NBC Scraps Plans for Miniseries on San Ysidro Massacre

Following a storm of protest, NBC-TV has decided not to do a proposed four-hour miniseries about the July massacre of 21 people at a San Ysidro McDonald’s restaurant.

In a statement issued Thursday afternoon from the network’s Burbank offices, NBC spokesman Gene Walsh said that “approximately 100 movie projects in development for the 1985-86 season have been reviewed, and several have been terminated, including the San Ysidro project.”

Walsh would not elaborate on the reasons for the decision, but one network source commented “we don’t have blinders on here,” indicating that NBC executives are aware of local opposition to the project.

The miniseries is being planned by Los Angeles producers Larry Spivey and Harry Sherman, who have so far enlisted as a consultant Etna Huberty, the widow of the slain gunman, James Huberty. On July 18, Huberty entered the McDonald’s and, armed with a variety of guns, committed the worst single-episode mass slaying in U.S. history before being killed by a San Diego police sharpshooter.

News that the miniseries was to be filmed on location in San Ysidro prompted a strong community outcry. Survivors of the massacre, their friends and relatives expressed concern that the miniseries would exploit the victims of the tragedy and needlessly force the community to relive it.

On Monday, the San Diego City Council unanimously resolved to oppose the making of the film, and the city manager directed all city departments and the Chamber of Commerce to hold off on the issuing of permits involved with the film’s local production.

On Thursday night, Spivey addressed about 60 San Ysidro residents--including some massacre survivors and family members of eight victims--at a neighborhood Catholic church. As an interpreter put his words into Spanish, he asked the crowd to “see me as a friend” and told them that NBC had dropped the film proposal.

“What happens to the story of San Ysidro is in your hands,” he said. “The film will not be made if one of you has a problem with it. It could be good for you, good for the community, and good for society to share this tragedy and prevent something like it in the future.”

Spivey said he would continue to pursue “the possibility of telling the story . . . in a constructive and positive manner” and added that those San Ysidro residents who wished to participate “could be paid, and if they cared not to be, the money could be donated to a church or any other charity.”

Beatriz Hernandez, whose son was killed in the massacre, told Spivey, “I beg you not to do this movie. It’s a useless movie.”

She said she had deliberately avoided watching news accounts of the massacre. “Then last week we started suffering again” when Spivey proposed making the movie, she said.

Informed of NBC’s decision in a telephone interview Thursday night, Etna Huberty said, “Part of me does and part of me doesn’t (want the movie to be made). It would put a great deal of stress on me, but I think it could help other people. Mr. Spivey wants to set up a hot line for women who are having similar problems with their husbands--who don’t know what to do. A lot of people out there need help.”

Huberty reportedly will receive $10,000 to $100,000 if the film is produced, but she said the precise amount “depends on which network does it, and how much work I do.” She confirmed that she would contribute some of her proceeds to a fund for massacre victims.

All along Spivey has maintained that his film would not glorify the killer or exploit the event. Spivey’s most recent screen credit was as executive producer of last season’s acclaimed TV movie “Victims for Victims,” a non-fiction account of a criminal assault on actress Theresa Saldana.

In a statement issued earlier Thursday, NBC confirmed that the San Ysidro project was “in the first stage of development” and “focuses on how the San Diego community pulled together in the aftermath of the tragedy.”

Reportedly, Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, had been approached by Spivey to help fund the project, but she refused. San Diego police Chief William Kolender and police psychologist Michael Mantell had agreed to act as unpaid consultants on the project to assure accurate representation of the police force and the incident.

NBC’s decision to pull out of the project does not preclude it from being picked up by either of the other two major TV networks or made as an independent production.

“This is good news over the short term, and it would be comforting to know whether it was the community’s reaction that led to (NBC’s) cancellation of the contract,” said Rudy Murillo, executive assistant to San Diego City Councilman Uvaldo Martinez, whose district includes San Ysidro. “If NBC is dropping it, we would hope the other networks would follow suit and not touch it. Let’s hope this subdues the interest of other potential producers.”

Murillo added that Martinez had expressed his concern about the project to NBC corporate executives and to members of the National Assn. of Broadcasters (NAB).

San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock said, “I’m delighted by the news. It’s good news for San Diego and especially for San Ysidro. I hope that Mr. Spivey will go on to other projects now and frankly let this community and particularly San Ysidro bind up its wounds and get on with life. I think this re-creation of the massacre in San Ysidro would have been a terrible reopening of a wound.”

Hedgecock acknowledged that the film might yet be produced. “But regardless of who would be involved, the city’s position is the same. We’re adamantly against the making of this movie.”

Times staff writer Tom Greeley contributed to this report.