The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 65

CALENDAR Cos Angeles (Times Television Listings Wednesday. July 21. 1982 Part VI "Pay-per-view" may sound like something taught at a Berliti language school, but it is a term most people will become familiar with in the near future. The concept isn't difficult to understand: The home consumer pays for what he watches each time he watches it. Until now, most pay-per-view events have been in sports, such as the recent Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney championship fight.

That may be changing. Universal Pictures rocked the entertainment Industry last month when it formally unveiled plans to test the pay-per-view waters with a February release of "The Pirates of Penzance." Universal tentative plans call for the film to be released to pay-TV stations and cable systems at the same time it is released to movie theaters. Pay-per-view presentations are made possible by "addressable" technology, in which a cable or subscription-TV operator addresses a program to only those subscribers who have requested it and who are willing to pay an extra fee to receive It. Leading cable-TV consultants like Paul Kagan estimate that there are now nearly 2 million addressable homes in the country, a number expected to grow to 5 million by 1985. A recent decision by the Federal Communications Commission to deregulate over-the-air subscription pay-TV channels, such as ON TV and SelecTV in Los Angeles, Is expected to stimulate that growth.

Calendar is taking a two-pronged look at pay-per-view: from the standpoints of the cable industry and the movie business. The third variable in the pay-per-view equation is the consumer, who ultimately will decide whether pay-per-view will be the entertainment revolution so many people expect it to be, or just another failed experiment. FEATURE FILMS FOR THE PAY-AS-YOU-STAY CROWD STUDIOS SEE BONANZA IN LIVING ROOM PREMIERES homes paid $6 apiece to see the TV premiere of "Superman II." Viewers saw "The Seduction" for $4, and, in April, "Mommie Dearest" and "Tattoo." In Middletown, in June, subscribers to the Group Cable system saw "Body Heat," "Arthur" and "Superman II." Subscribers to ON TV and Select TV in Los Angeles and elsewhere already have grown accustomed to special pay-per-view boxing matches, such as the recent Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney bout. Last fall, a fifth of ON TV's subscribers nationwide saw a live Rolling Stones concert. Viewers of the sophisticated Qube cable-TV system in Columbus, 1LLUSTRATI0N BY TONY GLEESON By DAVID CROOK, Times Staff Writer In September, "Star Wars," already the highest-grossing movie of all time, will again make entertainment history.

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. plans to release the movie to pay television as a so-called "pay-per-view" special. Cable TV systems and subcription TV services with their nearly 2 million subscribers are expected to charge a home for a one-time-only showing of "Star Wars." If only 10 of those subscribers elect to pay for the movie. Fox stands to make nearly $1 million in two hours. If 50 of the subscribers take the film and such percentages are common with major pay-per-view sporting events Fox will add another $4 million to the film's already swollen bank accounts.

Pay-per-view, or "addressability" as it's known in the arcane technologese of the pay-TV world, promises to change the face of TV and the movies. Studios and pay-TV companies are forging a new alliance to bring feature films directly to people's homes, bypassing movie theaters and traditional pay-TV networks. Pay-per-view is a hybrid money machine, combining the movie theater's ticket seller with the pay-TV network's satellite distribution. "Star Wars" will join a growing list of feature films and other special events that have debuted on home TV screens via the new electronic home box office. In San Jose in May, about 3,500 (about 10 of the total possible) By DALE POLLOCK, Times Staff Writer The movie studio is excited about its latest major production: The film has big stars, good production values, an interesting story and lots of action.

The studio's advertising and publicity departments have been working on plans for a nationwide series of premieres on the same night. Only these premieres won't have searchlights, paparazzi or limousinesthey'll be taking place in the living rooms of people who subscribe to addressable cable systems. If the plans come off without a hitch, the studio can realize $20 million in one night. That scenario, far-fetched as it sounds, is not far off. Now that more than a third of American homes with television sets also have cable, now that the technology exists that permits cable operators to charge individual homes for individual programs, now that "Star Wars" will be the first major movie to crack the pay-per-view market, the above fantasy may soon be reality.

Not a moment too soon as far as some of the movie studios are concerned. While Hollywood remains divided on the wisdom of showing a movie to a paying TV audience before the film opens in theaters, there's hardly a dissenting voice about the potential rewards for a studio from pay-per-view. MCA-Universal (which started the current brouhaha with its plans to debut "Pirates of Penzance" in February on a pay-per-view basis), Columbia Pictures and 20th Centu ry-Fox are all companies considered to be in the forefront of experimenting with this new medium. And why not? A movie studio could save millions of dollars in expensive prints and advertising of the film, and in salaries and overhead of film-distribution offices if a movie could be broadcast from a satellite to cable systems, which in turn would sell the film directly to customers on a one-time basis. "It's costing far too much to market films today," says Norman Levy, vice chairman of 20th Century-Fox and the president of its distribution operation.

