PBS TO SPEND $39.4 MILLION ON 26 SERIES FOR FALL SEASON

Public television stations have agreed to spend $39.4 million to help produce 26 series, including four new programs.

Two current programs were not funded by the stations.

One, “On Stage at Wolf Trap,” a performance show, will be funded by Martin Marietta corporate money.

The other, “OWL/TV,” which offers information on technology and nature for 7 to 11-year-olds, is looking elsewhere for money to survive.

The programs selected through the station program cooperative will make up about half of the Public Broadcasting Service’s fall lineup.

The most popular programs, including “Sesame Street,” “The McNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,” “Firing Line” and “Austin City Limits,” will be paid for by the stations. The more stations that volunteer to pay for a program, the lower the cost to each one.

Some other PBS shows, such as “Washington Week in Review” and “Masterpiece Theatre,” get their money from corporations and other funders and not from the station cooperative.

New to the lineup for fall are “Adventure,” described as “true tales of extraordinary people facing great challenges; a series of profiles of great artists with the title “American Masters” and “The Day the Universe Changed,” a British Broadcasting Corp. series exploring how important discoveries fundamentally transformed man’s understanding of the world and universe.

Another show, “The Search for Mind,” planned for 1987, was selected in advance by the stations. A sequel to “The Brain,” the new series will look at the relationship between biochemistry and behavior.

The 26 series were picked from 72 proposals by the 313 public TV stations for which PBS acquires and distributes programs.