ABC, CBS Top Humanitas Prize Winners

ABC’s Emmy-winning series “The Wonder Years” and “China Beach,” a CBS Schoolbreak Special entitled “My Past Is My Own,” an installment of ABC’s “New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” and an ABC documentary on breast cancer, “Destined to Live,” were all winners in the 15th annual Humanitas Prize competition, announced Thursday at the Century Plaza.

The Humanitas Prizes, sponsored by the Pacific Palisades-based Human Family Institute, are given each year to network television shows which exemplify “humanizing achievement in television writing.”

This year’s awards were given in the following categories: 30-minute ($10,000); 60-minute ($15,000), non prime-time childrens’ live program ($10,000), children’s animated program ($10,000) and documentary (no cash award).

As was previously announced, for the first time in its history, there were no nominees--and consequently no winners--in the $25,000 category for TV movies. Judges said earlier that none of this season’s movies was worthy of a prize.

The winning “Wonder Years” episode, entitled “Pottery Will Get You Nowhere,” was written by Matthew Carlson, and dealt with a conflict in the Arnold family that made son Kevin question the stability of the family. The “China Beach” episode “Promised Land,” written by Patricia Green, explored racial conflict among the troops in Vietnam following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. CBS’ “My Past Is My Own,” written by Alan Gansberg, featured two teen-agers exploring their own histories. The “Winnie the Pooh” episode was written by Mike Zaslove, Doug Hutchinson and Larry Bernard; “Destined to Live” was penned by Sasha Ferrer.

That the judges found no TV movies worth honoring is a symptom of what Father Ellwood Kieser, president of the Human Family Institute, calls “a period of transition and serious problems” in Hollywood. Kieser believes that increasing economic pressures on the networks caused by viewing alternatives such as cable and videocassettes, as well as recent corporate takeovers at the networks, have left the Big Three networks financially strapped and more likely to favor ratings over quality than ever before.

“All three networks have changed ownership in recent months,” Kieser said during remarks at the Humanitas Prize luncheon at the Century Plaza. “Those who bought them have incurred huge debts in the process. That means they are now saddled with staggering interest payments.

“In some quarters, this has created a preoccupation with the bottom line that generates fear, stifles creativity and squeezes out value-oriented programming,” Kieser said. “The tension between the creative and the economic is intrinsic to our business. But the situation seems worse now, much worse.”

Although all the networks, particularly NBC, blamed last summer’s 154-day Writers Guild of America strike for some lapses in taste last season, Kieser said in an interview that the strike did not cause the current climate in Hollywood. “I really don’t think that was the was the main ingredient,” he said. “It’s the pressure--and it doesn’t help to have one studio warring against another,” he added, referring to the Paramount’s ongoing attempt at hostile takeover of Time, Inc.

In response to that erosion of quality, Kieser announced at the luncheon that Humanitas will expand its educational program for Writers Guild members by adding a 10-week course to its current program of three yearly seminars on “the incorporation of human values into entertainment programming.” Kieser also plans to launch a series of workshops for beginning writers to be conducted by master writers, “to facilitate the formation of writers’ support groups and to arrange for a mentoring program for novice writers. And, Kieser said, the Human Family institute plans to increase incentive for screenwriters by upping the cash value of the prizes so that they stay current with inflation (the awards are still the same size they were 15 years ago), and become “comparable in the aggregate to the Nobel, Templeton and MacArthur prizes.”

he group also plans to expand the awards to include a PBS/cable television category and a feature film category, as part of a 10-year plan to foster responsibility to the public among Hollywood’s writers.

“Hollywood has consistently made ‘human-values’ (feature) films,” Kieser said. “ ‘Rain Man,’ for example, showed a greedy narcissistic human being who by the end of the film had become very loving.”

Kieser said that “human values” should not be mistranslated to mean family entertainment; nor is the new award an attempt to rid film of profanity, sex or violence. “A movie could contain rough language and still be full of human values,” he said.

Kieser added that, while he believes the current trend of advertisers or advocacy groups boycotting television shows for language or content is their prerogative and does not represent censorship, Humanitas prefers to “nurture the good things” rather than try to force shows off the air. But “I don’t think these (advocacy groups) are nutsies--they just want shows on the air that they would want their kids to see,” he said.

Kieser said the time frame for the new awards and programs has not been set. In part, it depends on another 10-year goal: to increase the current $1 million Humanitas endowment for the awards by $4 million, through donations from the independent producers, the major studios and the networks.

Kieser has already secured some support from Marcy Carsey of Carsey/Werner, Grant Tinker of GTG Entertainment, Norman Lear and an independent producer who requested anonymity. They have all made 10-year pledges of $250,000. Alan Landsburg has pledged $200,000, David Milch $50,000, and the Finnegan/Pinchuk Company will donate $25,000.

“I am optimistic,” Kieser said in the interview. “I think there is a keen awareness on the part of the entertainment community that they have a responsibility, not just to entertain, but to enrich. They give money not just because they have it, but because they know they owe it to the audience.

“So many of the poorer (TV) shows take you away from life, they are a narcotic,” he added. “Shows which contain human values really inspire you to want to live it.”