The Spelling of Success

Why are we here?

--Kristy McNichol as Buddy Lawrence in “Family”

It seemed curious--even heretical--at first glance.

Here in town was New York’s prestigious Museum of Broadcasting--known for focusing its attention on only the icons and creative cream of the industry crop--honoring Aaron Spelling, who gave America “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Love Boat” and “Dynasty.”

But as museum president Robert M. Batscha noted Thursday night at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: “You can’t deal with American television--indeed, you can’t deal with television as a creative force--unless you take a serious look at Aaron Spelling.”

Indeed, indeed . When it comes to TV programming, Spelling has been the mogul of the ‘70s and ‘80s, at one point supplying an amazing one-third of ABC’s prime-time schedule en route to becoming the most successful independent TV producer ever.

How do you spell Spelling? S-U-C-C-E-S-S.

In truth, “An Evening With Aaron Spelling” was less a “serious look” at the man and his legacy than a serious love-in, with clips of his work interspersed with friends and colleagues blowing kisses from the podium.

Novelist Dominick Dunne, a former TV colleague whose book “The Users” was transferred to TV by Spelling, accurately summed up Spelling’s amazing ability to consistently identify and satisfy mass tastes:

“He had absolutely the most uncanny sense of what the public wanted to see--and that was his genius.”

In conjunction with his former partner Leonard Goldberg, Spelling has created series that more or less defined the prime-time drama of this era, most of his productions settling into that vast valley of the safe middle.

He established his own “Fantasy Island” in prime time, welcoming escape-minded viewers to the daydreamy environment that he created for them. You can almost see Spelling on that tropical island, smiling benignly in Roarke’s white suit as his trusty supervising producer E. Duke Vincent shouts, “The plehn, the plehn!”

Spelling has been responsible for some of prime time’s best entertainment through the years, including the derivative but amusing “Hart to Hart” and the continuing “Dynasty,” which, at its best, has been a wonderfully self-mocking parody.

Heading the list by a large margin, though, is “Family,” made in association with Mike Nichols. It ran on ABC from 1976 to 1980 and in its initial seasons presented stories that truthfully and compellingly expressed real problems through the experiences of believable characters beautifully played by Sada Thompson, James Broderick, Meredith Baxter-Birney, Gary Frank and Kristy McNichol.

Life was seldom tidy in the Lawrence family, but it was real.

At the bottom of the list, by an equally large margin, is “The Love Boat,” which ended its nine-season run on ABC in 1987.

Watching “The Love Boat” was like experiencing life in a plastic bubble or a perfectly acclimatized shopping mall. The intertwining vignettes that occurred aboard the Pacific Princess cruise ship were a sort of dramatic Muzak.

No dilemma was so large that it couldn’t be resolved by the end of the voyage. “The Love Boat” was more than mere escapism, it was outright flight.

Hearing “Love Boat” analyzed in detail Thursday by its other executive producer, Douglas Cramer, its star Gavin MacLeod and others, as if it were a Matisse, may have been instructive on one level.

But it was also comically reminiscent of that old Bob and Ray routine in which they meticulously study the composition of a bologna sandwich. What’s to analyze? Take the meat, slap it between two slices of bread and you’re there.

Better to have also examined the evolution of “Family”--which eventually turned to sexually titillating themes, reportedly at the direction of ABC--than for producer Nigel McKeand and executive story consultant Carol McKeand to have merely gotten up and echoed praise of Spelling.

Not that praise isn’t deserved. Besides being an astoundingly successful TV entrepreneur, Spelling has been a pioneer at times.

Although better known for his “Charlie’s Angels” bod squad, he earlier brought out “The Mod Squad,” a prototype for action-adventure series about elite young undercover cops whose present incarnation is the Fox network’s “21 Jump Street.”

Spelling shows have also celebrated older stars and advanced strong women’s roles, and he has introduced TV’s first recurring lesbian character in his new ABC medical series, “HeartBeat.”

Actually, Spelling started off as an actor, and on Thursday the Museum of Broadcasting opened its tribute with a clip of the now fabulously wealthy Spelling standing at the bar as a dusty cowpoke in an episode of “Gunsmoke,” delivering this line:

“I wish I could buy you fellas somethin’ ta drink, but I ain’t got no money ‘tall.”

It was something less than electrifying.

“Thank God,” Dunne told Spelling later, “you went on to other things.”