The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 73

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1977 Zt Atlanta gournal and CONSTITUTION 29-T SE2S3S5S You're sitting in a darkened' How a metal gadget the size and shape of a prune and a Mr. Magoo cartoon can determine the fate of a prime-time show. sua Jf movie theater with a black, plastic-and-metal gadget in your hand, about the size and shape of a large prune. On its face is a semi-circular dial with several markings, ranging from "very dull" on the extreme left to "very, good" on the right, and an indicator which can be manipulated by turning a knob. Attached to the device Is a thick, black electric cord, plugged into an outlet in the armrest of your seat and con-; necting you ultimately with a master control center in a room upstairs.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, Is to sit back, relax and rate the first episode of a proposed new television series, by swerving that dial over to the right every time you see hear something you like, and by moving it to the left when you are bored or unimpressed. How did you, and the 300 or so others in this unusual audience, happen to acquire such an awesome responsibility? You were recruited by a strolling "field agent" in some heavily touristed location, like Disneyland or the Los Angeles Farmer's Market, where "average, unsophisticated-type" television viewers are thought to swarm during peak vacation periods. You were also carefully screened upon admission to the Preview House, an austere, white concrete building on Sunset Boulevard where "internal security" is tighter than at CIA headquarters, and uninvited "visitors" are turned abruptly away. You had to fill out a lengthy questionnaire, indicating your occupation, age, sex, race and TV viewing habits before obtaining a seat. Had your answers hinted at any connection with the advertising or communications industry, you would have been barred as a "security risk," theater manager Jose Coello says.

But here you are. And suddenly, the big screen Is filled with the animated image of the near-sighted Mister Magoo on skis. "For control purposes," explains Doug Ross of Audience Studies the outfit hired by ABC-TV to run tonight's "test." It seems that audience reactions to that venerable old cartoon character are well-established, after all these years, and the researchers consider it an ideal short "pre-test" for ensuring that all of the gadgets are operational, and that the audience knows how to manipulate them. So you watch Magoo engage a mountain goat in conversation before plummeting down a snowy mountainside about 20 feet ahead of an avalanche, sliding that dial from, "normal" to "good" or "duly depending on your preference. Then, Magoo is replaced by the sights and sounds of some of your favorite TV stars: Gavin MacLeod and Georgia Engel (formerly of the Mary Tyler Moore Show), recast as the tyrannical, slightly lecherous captain of an oceangoing cruise ship and his dizzy blonde stowaway.

HERE'S ALSO A PRETTY, new face that of perky, redheaded Lauren Tewes (pronounced as cruise director Julie McCoy invoking shouts of "Hubbal Hubba!" from the mostly middle-aged Preview House audience; and there's lots of luscious footage of white-capped waves and moonlit nights on deck. This beats "Magoo," so you slide that knob over towards "good," inching it up another notch or two when MacLeod cracks a very funny joke. And all the while, in a thickly carpeted, glass-walled computer room overlooking the theater, Ross and ABC-TV Research Director Gloria Messina, or others very much like them, are watching a needle jump on a line graph numbered from "0" to "10." "They're really loving this!" Miss Messina exclaims, as the needle inches past "7" on its way to "8." "It's easy to get it above '5 but more than is phenomenal," she explains. Her attention is focused at the moment on a printout of the "total audience" reaction, but she can also tell by glancing at other computer printouts that the show is doing better among "older men and women," "young women" and "comedy fans" than among "black teenagers" and 1 V.Li;.El ABC Phot davin MacLeod Stars as th Captain and Lauren Tewes as Cruis Director on The Love Boat "young men." Not to worry, An things considered, she is pleased at the response to the first episode of "Love Boat," which will premiere on ABC later this month, This ISN'T THE ONLY technique used by the networks in their search for winning entries. ABC, NBC and CBS all rely even more heavily on written questionnaires, to be filled out by viewers at the conclusion of screenings like this.

