SUSSKIND’S DYNAMICS PARTNERSHIP

Producer David Susskind and General Dynamics, one of the country’s largest defense contractors, have decided to continue a partnership set in motion earlier this year by producing three more public-television specials on “courageous leaders.”

At a time when corporations, especially the major oil companies, have been reducing or withdrawing their support for public television, General Dynamics represents a new source of support. Its first venture was as the sole underwriter for Susskind’s “Churchill,” a one-man show about the former British prime minister that was broadcast earlier this year.

The defense contractor and the producer then re-united to produce “Ike,” another one-man show starring E. G. Marshall as former President Dwight Eisenhower. It is scheduled for broadcast on the Public Broadcasting Service Oct. 15.

Under an agreement reached last week, Susskind and General Dynamics will produce three more such programs over the next two years. They are: a one-man show starring Charles Durning as Pope John XXIII; a one-man show for the 1987-88 season about President Lyndon B. Johnson, still uncast, and, tentatively scheduled to be broadcast in November, 1988, a reminiscence of former President John F. Kennedy, consisting of interviews with both famous and average Americans taped over the years since he was assassinated.

Officials at General Dynamics said their move into public television reflects a new desire to boost the company’s national visibility but denied it was a direct response to the public relations problems the company suffered last year when four executives were accused of defrauding the government on a contract to build an anti-aircraft gun for the Army.

“We have been looking for some time to get involved with public television, because we think it’s the kind of thing corporations should do,” said Chuck DeMund, General Dynamics’ acting director of advertising and promotion.

Another reason for General Dynamics to support PBS, DeMund said, is that “the share of public television’s audience is increasing, while the (major) networks’ is decreasing.” He also cited “the educational value” of the specials.

For his part, Susskind said that he had sought the deal with General Dynamics because, “We wanted a fresh funding source that would stick with us and provide continuity over what we hope will be a long series.”

The veteran producer, who pioneered the one-man, biographical portrait format for television with Hal Holbrook’s “Mark Twain Tonight,” said he hopes to convince the defense contractor to fund additional programs for public TV beyond these three.