"The studios can no longer exist with the limited number of seats in good theaters. At that point, pay-per-view starts to look very attractive." Levy points to research that indicates the moviegoing audience (primarily young and single) is not the same as the cable-TV audience, which is an older, family audience called "upscale" (higher income and educational levels) by demographic researchers. But before movie executives bypass the theatrical audience, they want to be sure there are enough livingroom buyers to replace those long lines in West-wood each weekend. "You don't throw out your dirty water until you're very sure there's clean water out there," is the way Levy puts it. Columbia Pictures Chairman Frank Price doesn't want to see any water tossed out.

Price, Warner Bros. President Terry Semel and Paramount Pictures Chairman Barry Diller believe that a movie only draws the crucial "word-of-mouth" Please see STUDIOS, Page 2 Pay-per-view is a hybrid money machine, combining the movie theater's ticket seller with pay-TV networks' satellite distribution LARRY ARMSTRONG Los Angeles Times "With us, a movie company can do it all in one night, rollout a film in two hours. "It's such a simple concept that I can't believe they haven't done it." Salkin's enthusiasm is not universal among pay-TV executives. Generally, the pay-TV business is optimistic about the prospects of pay-per-view. There are some questions, however.

John Cooke, president of the Spotlight pay-TV network (of which Times Mirror, parent company of The Times, is a part owner), asked some of those questions in a speech in May at a Las Vegas cable convention: "What types of programming will be appealing and compelling to subscribers? How many films qualify as pay-per-view events? What price should be charged? How will pay-per-view affect other profit centers, such as pay television, theatrical presentations, commercial televi- "Start Me Up." Simpson huddled with co-producer Jerry Bruckenheimer (co-producer of "Young Doctors in director Adrian Lyne and casting director Gretchen Ren-nell to consider the latest possibilities. None. The group was thanked and dismissed. What they seek is "a very young girl who is unknown, beautiful, a great dancer and who can basically carry the whole picture," Rennell explained. "Oh yeah, and act," Simpson added.

Simpson described "FlashDance" Please see FILM CLIPS, Page 7 sion, and videocassettes and discs?" The answers to Cooke's questions vary with the companies involved. Just about every major pay-TV and cable company is experimenting with addressable technology. Programming firms and distributors also have formed corporate alliances around the new medium. Pay-per-view is a major element in the new CBS -20th Century Fox joint venture company, CBSFox Home Video. Universal, Paramount and Time Inc.

are said to be exploring pay-per-view for their jointly owned USA Cable Network. Viacom Enterprises has a joint venture with Gillcable TV of San Jose. ABC has separate joint ventures with Getty Oil (owner of the 24-hour, all-sports ESPN cable network) and Cox Communications of Atlanta. The trend toward corporate joint ventures has come largely at the end of an initial wave of enthusiasm within the cable industry over pay-per-view technology. Even giant companies are hedging their bets and finding partners to help them meet the tremendous costs of converting existing cable systems to pay-per-view or building new ones.

Please see FILMS, Page 4 HOWARD ROSENBERG 'CRISIS' PROVES PBS ISN'T DEAD 1 1 Salvador. May, 1980. Jean Donovan, a lay mis sionary from Cleveland help ing refugees displaced by fighting, recorded in her diary that violence in the strife-torn country had risen to an unbelievable level. "My friends think I should get out," she wrote. "I'm not sure yet." Seven months later Donovan was dead, murdered with three American nuns.

The bodies of the four companions were discovered in a common grave about 30 miles from San Salvador. They had been shot to death. Two had been sexually assaulted. The killings had widespread ramifications. The churchwomen had worked among the poor.

Was it possible that they had been marked for extinction by higher-ups in the U.S. -supported ruling junta, whose security forces had identified the women with leftist rebels? Five national guardsmen ultimately were accused of the killings. Almost 20 months after the murders, however, there has been no trial. The story of Jean Donovan leading to the murders, and the implications of the case, are stirringly told in "Roses in December," a public-television documentary airing at 9 p.m. Friday on KCET Channel 28.

The 55 -minute film begins "Crisis to Crisis," a 10-week series of documentaries from independent filmmakers that certifies public television isn't dead yet. Not by a long shot. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) now has three documentary series going: "U.S. Chronicle," "Matters of Life and Death" and "Crisis to Crisis," whose other hot See DOCUMENTARIES, Page 8 MARSHA TRAEGER Los Angeles Times Colder in a scene from Modigliani." Ohio, regularly watch movie channels that charge set per-movie fees rather than blanket rates. As modern cable systems are built in such cities as Boston, Pittsburgh, Houston, Dallas and elsewhere, millions of homes across the country' will have access to pay-per-view programs.

