Silverman’s All-Time, Prime-Time Lineup

TV or not TV. . . .

ONE FOR THE BOOKS: Asked Fred Silverman--former program boss at ABC, CBS and NBC--for his all-time, prime-time lineup, and here it is:

Monday: “Laugh-In,” “I Love Lucy,” “The Honeymooners,” “The Carol Burnett Show.”

Tuesday: “Bewitched,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Golden Girls,” “The Jack Benny Show,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.”

Wednesday: “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Roseanne,” “Playhouse 90.”

Thursday: “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties,” “Cheers,” “Barney Miller,” “L.A. Law.”

Friday: “The Colgate Comedy Hour” (hosts included Martin and Lewis, Abbott and Costello) alternating with “The Milton Berle Show,” followed by “Bonanza,” “Gunsmoke.”

Saturday: “All in the Family,” “MASH,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Your Show of Shows” (Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca).

Sunday: “60 Minutes,” “The Ed Sullivan Show” and a “Mystery Movie” rotation of “Columbo,” “Perry Mason,” “Magnum, P.I.” and “Murder, She Wrote.”

WAIT A MINUTE: OK, the ratings would be great--admitted. But let’s rework the schedule. How about “Hill Street Blues” instead of “Marcus Welby”? “The Twilight Zone” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” instead of “Bonanza”? “The Ernie Kovacs Show” instead of “The Beverly Hillbillies”? “Happy Days” instead of “Roseanne”? “Cagney & Lacey” instead of “Magnum, P.I.”? Good move, though, slipping “Barney Miller” into the current all-NBC Thursday lineup. We’ve got to keep working on this.

PREDICTION: Silverman, by the way, thinks “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” an ABC special that hit the Top 10 last week, is “a breakout show.” He didn’t produce it, but figures a series will develop and that ABC is just one or two hit shows away from closing in on top-rated NBC.

GOOF: If you tuned out Judith Krantz’s “Till We Meet Again” because of the no-glamour cast, you’re not alone. Lots of industry head-shaking over CBS’ lack of really major stars for the five-hour miniseries that bombed--and was no help to network entertainment chief Kim LeMasters in the days before he resigned.

CRY “WOLF”: Remember the fiasco when CBS gave its low-rated “Wolf” series nine more episodes--a full-season pickup--and then suddenly put it “on hiatus”? Well, sources say you can forget those nine extra shows for the detective saga. And CBS executives who went to the mat for “Wolf” didn’t help themselves with the brass--it was an in-house network production, and that hits the company where it hurts.

THE JOKER: If it’s really true that CBS is shelling out $20 million or more to show the movie “Batman” in 1991, then somebody’s a cockeyed optimist. Just about everybody who wants to see “Batman” will have done so by then, either in theaters or on pay TV or on the videos that went on sale a few weeks back. Big movie hits just don’t mean much on networks anymore--even if they’re tied to sequels.

MEETING OF THE MINDS: There was Roseanne Barr, wearing a shirt that said “Wild Thing,” on Dave Letterman’s show, and--surprise, surprise--they hit it off great. “The book,” said Dave, “is it a best seller?” “Yeah,” said Roseanne, “something like that.” Of Barr’s forthcoming marriage, Letterman offered: “Boy, has that guy got his work cut out for him--every night’s the playoffs.”

MURDER, HE WROTE: Learned from a dynamite TV profile of Raymond Chandler that he worked on an apricot ranch for 20 cents an hour when he first came to California, rose to $1,000 a week in the oil business, got fired--and didn’t start writing in earnest until he was 44. The Bravo channel biography reminded us that the creator of Philip Marlowe had his first novel, “The Big Sleep,” published when he was 50.

WHAT PRICE GLORY?: Wonder if KCAL (the new name for KHJ-TV) still thinks those “Who’s the Boss?” reruns are worth $300,000 an episode after they got beaten in the November sweeps by “Hunter,” “Night Court” and all the local newscasts. KCAL paid about as much for “Who’s the Boss?” as KCOP shelled out for “Cosby” reruns.

FORESIGHT: The way things are going at CBS, that idea of “60 Minutes” producer Don Hewitt to buy the network’s news department a few years back doesn’t seem so silly now. Might be worth looking into again on a first-refusal basis in case the unthinkable becomes reality.

Say good night, Gracie. . . .