ABC PULLS SWITCH ON ITS FALL PRIME-TIME LINEUP

In an unusual sequence of announcements, ABC said Wednesday that the fall prime-time lineup it unveiled two days earlier was not precisely the schedule that viewers will see when the 1985-86 TV season begins in September.

“Lady Blue,” a new police series starring Jamie Rose, will be positioned in the 9 p.m. Thursday slot when the curtain rises on the new season, the network said. It will remain there until mid-November, when “Dynasty II: The Colbys,” a spinoff of ABC’s most popular series, will premiere in that time period.

When the fall schedule was announced Monday, ABC listed “Dynasty II” in that time slot and made no mention of its delayed starting date. “Lady Blue” got only a passing reference in the formal press release, with no indication that it had been given a specific time period and would be premiering with the rest of the network’s new shows.

There was no official explanation from ABC about why it handled the schedule announcement in this fashion.

“Lady Blue,” based on the TV movie of the same name that received good ratings when it aired April 15, stars Rose as a police officer who displays more aggressiveness than TV viewers supposedly have seen in previous female detectives. Danny Aiello will co-star as the chief of detectives in the series, which is being produced by David Gerber, the former producer of “Police Story” and “Police Woman.”

Although “Lady Blue” will have only a limited run in the Thursday time period, ABC said it is ordering enough episodes so that if the series is successful, it can be moved to another time period without interrupting the weekly flow.

Meanwhile, ABC also said Wednesday that Danny Arnold, the former producer and co-creator of “Barney Miller,” will be returning to television next season after an absence of more than three years. He signed an exclusive production deal with the network to develop a minimum of three series during the next two years.