TV RESPECT: AS SIMPLE AS, UH, ABC

Poor, abused TV finally is getting its due.

“TV is taken for granted and doesn’t have the respect we’d like it to have,” James Duffy, president of the ABC Television Network and senior vice president of the ABC Broadcast Group, complained recently to Calendar reporter Lee Margulies.

That is why ABC is spending more than $1 million this year on a self-congratulatory advertising blitz lauding commercial television.

Duffy doesn’t expect to change minds immediately. “But hopefully, three years from now,” he continued, “we can help put what this industry is into better focus and depict what I think are the enormous contributions that it makes in a better light.”

I have to be candid here. Duffy is too complacent. Why wait three years? Let’s change those minds now! We can do it--with the help of Anthony D. Thomopoulos, president of the ABC Broadcast Group. In a recent speech at Georgetown University, Thomopoulos lavished TV with praise.

His eloquent speech was lacking only in sufficient examples, an omission I have rectified here by juxtaposing excerpts of the speech with ABC publicity blurbs about the network’s programming.

Thomopoulos: Network TV is a “theater without parallel.”

Zsa Zsa Gabor and Morris the cat are the in-studio guests on “Foul-Ups, Bleeps & Blunders.”

Thomopoulos: “No other form of expression . . . is the crucible of change and experimentation that television is.”

Doc’s plans for romance with a beautiful woman are ruined by his ex-wife’s fiance in “The Love Boat.”

Thomopoulos: “The format of motion pictures has essentially changed little. . . . But television is continuously inventing new forms.”

Celebrity guests Abby Dalton, Bill Daly, Sarah Purcell and Ted Shackelford join host Peter Marshall on the challenging new daytime game show “All-Star Blitz.”

Thomopoulos: “Nowhere is it written that television programs must adhere to a specific format.”

Hooker uncovers the double life of a teen-age prostitute who has become the target of two killers in “T.J. Hooker.”

Thomopoulos: “The boundaries of innovation are always being probed.”

Jack creates chaos while watching filming of a TV commercial featuring Vicky, but then gets a part in the commercial himself in “Three’s a Crowd.”

Thomopoulos: Network programmers possess “dynamism and energy.”

Blake and Krystle seek to renew their love in a romantic setting, and Prince Michael’s security precautions fail to prevent kidnaping in “Dynasty.”

Thomopoulos: “We are driven to experiment and change because audience demands are continually escalating, and audience tastes constantly changing.”

George’s ego is bruised when Wesley looks upon Belvedere as a hero because Belvedere floored a loudmouth who attacked George at the wrestling matches in “Mr. Belvedere.”

Thomopoulos: “A series good enough to be a success 10 or even five years ago may not be good enough even to survive today.”

Jenny poses as a prostitute in an effort to find a teen-age runaway girl’s parents in “MacGruder & Loud.”

Thomopoulos: “We see in (TV) a sensitive mirror of our world, and understand that it reflects a kind of consensus of our views of ourselves and our concerns.”

An outrageously funny look at the world of the unattached woman as she goes through her life looking for “Mr. Right,” in “99 Ways to Attract the Right Man.”

Thomopoulos: “Every program on television is information. The images communicated in entertainment programs are simply a different kind of information--a complex and sometimes subtle reflection of the attitudes of a society.”

Angela has a memory lapse on the morning after she and Tony engaged in a passionate kiss while both of them were tipsy in “Who’s the Boss?”

Thomopoulos: “I can tell you from ABC’s experience in broadcasting breakthroughs like ‘Something About Amelia’ and ‘The Day After,’ that being first is not easy. But it is essential to the vitality of network television, and to the values it can bring to people.”

Police detective Katy Maloney, a fiery redhead as tough as she is beautiful, bends all the rules to nail the ruthless cocaine trade matriarch responsible for the murder of her lover in “Lady Blue.”

Thomopoulos: “We know what quality is. We know what makes for real excellence in television programming.”

While Julia holds a late-night vigil for the wounded Oliver, a pretty spy becomes his nurse, and Luger seeks to postpone arms limitations talks until after his fiance’s prom, in “Hail to the Chief.”

And hail to chief Thomopoulos for setting the record straight.