SHOWTIME TO PRODUCE NEW SITCOM

The highly charged competitive field of pay-cable TV shifted to a new arena Friday, with Showtime’s announcement of a new network-style sitcom for the fall.

“Hard Knocks,” described as a hip, youthful “Odd Couple” for the ‘80s, is being created by writer-producer Chris Thompson, who also created the short-lived but highly acclaimed “Bosom Buddies” series for ABC, 1980-82.

In addition, Showtime has ordered another 50 episodes of “Brothers,” which, like “Hard Knocks,” is being produced by Paramount Video Programming with former Paramount TV president Gary Nardino as an executive producer.

“What this bodes is for an increased emphasis on original programming,” said Showtime executive vice president Peter Chernin, who announced the programming activities at a press conference at Paramount.

Original series are yet another weapon employed by services such as Showtime and Home Box Office, Showtime’s chief competitor and the industry leader, in battling each other for subscribers as well as in stemming the home video boom.

Chernin referred to original programs as “video-proof.” That means that they are not available on videocassette prior to their telecast as are theatrical films, which constitute the bulk of Showtime’s schedule.

Additionally, series, and in particular sitcoms “are what in the long run our identity comes out of,” Chernin said.

Not coincidentally, HBO also has several original programming projects in development, a spokesman for that company said. Among them are two comedies for limited runs next season, “Training Camp” and “Tales of the Weird and Unknown,” the latter from a team of Second City players led by former “SCTV” star Joe Flaherty. HBO also is renewing the existing series, “Fraggle Rock,” “Not Necessarily the News” and “The Hitchhiker.”

Only last month, competition between Showtime and HBO centered on the area of exclusive movie rights, with Showtime signing deals with the Cannon Group and Touchstone Films. Showtime already has exclusive rights to Paramount Pictures releases, as HBO does with Tri-Star, Orion and Columbia. (The latter studio, for example, provided HBO a big selling point with the recent pay-cable presentation of the hit film “Ghostbusters,” which won’t be seen on other pay-cable services.)

The original series deals are perhaps more significant to the Hollywood creative community, as they provide access to home viewers besides that available from the three major networks.

Thompson said he was attracted to Showtime because it allows him to produce 13 episodes without trying to pack everything into a pilot episode, as is almost always required at NBC, CBS or ABC.

“Brothers,” meanwhile, will have had 114 episodes presented on Showtime by the time its new deal expires. As a result, Nardino said, the series is already being sold in syndication to non-cable, commercial TV stations for their use beginning in 1989.

Though cable-TV at one time held the promise of being boldly different from network TV, it has, executives said, become more mainstream when it comes to original series. “Hard Knocks,” for example, will probably not look too different from a network sitcom. Being on cable, Thompson said, “doesn’t suddenly open up a whole world of breasts.”