TARTIKOFF LEADS NBC OUT OF WILDERNESS

ABC’s “Dynasty” edged out CBS’ “Dallas” as the most popular series of the 1984-85 TV season, but the big news in the season-ending ratings released Tuesday was that NBC climbed out of the cellar for the first time in 10 years--just as its programming chief had predicted it would last May.

But Brandon Tartikoff, president of NBC’s entertainment division for the last five years, wasn’t making any forecasts Tuesday about next season.

“I feel like a guy who went to the tables in Las Vegas and got lucky. Now I shouldn’t try to repeat it,” he said.

Tartikoff had boldly gone before the network’s affiliated stations last May to say that despite having garnered its lowest ratings ever and finishing third in the prime-time ratings race for the ninth year in a row, NBC believed that “once and for all, it is our turn--and we are going to get out of third place.”

Ratings released Tuesday by the A.C. Nielsen Co., the last for what the networks consider the official 30-week TV season, confirmed the veracity of his crystal ball. CBS finished first for the sixth consecutive year with an average prime-time rating of 16.9 (which translates to about 14.3 million households), followed by NBC with 16.2 (13.7 million households) and ABC with 15.4 (13 million households).

Led by the outstanding performance of its first-year comedy series “The Cosby Show,” NBC registered a 9% increase in ratings over last season while CBS dropped 6% and ABC declined 10%. NBC said it also ranked first in the young-adult ratings category that most advertisers prefer.

“That’s a far cry from a few years ago,” Tartikoff observed in an interview, “when the only thing we were first among was dogs--namely some of the shows we put on.”

While NBC had the top-rated comedy series of the season in “The Cosby Show,” it was ABC’s “Dynasty” that finished as the most popular show overall, edging out last year’s favorite, CBS’ “Dallas,” by a fraction. The serial about the rich and powerful Carrington family averaged a 25 rating (about 21.2 million households), while the Texas soap opera about the rich and powerful Ewing clan averaged a 24.7 rating (about 21 million households).

Rounding out the Top 10 series were, in order, NBC’s “The Cosby Show,” CBS’ “60 Minutes,” NBC’s “Family Ties,” NBC’s “The A-Team,” CBS’ “Simon & Simon,” CBS’ “Knots Landing,” CBS’ “Murder, She Wrote” and a tie between CBS’ “Falcon Crest” and “Crazy Like a Fox.”

Like Bill Cosby’s family sitcom on NBC, CBS’ “Murder, She Wrote,” a mystery series starring Angela Lansbury, and “Crazy Like a Fox,” a father and son detective show, were introduced this season. The only other new series to crack the Top 20 was NBC’s “Highway to Heaven,” which stars Michael Landon as an angel who travels the country helping people solve their problems.

In positions 12 through 20 were, in order, ABC’s “Hotel,” NBC’s “Cheers,” NBC’s “Riptide,” CBS’ “Magnum, P.I.,” CBS’ “Newhart,” CBS’ “Kate & Allie,” NBC’s “Highway to Heaven,” NBC’s “Night Court” and CBS’ “Scarecrow & Mrs. King.”

Tartikoff attributed the improvement in NBC’s performance to several factors, including the acceptance of its first-year series “The Cosby Show,” “Highway to Heaven” and “Miami Vice”; the solid showing by its returning series--including “Cheers,” “Family Ties,” “Remington Steele” and “St. Elsewhere,” all of which registered their highest ratings ever--and the generally strong ratings for its TV movies and miniseries.

NBC had two of the season’s three highest-rated TV movies, No. 1, “The Burning Bed,” and No. 3, “The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission.” ABC’s “The Ewok Adventure” was second, CBS’ “He’s Not Your Son” was fourth and ABC’s “Consenting Adult” was fifth.

The peacock network also had two of the top three multipart dramas: No. 1, “Fatal Vision,” and No. 3, “Evergreen.” ABC’s “Hollywood Wives” was second, while CBS’ “Ellis Island” and “The Atlanta Child Murders” ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.

Although this was the first time in a decade that NBC has been out of the prime-time cellar, its programming and financial fortunes actually have been improving for the past several years, under the guidance of Grant Tinker, a former TV production executive who was named chairman and chief executive officer of NBC in July, 1981.

As for the future, Tartikoff left no doubt that he and his programming colleagues, who celebrated the season-ending ratings at a luncheon Tuesday at the Sheraton-Premiere, have CBS in their sights.

One of the reasons he recently signed a new contract to continue as president of the entertainment division, the 36-year-old Tartikoff said, was that “I’d like to take a shot at going for No. 1. That’s clearly what we’re after and what we talk about constantly.”

Tartikoff suggested that next season might be too early to overtake CBS, and Harvey Shephard, senior vice president in charge of programming at the top-rated network, was inclined to agree.

“NBC did have dramatic improvement in its schedule this season; there’s no doubt about that,” Shephard said in an interview. “But the fact remains that we still won 21 of the 30 weeks and we won the season for the sixth year in a row. Those are no small accomplishments.”

At ABC, meanwhile, Lewis Erlicht, president of the entertainment division, was said to be unavailable for comment because he was screening pilots for next season. Earlier, however, he had told the Associated Press, “We must revolutionize our programming, take more chances. I think you’re going to see next season the diversity, uniqueness and better quality of our product.”

Erlicht, who has been criticized by some writers and producers for involving himself too much in the creative process, also indicated he had learned a lesson and planned to take a new approach next season. “I feel in the past we’ve been too heavy-handed with producers and creative people,” he said. “We have to go with the instincts of the people we hired to deliver a specific show. We’ve got to lighten up.”

Amid the hoopla over who finished first, second and third was a sobering fact for all three networks to contemplate: Overall network viewing was down about 3% compared to last season--marking at least the sixth year in a row that their share of the audience had declined.

Their combined average share of audience during prime time this season was 77%, down from 78.9% last season and 91% in the 1978-79 season. They reached an average of 41.1 million households, a drop of nearly 900,000 since last year and down about 2 million since the peak audience in 1979-80.

CBS’ Shephard said that he wasn’t particularly concerned by the audience decline, however, attributing it simply to increased competition for viewer attention.

“The other (viewing) alternatives keep getting stronger,” he explained. “There are more VCRs now, cable keeps increasing, independent stations just keep getting stronger. Just as the auto industry has learned, as the competition gets more intense, you have to work harder just to maintain your market share.”