It’s a Crime What They Offer to TV

Missing from television: innovation.

If you find it, please notify the National Assn. of Television Program Executives, which is holding its annual convention here this week. Just dial the 800 number. . . .

TV boldly continues to break old ground.

The success of NBC’S “Unsolved Mysteries” and Fox Broadcasting’s crime-driven “A Current Affair” and “America’s Most Wanted” has spawned a surge of proposed variations, imitators and piggybackers, putting a distinctive brand on this annual marketplace for syndicated programs.

Depending on sales results here and the tolerance of the public, TV may be on the verge of transforming viewers into junior G-men, either vicariously or in actuality.

As a sales brochure for one prospective series shouts: “CRIME GETS RATINGS!”

Given what may be coming and the bulk of violent crime already available on TV via news and entertainment programming, it’s easy to see how viewers might develop a siege mentality. Add to this volatile mix an easy access to guns, and the worst-case scenario follows: You pick up your AK-47 assault rifle and get “them” before “they” get you.

Call it tabloid TV, trash TV, crime TV, reality-based TV or even vigilantevision. Whatever the label, the trend speaks volumes about the industry’s collective mind and lack of creativity.

These are some of the new series and specials being offered here:

“Crimewatch Tonight,” “Crime Diaries,” “Crimestoppers 800,” “Cop Talk: Behind the Shield,” “The Investigators,” “Reward,” “Missing/Reward,” “Trial by Jury,” “Tabloid,” “Crimes of the Century,” “Manhunt,” “America’s Search for Missing Children,” “Has Anybody Seen My Child?” and “National Lost and Found.”

Lost but not found: your mind.

Although a tight buying market and a paucity of open time slots make it likely that very few of these programs will ever get on the air, their sheer volume and diversity are stunning. Some are “search” shows along the lines of “America’s Most Wanted,” offering dramatic re-creations of crimes, pictures of criminals or missing persons and telephone numbers that viewers can call to turn in suspects or give information about missing children. Some advertise rewards being offered by agencies and individuals.

Not only ratings but also the futures of some veteran news people are on the line here. Already, former KCBS-TV Channel 2 anchor Dan Miller and ex-KNBC Channel 4 anchor Nick Clooney have had their careers somewhat rejuvenated, if dramatically altered, as regulars on “The Pat Sajak Show” and the syndicated “On Trial,” respectively. Now the same may happen to former CBS News correspondent Ike Pappas as host of “Crimewatch Tonight” and former NBC correspondent and “Today” host Jim Hartz, who co-hosts “Reward” with former Los Angeles TV reporter Cynthia Allison.

The newest crime genre is defended by another news veteran, Reese Schonfeld, a former CNN president who now produces Orion’s “Crimewatch Tonight,” a weekday half-hour magazine that’s among the most promising of the new crowd.

“I don’t think what we are doing is as psychologically provocative as the tough, fictional crime shows,” he said. “And I don’t think we’re increasing the national paranoia. I think the kind of things that scare people are local crime, not the stories that we do that are so far removed from them.”

Noting that much of the criticism of the crime-show trend comes from newspapers, Schonfeld said: “It’s because we’re moving in on turf they’ve always had to themselves. The Wall Street Journal has the best crime stories in the United States.”

Schonfeld is convinced that the realism of a successful entertainment series--NBC’s “Hill Street Blues”--was a sort of subliminal motivator for some “reality” show producers. And, as he points out, not to be excluded as an influence is “60 Minutes,” whose most spectacular stories are often about crime.

“It’s the prototype,” Schonfeld said as he switched on a sales tape of his series, which will run on KCOP Channel 13 if enough other stations sign up to carry it.

“She is young. She is beautiful. She wants to be a star,” began Pappas. The story, crisply reported by former network correspondent Liz Trotta, echoed one that “60 Minutes” did about young girls who get into trouble seeking modeling fame abroad. “Our piece is better,” Schonfeld claimed.

“And now the story of the doctor who couldn’t keep his hands off his patients,” Pappas continued on the tape.

If “Crimewatch Tonight” is relatively lofty, Quintex Entertainment’s “Crime Diaries” surely occupies the basement. A weekday half-hour designed to bridge soap operas and early news, it “takes you inside the crimes and passions of today.” Woman: “He didn’t have to force me!”