'That's where they have a chance to express themselves more fully," Miss Messina explains. Some also try predict the success of new shows through the use of closed-circuit 'and regional cable TV "tests;" through "galvanic skin response" tests (usually used in conjunction with "good-to-dull" meters and questionnaires) in which an "emotion-sensitive" device worn ever the viewer's finger records the magnitude of his response; and through telephone polls, following the first network airing. But a few blocks south and west of the Preview House at CBS-TV's "Television City," executives shun the "theatrical approach" entirely, in favor of what Bill Self, who is in charge of program development, describes as "our own, more home-like method." CBS "won't run a pilot just once for 300 people, like they do at the Preview House," he says. "We'll run it many more times for smaller groups, usin? ordinary TV monitors, question-and-answer sessions and questionnaires." At the other networks, too, executives tend to downplay their dependence on the Preview House, saying that they use the test results only to bolster their own "educated decisions" and "gut-level instincts." Programmers and creative directors have to sift through "thousands" of ideas for new shows each year, some of them no more specific than a plan "to build something around" a particular star, Self points out, in order to arrive at "a couple of hundred that warrant scripting." Of these, no more than 30 to 40 will be developed as "pilots" (at a cost of about 1250,000 apiece), and less than a dozen given the green light for further development as actual series And as the start of each new season draws near, the sophisticated gadgetry at the Preview House becomes increasingly attractive to programmers, who want to "polish" up rough pilots with an assist from "ordinary" viewers; their responses can and do lead to eleventh-hour cast, script or scheduling changes, says Miss Messina. But Marcia Carsey, the executive who will shoulder most of the responsibility for ABC programs tested here, is among the most skeptical of all, when it comes to the data Churned out by those Preview House computers, for which the network lays out great sums.

"The minute you start pushing buttons and applying the scientific method to programming, I think it's destructive," declares Mrs. Carsey, vice president in charge of comedy and variety programming at ABC. "You can use it as a tool. But basically you have to go on instincts." A pet project of Mrs. Carsey's is the sex filled, controversial series "Soap," slated to premiere Sept.

13, and already the target of strident protest by Catholics and other church leaders. Her decision to go with it, she says, was based on "just a feeling for show business and magic and gut-level instinct." as are most of her decisions. CAROLE ASIIKINAZE they will not see as what they will see. Gone, for instance, will be the Mcrv Griffin Show, one of the mainstays in daytime television here for years. The show lost important rating points during the 1976-77 season, said Neil Kuvin, program director for WXIA.

"Atlanta simply has been 'talked' to death," Kuvin said. Scanning the schedule, it is obvious that local program directors like to play it safe, scheduling the old favorites. But, as one station executive put it, "Why should we try the unproven shows when we know the oldies will work so successfully?" TV here will return to Channel 17. It's World At War, the story of World War II. WHAE-TV (Channel 46) is adding more than just new show titles.

The station was due to change its name to WANX-TV on Sept. 3. And, beginning Sept. 10, many old favorites will be added to the Channel 46 schedule. Here again, programs such as Bonanza, The Flintstones, Bonanza, Wagon Train, Lancer, Big Valley, Batman, Superman, The Rifleman and Mayberry, R.F.D.

returning. Viewers might be as interested in what 7 to 8 p.m. WAGA-TV (Channel 5) will slick with its 1976-77 schedule for fringe time. I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched and Mike Douglas will continue to fill the 4 to 6 p.m. area.

Two new shows, Second City, a sort of Laugh-In, and The Wolfman Jack Show, featuring the noted disc jockey, will be added to the prime access area. My Three Sons, the old comedy series Which starred Fred MacMurray, will return to WTCG-TV (Channel 17) In what that station considers an important move. Another scries which has already won great favor on some of the violence to make the series more acceptable as a late afternoon program. Atlanta area viewers will get their first glimpse of The Gong Show, a wacky, daytime show now offered by NBC at 1 p.m., but not telecast here by WSB. It will run in the 7:30 p.m.

slot on WSB, once a week. WXIA-TV (Channel 11) has revealed most of its fringe and prime access time will be filled just as it was last season, with Emergency and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea filling the 4 to 6 p.m. area, and To Tell the Truth and Concentration slotted in.