COMING ATTRACTIONS

Hollywood seems to be aching for a larger piece of the public-television pie these days. Several West Coast production companies are getting behind an effort by the National Coalition of Independent Public Broadcasting Producers, based in New York, to form a National Independent Program Service as an alternative to the Public Broadcasting Service and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors is also supporting the move, with International Documentary Assn. president Robert Guenette and producer Warren Bush co-chairmen of a committee currently lobbying Congress for funding. Bush told Daily Variety that he hopes the new service will allow more air time for productions that deal with issues “of public moment and public importance,” and “more variety of the alternative programming for the general public,” which he says are currently a low priority on both commercial television and PBS.