PANEL OF SUCCESSFUL PRODUCERS : NEW SHOWS ADVISED TO GO THEIR OWN WAYS

Producers of some of this TV season’s hit fare had some advice Wednesday for others who didn’t make it: Don’t send in the clones.

Nonetheless, many are. When the fall television season gets under way, CBS executives hope that “Charlie & Company” finds itself in the ratings company of its NBC inspiration, “The Cosby Show.” ABC programmers likewise hope their new undercover cop entry called “Hollywood Beat” beats NBC’s “Miami Vice.”

“If we’re imitated next year, that’s great, and I hope those shows are successful,” “Miami Vice” executive producer Michael Mann told the Hollywood Radio & Television Society at a luncheon panel at the Beverly Wilshire. “But they’ll be imitating what we did last year. We’ll be on to something new.”

Marcy Carsey, who started her career as an NBC tour guide and now is executive producer of “The Cosby Show,” summed up her series’ success this way: “Bill Cosby: those two words are my best explanation of why this show is a hit.”

“Cosby,” like “Miami Vice,” was a trend-breaker--at least in recent seasons--when it first hit the airwaves, something a copycat show could never be.

Fortunately, Carsey said, “NBC hadn’t heard the news that comedy is dead.” The four producers introduced by society president Brandon Tartikoff--who served as an unbiased moderator despite his position as president of NBC Entertainment--also included Peter Fischer of CBS’ “Murder, She Wrote” and Glenn Caron of ABC’s “Moonlighting.”

The panel presented a striking picture of the diversity among successful TV producers: Carsey, perky and youthful; Mann, a cigarette-smoking hipster; Caron, stocky and nattily attired; and Fischer, avuncular and scholarly looking.

Fischer’s very presence bore out Carsey’s admonition that “when you spot a trend, (you should) ignore it.”

“Everybody said going in that ‘it can’t possibly work,’ ” Fischer told the 400 or so members present. Viewers didn’t want a whodunit, the main character (played by Angela Lansbury) was too old and her occupation--novelist--never has been a big audience draw. “So we named it ‘Murder, She Wrote’ to make sure we’d fail,” Fischer said.

Networks may have to take chances to “win back audiences with more provocative programming,” Mann pointed out.

“Miami Vice,” he said, “tries to be dangerous and on the edge.” But he added that “being on the edge is probably the safest place to be in the next 10 years.”

That, seemingly, would leave “Hollywood Beat” in a dangerous position--simply because it is traveling a path previously cleared, and perhaps made a bit too safe, by “Miami Vice.”

So what about a show that seems to be a blatant copy of an NBC hit, but can’t even be categorized accurately by TV professionals, Caron asked.

That would be ABC’s “Moonlighting.” Though the show has been accused of borrowing its cute boy-girl detective team theme from “Remington Steele,” Caron said he considers the show a comedy. But the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, when it had to place the show in a category, couldn’t conceive that a comedy could be an hour long, Caron said.

“Moonlighting’s” seemingly dual stance--as a follower and an innovator--may offer the greatest truism about television: There’s nothing new. But execution--and whether it’s entertaining--can make the difference.

“If we all started thinking less ‘comedy or drama’ and more entertainment value, we’d all be a lot better off,” Carsey said.