success cast as 'Casablanca Rick Revolutionary New Lenses Soft CobdGocEo Witthi At last, you can enhance your eye color or change it with easy to wear fashion-tinted soft latest in soft and silicone lenses let you come out of hiding. For more information, call today. Dr. Bruce Gaddie Optometrist Mall Office Center Shelbyville Rd. 895-421 1 Crestwood 241-8823 CS David Soul By HOWARD ROSENBERG Lm Anfm ThnM HOLLYWOOD TV always rewards your patience.

Everyone knows that "Casablanca" was a 1942 movie disgrace, an embarrassment Just crying to be remade. For years, I've been waiting for someone to do it right for TV. Now comes wonderful news that NBC next season will present a new "Casablanca," this time without Humphrey Bogart to botch things up. The hero of NBCs "Casablanca" will have the charisma, raw appeal and stature Bogie lacked, the skill and power to say, "Here's looking at you, kid," and make us weep. That's right schweetheart, we're talking David Soul.

Yes, Soul will re-create the illusive nightclub owner who captured Ingrid Bergman's heart and outwitted the Nazis. This means, of course, that Woody Allen may want to re-edit "Play It Again, Sam" to substitute Soul for the bland Bogie. No word yet on who will play Bergman's but Brooke Shields Is available. So are Suzanne Somers and Lonl Anderson. Gary Coleman could replace Doo-ley Wilson at the piano singing, "As Time Goes By." Better yet Bubba Smith C'Play It again.

And let's make it contemporary and more meaningful by relocating the whole thing in the Falkland Islands. With "Casablanca" spoken for, rmyipw, awaiting "Gone With the Wind" with Joyce DeWitt as Scarlett O'Hara. Orson affile "most Incredible automobile ever made." Letting our imaginations take over, we envision a car that Is not only a crack shot and black belt In karate but also a stimulating conversationalist In three languages. Not that TV won'j get serious in 1982-83. No less than Gary Gllmore, Gloria Vanderbilt Joan Kennedy, Hank Williams Jacobo Tlmerman, Ingrid Bergman, John Everlngham, Robert F.

Kennedy, Rosemary Qooney, Benedict Arnold, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Walter Llppman, Grace Kelly, Mata Hart, Jack London and Liz Taylor are subjects of TV biographies scheduled for the coming season. Although there's no advance word from CBS, ABC does say its piece on Liz Taylor will be "affectionate," and NBC promises its stories about Tlmerman and Everlngham will be just plain "true," Joan Kennedy and Bergman "fact-based" and Gilmore, Vanderbilt and Williams book-based. Others, no doubt will be "debased." Meanwhile, the most exciting pairing of the new season comes from NBC Yes, bigger even than Lunt and Fontanne, more electrifying even than Hepburn and Fonda are the irresistible Erik Estrada and Morgan Falrchild in a boxing story called "Honey Boy." And for the most sparkling idea of the year, we turn again to ABC, whose new series Include "The New Odd Couple," with Demond Wilson and Ron Glass. The network that "found no room on its schedule for 7taxl'Iflndi, -some for oldT TV comedy gussied up with black Welles wasn't bad In "Citizen Kane," but Just Imagine a socko new version with Bob Conrad. Well, you get the Idea.

This is no time for half measures from an Industry under siege. Everything you've seen from the networks the last few years has been merely preliminary. Next season with cable and pay TV digging Into their audience the networks get serious. Having heard a loud jingle of coin from the box office for "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the battle cry for fall -Is "Action and Adventure!" The perception Is that recessionary America gets all the reality it wants or can handle from 9 to 5. Prime time belongs to fantasy.

With only a few exceptions, prime-time series announced for fall consist of rampant escapism. Escape? This is full flight Splattered across the schedule are action-adventure series either Influenced by or cookie-cuttered from "Raiders of the Lost Ark." ABC alone has three. One, sight unseen, seems truly wondrous, something called "Brass Monkey" In which cargo pilot Jake Cutter exists on "the threshhold of danger" battling such terrifying villains as Princess Kogl and her warrior henchman, Todo. Just as eye-catching Is ABCs "Matt Houston." Matt is handsome, a millionaire, a businessman, a bachelor playboy, an enthusiastic rancher. And, of course, a detective.

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