LINEUP KEEPS PBS’ IMAGE INTACT

If public television is looking more commercial these days, as some critics and viewers complain, you can’t tell it by the PBS fall lineup.

After a woefully thin array of new programs last fall, the nonprofit network is back this year with five major series that you won’t see duplicated on ABC, CBS or NBC: an in-depth look at Africa, a history of the English language, a forum on issues regarding health care in the United States, a study of how the American West has been portrayed in paintings, movies, stories and songs, and an examination of how advances in human knowledge over the centuries have affected how we live.

There also will be documentaries about Cuba, Hungary, South Africa, terrorism and gay rights, specials about former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Huey Long and Soviet television, and programs aimed at combating illiteracy.

And, as viewers have come to expect, there will be the PBS staples: “Masterpiece Theatre,” “Great Performances,” “Nova,” “Sesame Street,” “Mystery!,” “Nature,” “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,” “Washington Week in Review,” “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” “Wall Street Week,” “Live From Lincoln Center” and “This Old House,” among others.

“We’re not fat, but there’s a lot to be enthusiastic about,” said Suzanne Weil, senior vice president in charge of programming for PBS.

In an attempt to get fatter, some public television stations have been experimenting for the past two years with what executives call “enhanced underwriting”--a form of soft-sell advertising that the Federal Communications Commission permits between programs. Companies are able to promote themselves but can’t implore viewers to buy their products.

With the experimenting have come fears, expressed both inside and outside public television, that the system might be corrupted by the pursuit of advertising--that programming decisions would be influenced by what appealed to potential sponsors.

Weil said that she’s seen nothing to substantiate those concerns. “No. Absolutely not,” she said. “It’s never even come up that it should have any effect on how we choose programs. . . . That would be unthinkable.”

She said she has no problem with the experimenting being done. “Everybody is out there fighting for their lives,” she said. “I think it’s healthy and smart to find out what works, how far you can go, whether there is something that will make a difference. I don’t think anyone is trying to dilute the image of public television.”

KCET Channel 28 and other stations selling the “enhanced underwriting” spots have reported only modest income to date--a fraction of their overall budgets. No one is suggesting that commercials could become a major source of revenue.

Which is probably for the best, Weil suggested. “I don’t want to sound facetious, but I believe we are in the truth and beauty business,” she declared. “Anybody who wants to get excited about commercials can run off and join the commercial television business and really have a wonderful time. That’s not a bad thing but it’s not why people come to public television.”

What makes people come to public television are the sorts of programs on the fall agenda, she said. Here is a rundown on the major series (with their local premiere dates on KCET, which in some cases may be different than on other PBS stations):

“The Story of English” (Sept. 21)--Robert MacNeil hosts this nine-part series about the history of the English language, reporting on how it spread from a small tribe throughout the world and on what influenced it along the way. The series is part of a telecourse that can be taken for credit through many colleges.

“The West of the Imagination” (Sept. 25)--James Whitmore hosts a six-part study of how the American West came to be reflected and mythologized during the past 100 years. It looks at the lithographs of Currier and Ives, the paintings of Thomas Moran and Frederic Remington, the photographs of William H. Jackson and at the movies to see how popular perceptions of cowboys and Indians and the territory they inhabited were formed.

“Managing Our Miracles: Health Care in America” (Sept. 30)--Another in the Media and Society Seminars sponsored by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, this 10-part series seeks to focus on some of the legal and ethical issues confronting the medical profession today, such as the physician’s responsibility in cases involving child abuse and AIDS and the problems of malpractice and escalating costs. Fred W. Friendly is the host.

“The Africans” (Oct. 7)--A nine-part series that explores the history of Africa, particularly the forces that shaped it: its own culture and those of Islam and the West. Ali A. Mazrui, a native Kenyan who is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, wrote the series and acts as host. Part of a telecourse that may be taken for college credit, the program already has been criticized as an “anti-Western diatribe” by Lynne Cheney, chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“The Day the Universe Changed” (Oct. 13)--James Burke, who previously hosted the PBS series “Connections,” returns in a 10-part BBC production about how various breakthroughs in human knowledge affected the way people lived. Filmed at more than 30 locations around the world over a four-year period, the series looks at the changes wrought by such developments as the printing press, the factory and the study of fossils.

In addition to the new series, here’s what some of PBS’ returning series will be offering in the weeks ahead:

Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic get “Live from Lincoln Center” going Sept. 19, with Itzhak Perlman the featured soloist in performances of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Ravel’s “Tzigane.” Later in the season will come a production of Leonard Bernstein’s adaptation of “Candide.”

“Great Performances” returns for its 14th season Oct. 3 with “The Night of Music: A Global Celebration,” an international production featuring Luciano Pavarotti, Ravi Shankar, Wynton Marsalis and Odetta. The Oct. 10 program will spotlight the dancing and choreography of Mark Morris, with jazz trumpeter Miles Davis moving to center stage Oct. 17. That will be followed Oct. 24 by a four-part drama about composer Richard Wagner, starring Sir John Gielgud, Sir Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave, Marthe Keller and, in the title role, the late Richard Burton.

“Mystery!” launches its season Oct. 9 with the five-part “Shroud for a Nightingale,” a murder mystery set in a hospital, based on a book by P. D. James.

New installments of “Nova” begin Oct. 14 and will range in subject from acquired immune deficiency syndrome to animal migration, from leprosy to the planet Uranus.

“Masterpiece Theatre” opens Oct. 19 with “Paradise Postponed,” an 11-part dramatization of a novel by John Mortimer about post-World War II Britain. It stars Sir Michael Hordern, Annette Crosbie, David Threlfall and Colin Blakely. Mortimer created “Rumpole of the Bailey” and adapted “Brideshead Revisited” for television.