This is undoubtedly the truest account of police work yet, offering “mystery, murder, blackmail, passion, deceit, jealousy, lust, love.” Then the swanky sales brochure adds: “And it’s all real.” Well, of course.

The format: Actors playing detectives re-create cases from “actual police records.” Based on a tape being shown here to prospective buyers, there’s extreme violence accompanied by frenzied, up-tempo music.

The characters: One of the females is Detective Jimmy Jenkins. “Gorgeous. Sexy without trying to be. A rookie with real promise. Very married, but not what it appears. And with Chief Pierce the attraction is mutual.”

Here is the brochure describing the target audience:

“Women. They want emotion. The drama of ongoing relationships. Big city detectives in love, hate, friendship . . . danger.

“Men. They are fascinated by crime. The straight-out-of-the-headlines crimes with non-stop action. And, they want solutions!”

Quintex caused a small uproar in October by placing a full-page ad for “Crime Diaries” in a trade magazine. It showed a man with a knife assaulting a woman under the headline: “Women like the romantic intrigue. Men like the realistic action.”

“Crime Diaries” has a 50-50 chance of getting on the air, said Charles Schreger, Quintex executive vice president in charge of programming.

Another variation on the crime-show theme, “Cop Talk: Behind the Shield,” is already cleared for an April premiere (on KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles), according to Tribune Entertainment.

A weekly hour hosted by New York cop-turned-TV producer Sonny Grosso, “Cop Talk” is a talk show with police recalling their cases. Violent cases, according to a sales tape:

“The bullet went through my head. . . . I returned fire. . . . I hit him twice in the chest, and he dropped.”

The newest wrinkle in the genre, though--potentially turning Americans into electronic bounty hunters--is the “Dialing for Dollars” concept embodied in “Reward,” “Crime Stoppers 800,” “Manhunt,” “Missing/Reward” and “Lost and Found.”

A weekday half-hour from Barbour and Langley, the producing team behind most of Geraldo Rivera’s raunchy specials and the recent “Cops” special on Fox, MCA-TV’s “Reward” induces viewers to help solve crimes and find missing persons. It does this by advertising rewards ($260,000 is the top one on a promotional tape) that are being offered by various agencies. An agency’s 800 telephone number is shown following a dramatic re-creation of the crime and the display of a picture of the person or persons being sought.

“Have you seen this face?”

All-American Television’s “Crime Stoppers 800” operates on the same principle, except that the hosts/narrators are Seattle cop Larry Gross and Ken Walton, deputy director of the FBI. The same goes for the LBS prospective series “Manhunt,” which was introduced last month as a special. As was Group W’s “Missing/Reward,” which focuses less on criminals than on missing persons and lost items. It offered cash for Marilyn Monroe’s red diary on the special hosted by Stacy Keach.

Then, too, there’s Quintex’s weekly “National Lost and Found,” whose host, Pat O’Brien, promises: “Whatever’s been lost, we connect you to somebody who can help.”

Meanwhile, M&M;’s “America’s Search for Missing Children” and Ascot’s “Has Anybody Seen My Child?” are strictly in the kid business. And no monetary rewards!

Hosted by Shirley Jones, “America’s Search for Missing Children” claims “backing from the most missing children’s agencies” and has a “go” for three specials in the coming months (on KCOP) in hopes of building support for a weekly hour series.

“Has Anybody Seen My Child?” cites its own core of support agencies for its prospective weekly half hour. And Ascot President Mark Rafalowsky understandably resents being labeled “trash TV.”

“ ‘48 Hours’ was in here taping for a segment on trash TV,” he said. “I asked, ‘How can you lump us together? We are not trash TV.’ ”

Or is tabloid the proper label for many of the shows being sold here, especially ones like the already premiered “Inside Edition” (on KCBS-TV) and the gossipy new weekday Paramount series that has taken “Tabloid” as its title?

It’s not the individual shows that are especially dangerous. In fact, some suspects have already been caught and missing persons found via those 800 numbers.

It’s the genre as a whole, its potential collective success perhaps prompting other programs--even newscasts--to junk it up and increasingly focus on flashy stories in order to compete.

Will it happen? As Stacy Keach advised in “Missing/Reward”: “Keep your eyes open.”