NBC AND ABC PULL 2 SHOWS FROM CBS’ HAT

Think of them as two that got away.

A pair of CBS’ hottest executive producers--Peter S. Fischer of “Murder, She Wrote” and Barney Rosenzweig of “Cagney & Lacey”--both have taken their follow-up shows to other networks.

So, at a time when CBS has dropped to second place in the prime-time ratings and has several time slots desperate for resuscitation, NBC is getting the benefit of “Blacke’s Magic,” from Fischer. ABC next month will introduce “Fortune Dane,” the new one from Rosenzweig.

It would seem to be a programming blunder of the highest order to allow these two particular creative forces to turn up on the competition’s schedule. “Murder, She Wrote” is CBS’ highest-rated entertainment series; “Cagney & Lacey” swept last year’s Emmy awards.

“Blacke’s Magic,” which premiered Sunday night with a two-hour introductory episode and starts in its weekly time period Wednesday at 9, stars Hal Linden as retired magician Alexander Blacke and Harry Morgan as the father who taught him everything he knows. Each week, the two will apply their skills to the solution of crimes that they happen to wander upon.

The lighthearted whodunit tone, the protagonists’ ages and their peripatetic nature are all so similar to “Murder, She Wrote” that one industry observer, New York media buyer Paul Schulman, months ago dubbed the show “Murder, He Wrote.”

So how did CBS let this one get away?

In a way, it didn’t.

To CBS, “Murder, She Wrote” is its own “Blacke’s Magic.”

As executive producer Fischer tells it, he first approached NBC with “Blacke’s Magic” 3 1/2 years ago, but was turned down. “They liked the concept but for some reason, mainly to do with casting, it never got off the ground.” A year and a half later, he again approached NBC, and “it died again.”

That’s when he turned to CBS. Fischer recalls that executives there liked the concept, but told him “we’d like to do something with a female lead.” Senior vice president Harvey Shephard, the network’s top hands-on programmer, said that a script for “Blacke’s Magic” never reached his level, but he confirmed that, at that time, he wanted to do a similar “closed-end mystery”--TV lingo for a show in which the perpetrator is not revealed until the end.

(Much more common on TV is the “open-end mystery”--”Columbo” is the classic example--in which the viewer sees the crime committed at the outset.)

Either way, Alexander Blacke became Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), prestidigitation became novelization, and thus was born “Murder, She Wrote.”

When that series became a hit last year in its first season, “there was renewed interest at NBC” in “Blacke’s Magic,” Fischer said. The availability of Hal Linden was the key piece of casting that pleased NBC. To fit Linden’s affable style, Blacke became “less curmudgeonly” than originally written and, so he would have someone to play off of, he gained a father.

“Fortune Dane” leaves behind no such legacy at the network that passed up executive producer Rosenzweig’s next project. It was a business decision on CBS’ part.

Rosenzweig said that he did approach CBS about a deal for another series beyond “Cagney & Lacey,” but Shephard told him that he was philosophically opposed to making such deals--with any producer--prior to having a series concept in hand.

“To make a blind commitment without knowing the idea, I’m tying up a lot of resources, and it will hurt my ability to do other things,” Shephard explained.

The other two networks, however, do make such deals. NBC committed to airing a new series by Steven Bochco on the basis of his work as executive producer of “Hill Street Blues.” ABC signed just such a deal with Rosenzweig.

ABC also had made a commitment to actor Carl Weathers--Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” films--and he and Rosenzweig eventually were matched up for “Fortune Dane.” Weathers, as the title character, will be a trouble-shooter for the woman mayor of a fictitious “Bay Area” city.

Did CBS goof? Should it have recognized Rosenzweig’s potential with future series, in which case he would likely be developing something for the Big Eye right now? Should it have snapped up “Blacke’s Magic” when “Murder, She Wrote” looked like a hit?

CBS’ Shephard said he stands by his policy regarding blind commitments, even though “you know someone else is going to go after your best producers.”

In the end, only time--and ratings--will tell.

No series is a sure shot. All three networks are learning that the hard way this season with expensive shows hovering in the middle third of the A.C. Nielsen ratings, well below expectations. The most prominent are NBC’s “Amazing Stories,” from executive producer Steven Spielberg; the new Mary Tyler Moore sitcom, “Mary,” on CBS; and “The Colbys,” spun off ABC’s top show, “Dynasty.”

Those series indicate that even a proven producer will not necessarily turn out a smash hit.

On the other hand, a show that falls even in the top half of the ratings chart stands a decent chance of making money for the network. “Blacke’s Magic” has in Linden and Morgan two highly popular actors who still enjoy a following in reruns of “Barney Miller” and “MASH,” respectively; they also particularly appeal to the 50-plus age bracket, which many advertisers contend has the most buying power and toward which CBS frequently targets its shows.

“Fortune Dane,” meanwhile, fits the mold of a more-intelligent-than-most action show with a strong male lead, a format that clicked big for CBS with “Magnum, P.I.” and “Simon & Simon” before “The Cosby Show” swung Thursday nights to NBC.

Shephard, for one, is philosophical. “I can’t worry about it,” he concluded. “You never know what your next hit is going to be.”