Daily News from New York, New York • 138

8f AugHSt.20, 1989 i TVCABLE On 00 EM BY KENNETH R. CLARK hour with NBC's latest star candidate leaves one overriding imores- The new show marks oi more effort in a series of fa ures to make a prime-tir news magazine fly the wi "60 Minutes" has for CBS an "2020" has for ABC. The aura of desperatio surrounding the new shov case is palpable, and it wg made no better by the defei tion last spring of Conni Chung to CBS just as NBC was about to put her in th post now held by William The consensus at NBC is tha the show, which will hav IV SHOWS THEIR SINGERS: From far left, The Wonder Years" and Joe Cocker, China Beach" and the Supremes, "Murphy Brown" and Martha Reeves the Vandellas sion: Unless you're looking for a fight, don't mess with Mary Alice Williams. Television critics who had done just that by trashing her new show were lucky to be far away from those ice-blue eyes and that bluntness that calls a jackass a jackass, no matter the length of its ears. Even before the Aug.

2 debut of "Yesterday, To- day and Tomorrow," I wnicn Williams co-hosts with Maria Shri-ver and Chuck Scarborough, critics had been attacking the announced use of re-creations, in which actors play scenes for which no archival footage is available. "Who are they to sit there and take potshots at us, and at me, for what we are going to do with these recreations?" she said. "They don't have to worry about this stuff. You can very clearly re-create a crime in 1910 or the beginning of World War I with a pencil and paper in your hand, but we cannot" She made it evident that she expects her bosses to use caution on the re-creations. "I have not put in half my life in this business to become cheesy in the end," Williams said.

For the first time in 11 NBC her life, Williams' dedication to journalism has a competitor. At 40, she is pregnant with her first child. She met her husband of one year, Mark Haefeli, when CNN. the network she left to come to NBC, hired him over her objections as her New York producer. "I didn't think he had the credentials to be the New York news producer," she said, chuckling.

"But everything he touched turned to gold. We became good friends and we started going to Mass together on Sundays. One thing led to another, and here we are." Now she struggles for time to be married and have a child. Though Williams was hired away from CNN to do "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," which takes a story from the past through the present and into the future, her credits include being seen on "NBC News at Sunrise" and as a substitute for Jane Pauley on the "Today" snow, bhe has done afternoon news updates, hosted "Siin- ew upaaies, nostea "Sun- Jtftt Kxi -H assignments, isiao audience involved in the episode. And the song we choose is an important part of that." This creativity comes at a price.

English says that buying the rights to the songs used in "Murphy Brown" costs about $10,000 per episode, compared to the $10,000 to $40,000 it can cost to have an original theme written and recorded. But the per- ried With Children" bought the rights to "Love and Marriage," for example, they had to track down the 40 or so musicians or their heirs who played in the 1956 recording session with Frank Sinatra. Sometimes, a producer wants the viewer identification of a hit song, but the original version doesn't quite fit 'lifi CO-HOST Mary Alice Williams one or two more test outings before it wins a permanenl spot on the prime-time sched ule, has got to work. "That decision is in the hands of the audience," Williams said, "but if it happens, I will have a job I'm constantly working, and I suspect they will find a role for me even if it's a continuation of the utility infielder that I'm playing, filling in for everybody else on their programs, which is a lot of fun." Chicago Tribune Check It Out THE SUBJECT IS SIMON How would you like to meet the playwright behind all those great Broadway comedies? You can tomorrow night when PBS' "American Masters" series profiles Neil Simon (Ch. 13, 9 p.m.).

Since many of Simon's plays follow his life, you can get an insight on him through excerpts from such works as "Barefoot in the Park," Chapter Two," and "Brighton Beach Memoirs," J'Biloxi Blues" and "Rrnari- We wanted to attract baby boomers who remembered the original (song). David Grossman, Columbia Pictures TV Mind" to choose from, including versions by Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong. But none was brassy enough to suit the show's four sassy leads. So they got Tom Scott to write an original arrangement and Doc Severinsen to record it. When, after two seasons, the producers changed the opening visuals, they decided they needed to overhaul the music as well.

"They wanted an even more swinging version," said Grossman. "Actually, several recordings were made and aired before thev found the one that fit the groove and felt right." Even those producers who choose to go with an original theme song often will at least consider hit tunes. At one time or another, the producers of "thirtysomething" listened to no fewer than 16 songs as possible show-openers, said supervising producer Scott Winant These included Paul Simon's. "Something So Right" and the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice." "For some reason, these songs just didn't feel right," Winant said. "We wanted something that was completely different from anything you a near on television and we were able to get that show price of an original theme is actually lower because the upfront cost is amortized over a full season of telecasts.

Shows that use the same theme all season, like "China Beach" or "The Won-- der Years," have to pay for rights, but can negotiate what is, in effect, a volume discount. The musicians' union contract stipulates that each year a show is renewed, the players on the theme song i jnust be paid the equivalent -of one recording session. his tan sometimes be tricky. Whtn tRo wnfftirioW'M. LL, the bill.

The producers of the short-lived summer replacement "Live-In" wanted to use the '60s hit, "Happy Together." But rather than using the original Turtles recording, they commissioned a more hip, upbeat version, according to David Grossman, director of music for Columbia Pictures Television. "We wanted to attract baby boomers who remembered the original and the younger audience wfto didn't." he i The producers ofDesign ineWmHt't tmff Kit osed fosV i "Wof'Tom'Bi Jf a. Manmts. a rree-b rer.r.