Networks Put on the Pressure to Produce--and Fast

The TV networks are giving new meaning to the old Hollywood line, “I don’t want it good. I want it Wednesday.” Now they want it Tuesday . . . or maybe even Monday night.

Many producers of TV movies and miniseries have never felt as much of a rush to get their projects made and on the air as they have this season.

“Elvis and Me” finished shooting Jan. 16 and was on the air three weeks later. “It was like a football game,” producer Robert Lovenheim said of making the four-hour ABC miniseries. “We were running with the ball, and someone behind us was trying to tackle us.”

ABC’s “A Whisper Kills” started shooting March 16 and will be on the air May 16. “Billionaire Boys Club” was on the air five months after NBC commissioned a script. Another NBC movie, “Lena: My One Hundred Children,” was shot in October and aired late in November.

On ABC’s “Norman Rockwell’s Breaking Home Ties,” “We had 11 weeks from the ‘go’ to being on the air,” said co-producer Ken Kaufman. “That was pressure nobody should have to live under.”

While not every TV movie gets made so quickly--a normal schedule for a two-hour film, is 16-18 weeks--producers say the rushed production schedules have increased as the networks feel greater pressure in their competition for a smaller share of the audience and the shrinking advertising dollar. There is less luxury of planning far ahead, more last-minute, split-second decisions.

“Networks used to stockpile movies. They’d find a script they liked and order it,” said producer Robert Greenwald. “Now, with the financial pressures, if they order a $2.5-million movie, they don’t want it to sit around for seven months.”

“There is no villain. It’s simply the economics of running a network today,” Loveheim said.

Opinion is divided on whether quality suffers in the rush to get the pictures made.

Frank von Zerneck and Stu Samuels recently got a reprieve on an ABC movie that they started in March with a May target date. The network has decided to hold “Lady Mobster” until fall. “We could have finished it on a rush basis, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the project will be 15%-20% better now that we have more time,” von Zerneck said.

While the rushed schedules don’t appear to have any impact on ratings--”Elvis and Me” and “Billionaire Boys Club” were the top-rated miniseries this season--Von Zerneck worries about the long-term effect on viewers.

“We’re really good at doing these fast films,” he said. “But slowly we’re eroding the confidence of the audience in network TV. How often can you do a flash and dance in front of the tent without giving them the whole show once they’re inside?

“The audience will tune in for one of three reasons, none of which has to do with how good the film is: the 18-second trailer they see; the concept line they see in the listings which tells them what the movie is about; or who’s in it.

“But if audiences find these programs to be shoddy, not well-thought-out and confusing, they won’t come back. They’ll go elsewhere--to videocassettes, cable, independent stations and public television.”

However, co-producer Ann Weston doesn’t think “Billionaire Boys Club” was hurt by its hurried pace. “I don’t think the project suffered at all. In fact, I think it was enhanced. I can’t think of anything we would have done differently. There was less fooling around with the script because people had to read it overnight.”

John Ashley, co-executive producer of “Something Is Out There,” a special effects-dependent miniseries that began shooting Jan. 25 and will be on NBC May 8-9, thinks speed can be an advantage. “When you have a long time, people get a ‘miniseries mentality.’ They say they need more money and tend to indulge themselves.”

Kaufman agrees that speed can sometimes help, but in general, he said, “projects suffer enormously. Often you’re forced to select cast and personnel you don’t want.” And costly mistakes can occur, as happened on “Norman Rockwell’s Breaking Home Ties.”

“We had to select a location very quickly,” Kaufman recalled. “When we picked Dallas, we were assured that we could get a period 1950s train. We budgeted $15,000 for it, but because of problems it cost us $60,000.” With more pre-production time, Kaufman said, he could have researched the train situation more carefully and saved money.

Fears of such problems prompted producer Stan Margulies to turn down a four-hour miniseries not long ago because, he said, the network “wanted me to start before there was a completed script. I felt we’d be pouring money down an endless hole. With no time to prepare and without a satisfactory script, it could only be a catastrophe.”

Margulies originally rejected the deal on a movie that he did wind up making for ABC this season, “Broken Angel,” with William Shatner. The reason: not enough time. “Then they pushed the airdate back two weeks, and that gave me the pre-production time I needed,” he said.

But he still complains there was too little time. “I had five weeks for post-production where eight weeks would have been appropriate. You can’t do something in half the time and do it as well.”

Why compromise at all? “You don’t do it willingly,” he said. “But you’ve already invested a certain amount of money in the project. To then not go into production is a very defeating business. If these are the best terms I can get, then I’ll go ahead.”

Most of the quick production orders this season have come from ABC. Ted Harbert, ABC’s vice president of prime time, said the situation results from the network’s “still being affected by the transition from the prior regime (of TV movie programmers). It’s amazing how long development takes.” On average, a project spends one year in development.

Harbert is hopeful that ABC’s hectic days are coming to an end. “It has been a problem,” he said. “We are making progress. Our goal for next year is to shoot a lot of movies over the summer so they can be ready for fall.”

But it’s not in the nature of today’s programmers to plan too far in advance. As Harbert said, “We like to keep our options open as to which script to go forward with.”

Steve Mills, CBS’ vice president of movies for television and miniseries, said the production rush at his network usually occurs on “true” or “timely” stories. He cites “Murder Ordained,” a four-hour miniseries about a murder in Emporia, Kan., which aired last May.

“We were highly compelled to get it on the air quickly because the other networks had the same story in development. It was a race, and the other two dropped out.”

That’s what happened at NBC this season with “Billionare Boys Club.” Susan Baerwald, NBC’s vice president of miniseries and novels for television, said of its strong ratings, “I think we got lucky. The more time you can give, the better it usually is. We knew we wanted this on the air fast. Usually I buy something before it’s a bestseller, and by the time it gets on the air it’s a classic.”

Her speed on “Billionare” was at least partly motivated, she said, by having been “hurt very badly last year on another project--’Nutcracker.’ We had worked on that for several years, but ‘At Mother’s Request’ (CBS) beat us onto the air. I wasn’t going to let that happen again. This time ABC had a competing project, but the minute they heard how fast we were going they dropped it.”

Sometimes a hurried pace results from the network trying to match the film to a special time slot.

“We worked four years to get ‘Lena: My One Hundred Children’ made,” producer Greenwald said. “We finally started shooting in early October, and we were on the air six weeks later. NBC picked the airdate--the Monday before Thanksgiving--where they thought we could attract the largest audience. They were right.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really support the network. The nature of what we do is to reach the most people. The airdate is critical.”

Von Zerneck said the same thing almost happened to him last May when NBC tried to rush into production his “To Heal a Nation,” a movie about the founding of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington.

“They wanted to air it on Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11,” he remembers. “I was told I had to finish shooting before the threatened directors strike in June. I said, ‘Time out. This is a serious film. It’s a huge mistake to press rush buttons.’ NBC said, ‘You’re right.’ We shot it comfortably in September with Eric Roberts, and it will air May 29, the day before Memorial Day.”

Von Zerneck blames producers like himself for speeded-up production schedules.

“During the football strike five years ago, ABC suddenly had to fill its Monday night schedule,” he said. “It asked suppliers, ‘Can you get a picture ready for us in 12 weeks?’ We did three for them.

“After that, the networks started saying, ‘Hey, these people are making films in 12 weeks. Why do they need six months?’ We did it to ourselves. We’re all hungry, and it’s so competitive out here.”