ABC WON’T DROP ‘AMERIKA’ DESPITE CHRYSLER PULLOUT
ABC, although losing Chrysler Corp. as a major sponsor of its controversial “Amerika” miniseries, said Wednesday the show still will air as scheduled and that it was “appalled” at the condemnation it has gotten before its broadcast.
The 14 1/2-hour drama, scheduled to begin airing Feb. 15, depicts a grim, drab life in the United States 10 years after a bloodless takeover by the Soviet Union, which uses United Nations peace-keeping forces as its occupation troops.
The show has drawn fire from the U.N. and its supporters, the Soviet Union and groups who either contend it is too favorable to the Soviets or implies that a further U.S. arms buildup is needed to preserve America.
ABC, which has repeatedly denied either contention, or that it is engaging in U.N.-bashing, fired back at the critics on Wednesday with a strongly worded, if somewhat ambiguous, statement that said in part:
“We are concerned that certain organizations for their own special interests have criticized ‘Amerika’ sight unseen, and would threaten advertisers for supporting the program.”
However, the statement didn’t name any organizations. An ABC spokesman, who was asked for clarification, said the statement was simply a general reaction to the criticism and to show “we’re concerned that this is happening.”
The spokesman, Dick Connelly, said that ABC has received more than 4,000 letters critical of “Amerika” so far even though no outsiders or outside groups have yet seen more than 4 1/2 hours of it.
However, he emphasized that the statement was not suggesting that Chrysler--which had bought $5-million worth of advertising time on the show--had bowed out of it because of pre-broadcast pressure from critics of the drama.
In Detroit, Chrysler spokesman John Guiniven said the criticism and complaints about the show played no part in his company’s decision to withdraw its commercials. The ads represented about 18% of the show’s sponsorship.
“No, we’re very used to pressure here,” Guiniven said. “We don’t bow to that kind of pressure. And we did not receive an inordinate amount of letters or phone calls on the subject.”
Ironically, the heavy media attention that “Amerika” has gotten in recent weeks--attention that some observers think will boost the show’s ratings initially--played a part in Chrysler’s decision.
“The news stories caused top management to take a look at the content” of six hours of the show, Guiniven said, explaining that it was the first time that much of the program had been available.
After top Chrysler executives, including board Chairman Lee A. Iacocca, finished what the company called “an exhaustive review” of the show late last week, they decided to withdraw sponsorship.
The reason, Guiniven said, was that the downbeat subject matter of “Amerika” and its intense portrayals just wasn’t an appropriate forum for Chrysler’s patriotic, upbeat “The Pride Is Born--Born in America” commercial campaign.
Despite the company’s pullout, he added, it still has a good relationship with ABC “and we have no personal quarrel with what we saw in those six hours. And we believe the miniseries will attract a huge audience.”
The pullout surprised some both at ABC and outside the network. At midday Tuesday, an ABC official confirmed to a reporter that Chrysler was an “Amerika” sponsor. Six hours later, both the official, the reporter and the television industry learned otherwise.
Connelly said the final word from Chrysler came on Tuesday, shortly after ABC executives, including John B. Sias, ABC Television Network Group president, arrived in Phoenix for a company conference.
Sias, interviewed there by phone Wednesday, said he hadn’t talked with Iacocca about the decision.
But he said the decision didn’t necessarily startle him “because there had been a lot of questions and discussions going back and forth with them on the program. So I can’t tell you it was a surprise. But a disappointment--yes.”
Still, he said, the show “very definitely” will go on.
Before Chrysler’s pullout, about 90% of available commercial time on “Amerika” had been sold. Under its pact with ABC, Chrysler has agreed to pay the network if any of the time it had bought on the show goes unsold, an ABC spokesman said.
The spokesman, Jeff Tolvin, said that despite the loss of Chrysler, no other sponsors have pulled out. He declined to name them, citing company policy against identifying a show’s sponsors before broadcast.
He said he doubted ABC would have to engage in a last-minute reduced price “fire sale” to fill the commercial slots--an average cost of $715,0000 for 30 seconds--now vacated by Chrysler.
“We intend that it will be fully sponsored,” Tolvin said.
