ABC TAKES ON ‘AMERIKA’ BY STORM

ABC may not have sought discord over its “Amerika” miniseries, but you can bet ABC will try to exploit it.

Tentatively scheduled for February, the 14-hour “Amerika” has already generated scores of negative headlines concerning its provocative theme. It depicts the futuristic occupation of the United States by Soviet-controlled United Nations forces.

ABC plans to buttress the free publicity with a high-profile campaign of its own that includes a house documentary about the making of “Amerika” that local ABC stations will be able to air at their discretion in advance of the miniseries.

The half-hour program’s title, “The Storm Over Amerika,” reflects ABC’s strategy of turning the storm to its own advantage by using the controversy to titillate viewers.

The Soviet takeover in Donald Wyre’s “Amerika” script is nearly bloodless, achieved because the nation was soft at the core and too many Americans lacked the will to oppose communism. The occupation has its brutal side, though.

The United Nations claims it’s being smeared by “Amerika.” Other “Amerika” critics contend that the miniseries is ABC’s Soviet-bashing concession to arch conservatives preaching a harder line toward the Kremlin, lest “Amerika” become reality.

ABC is counting on “Amerika” for blockbuster Nielsens to help revive a zombie prime-time season now running a poor third behind CBS and first-place NBC. While preferring good publicity over bad, therefore, ABC is surely grateful for any publicity at all.

ABC’s news division is not involved in “The Storm Over Amerika.” The documentary is a “promotional tool,” said Don Beck, president of April Films, the Los Angeles production company that ABC commissioned to make “The Storm Over Amerika.”

Slick, ersatz documentaries are a traditional, though diminishing method of advertising theatrical movies and TV programs. “The Making of. . .” documentaries promote productions while appearing to give viewers behind-the-scenes glimpses of casts and production crews in action.

The twofold purpose, Beck said, is “to entertain and make the public aware of the miniseries.”

Beck has done his share of these extended promos, and in addition to the unfinished “Amerika” promotional documentary, he’s now also producing one for ABC’s “War and Remembrance” sequel to “The Winds of War.”

What separates “The Storm Over Amerika” from the others, though, is the storminess of the topic and the possibility that local audiences will think they are watching a legitimate documentary dealing fairly and squarely with a volatile issue. Sure they will be.

Beck said “The Storm Over Amerika” will combine behind-the-scenes material, footage from the miniseries and comments from outsiders.

He’s already interviewed MIT political science professor Lincoln Bloomfield, a National Security Council official under President Jimmy Carter; MIT linguistics professor Noam Chomsky; Harvard history professor Richard Pipes, a former National Security Council official under President Reagan; Richard F. Starr, a former arms negotiator for Reagan who’s now associated with the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford, and Peter J. Duignan, also with the Hoover Institution.

“We are trying to get a balanced view,” said Beck, who believes “Amerika” has gotten an unfair rap to date. “I tried not to bring a political statement to it (his interview questioning) whatsoever,” he said.

“They sent me the questions beforehand and the questions were forthright,” Pipes agreed. And the “Amerika” plot? “I’m not sure what the plot is,” said Pipes, who hasn’t seen any of “Amerika” or read the script. “If it’s well done, it’s good. If it’s badly done, it’s bad. Most Americans find it hard to comprehend what it’s like living under a regime (Soviet) like this, and I think it’s good to express it to them.”

Not all the interviewees agree that Beck wasn’t preaching.

“We were at cross purposes,” said Chomsky, who also has not seen or read “Amerika.” “They knew I was very critical and they were trying to convince me that it (‘Amerika’) had a different character than I thought it had. They said I was misinterpreting it, that after the American people see it, it will be considered too liberal.”

Another “Amerika” critic saw his own interview somewhat differently. “There were no polemics except the ones that came out of my mouth,” said Bloomfield, who viewed a 90-minute excerpt of the miniseries furnished by Beck. “They wanted to know if I thought ‘Amerika’ was plausible, and I told them I thought it was implausible that the Soviets would be able to occupy the U.S. without resistance.”

Bloomfield charges “Amerika” with irresponsibly building hysteria about Soviet intentions. “It’s like shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater,” he said.

Chomsky suggested to Beck that ABC “film something more realistic, like the U.S. occupying the Soviet Union.” He’s convinced that his 45-minute interview will be slashed to “20 seconds taken out of context.”

Beck said he didn’t know how much of the interviews--or if every interviewee--would actually be in the program. “We were not trying to provoke controversy,” he said. “He (Chomsky) has an opinion and it’s his opinion. Let the public decide.”

And the hype begin.

NO CLASS FOR “SHAKA ZULU?” A KCOP Channel 13 newscast apparently erred in reporting recently that the station’s controversial “Shaka Zulu” miniseries would be incorporated into the curriculum of the Los Angeles and Inglewood unified school districts.

The report, which originated in a press release from Harmony Gold, a co-producer of the heavily criticized 10-hour production, was denied by a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles schools. And Zashti Roberts, assistant superintendent for educational services at the Inglewood schools, said a “Shaka Zulu” study guide had been made available to Inglewood principals for use at their own discretion.

“To say we intend to make it a part of our curriculum is a little strong,” Roberts said.

South African, Italian, West German and Australian TV joined Harmony Gold in funding “Shaka Zulu,” a docudrama about the rise of a powerful Zulu chief in early 19th-Century southern Africa.

Prism Entertainment now says it is planning to release a home video of the miniseries, which concludes tonight on Channel 13.

“Shaka Zulu” was shot in South Africa with the cooperation of the nation’s state-controlled TV. Critics of “Shaka Zulu” accuse it of being pro-apartheid propaganda from Pretoria’s white minority government, and one South African newspaper reviewer found it “shot through with bigoted and sensationalist values.”

Distributed by Harmony Gold, the “Shaka Zulu” study guide would get a flunking grade in some circles. It does not mention that most of the “Shaka Zulu” white characters are fictional or that the story’s interpretation of Zulu history is in dispute.

Class dismissed.