‘DEAL’ SCRUB NO SURPRISE TO YORKIN

CBS’ decision late last week to scrub a scheduled airing at 9 tonight of “Deal of the Century,” a 1983 comedy spoofing international arms dealers, doesn’t surprise the film makers.

Though producer Bud Yorkin said Monday that he was unaware of the CBS move, he added wrly, “We didn’t know (during filming that the arms-dealing community) was going to the White House, but we knew something was going on, because we didn’t get any cooperation from anybody,” producer Bud Yorkin recalled. “Our requests for technical help were either turned down by the armed forces or ignored by people in government, and the manufacturers of the arms wouldn’t help with anything. So the idea that something was going on in there on some high level isn’t all that surprising.”

Yorkin said “Deal of the Century,” which featured a connection between arms dealing in the Middle East and in Central America, only proved prophetic in the long run. He said the film makers were only choosing a subject that had comedic possibilities, not targeting specific institutions. “We were really trying to lampoon the situation, not so much pinpoint what and where things were or might be happening,” Yorkin said. “We knew there were a lot of arms dealers, and we knew they were pretty highly placed, but this--I never expected anything like this to break out.”

Paul Brickman, the film’s screenwriter, declined to comment directly on the fuss, but did add (through his agent) that he thought it “a delicious irony” that CBS elected to air “Risky Business”--another film Brickman wrote--in place of “Deal.”

Ads taken out for the “Deal” airing said: “They could pull off the arms deal of the century if it didn’t explode in their faces.”

“Deal of the Century” director William Friedkin was shooting on location in Stockton, Calif., and couldn’t be reached for comment.

A CBS spokesman said the film featuring Chevy Chase and Sigourney Weaver was pulled from broadcast because of “its relation to recent news events.”