The movie business may never be the same. Traditional film distribution, explained Jon Salkin, vice president of new business marketing for Group Cable "requires expensive, month-after-month rollout. It's a primitive distribution system of going market by market. By DEBORAH CAULFIELD, Times Staff Writer In conclusion the letter proclaims "LOOK FORWARD TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX RAFFLE COMING SOON!" (a veiled reference to persistent rumors of a management upheaval at Fox). SUFFERING: Everyone knows that producing movies is a dirty, thankless job, but somebody's got to do it.

Just ask Don Simpson who recently turned producer after he left his job as president of production at Paramount Pictures. Poor Don. For the past few weeks Simpson has auditioned more than 1,000 beautiful 18 to 22-year-old women in his search for an unknown "dream girl" to play the starring role of Raven in his new project "FlashDance." "Hey, it's hard work!" the irrepressible Simpson insisted on a Paramount sound stage this week as he eyed yet another group of lithesome (and semi-lithesome) lovelies dancing to the Rolling Stones' inmiiH mm i 4 A. 'FlashDance" producers and crew watch dance auditions on Paramount sound stage during talent search. FILM CLIPS THE GAME OF THE NAME AT UA Ric Mancini, left, and Anthony STAGE REVIEW THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A GENIUS By LAWRENCE CHRISTON The playwright who tries to dramatize a publicly acknowledged genius finds extra restriction written on his poetic license; his character has already been outlined by history and fleshed in by contemporary assumptions.

In effect, he's been predesigned. The result, therefore, is that most plays about genius give us everything except genius. Such is the case with Dennis Mc-Intyre's "Modigliani," which is having its West Coast premiere at the Cast Theater. With a wink and a finger on the lip, Mclntyre invites us along for a couple of days of slumming in Paris' lower depths in 1915, where we listen in on Soutine (Tony Papcnfuss), Utrillo (Barry Cutler) and later Modigliani (Anthony Caldcr) drunkenly plotting to overwhelm the waiter, though they're too inept to get the job done. Then it's on to the flat of Leopold Zborowski, a well-meaning but eccentric, worn-at-the-hcels friend acting as Modigliani's agent, to find that he has given away one of Modi -gliani's cherished paintings to a critic.

He's eager to help, but a naif. Then home to Modigliani's studio, where his mistress, the Capetown poet Beatrice Hastings, is horrified to learn that the painting has been lost. The next day Modigliani puts his best face forward at lunch and tells excessively (and transparently) brave lies to the elegant and fastidiously discerning dealer Guillaume Cheron, who would kill a peacock for its feathers without a second thought. Modigliani has brought some canvases along, but it's no sale, only more humiliation and self-ruin. Will a new life in Martinique be the answer? He thinks it will.

Paris has been so cruel that he wants to destroy every evidence of having worked there, and angrily begins trashing his drawings and paintings. Beatrice's faith in his genius prevails however, and he resolves to stick it out, to paint again. Please see' Page 2 While MGMUA continues its not-so-subtle search for a replacement for recently ousted United Artists Chairman David Begelman, as-yet-unidentified Hollywood pranksters are conducting a similar enterprise. Consider the one -page lottery announcement currently circulating through the industry's erstwhile corridors of power. Addressed to "whom it may concern" the anonymous letter states that "It's musical chairs time again" and offers the reader a cash prize if he or she correctly selects the future chairman from the following list: Current studio executives: John Veitch Columbia); Gary Nardino Paramount): Frank Mancuso (Paramount); Thorn Mount (Universal); Norman Levy (Fox); Freddie Fields (MGM); Guy McElwaine (Rastar), and Dan Rissncr (Fox).

Producers: Frank Yablans; Lcn Goldberg; Bob Evans; Peter Cuber, Dan Melnick, and David Gcffen. Agents: Martin Baum. Oh, yes. And Alexander Haig, The cost to enter the lottery Is $5, the letter adds, INSIDE CALENDAR FILM: Two anti-nuclear documentaries by Kevin Thomas. Page 7.

RADIO: A HTM Highlights. Page 8. STAGE: "No. No, Nanette" by John C. Mahoncy.

Page 6. TELEVISION: Today's programming. Page 8. Mother Angelica, the broadcasting nun, by Jack I lawn. Page 5.

Nielsen ratings for week ending July 18. Page 8..