NBC Has Grand Plans for Carsey-Werner’s ‘Grand’

It’s called “Grand.” It’s the newest sitcom from Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner (“The Cosby Show,” “Roseanne”), whose deal to take over struggling CBS Entertainment fell through Friday.

And NBC is so high on “Grand” that it will get the regular spot following “Cheers” starting Jan. 18, displacing “Dear John,” which will be moved out of the power Thursday lineup and into another spot.

We saw a rough cut of “Grand,” and it’s a bawdy, roundhouse comedy cutting through different levels of society in a small Pennsylvania town, with kind of an “Upstairs, Downstairs” approach.

Lots of clout behind the show, besides Carsey-Werner. It’s produced in association with Bill Cosby. And creator credit goes to writer Michael Leeson (“Taxi,” “The Cosby Show”), who also turned out the script for the new Michael Douglas-Kathleen Turner film, “The War of the Roses.”

With “Grand,” Carsey-Werner--and Cosby--will control three of the five series on NBC’s strongest night. The others are “The Cosby Show” and “A Different World.”

The last Carsey-Werner comedy, “Chicken Soup,” was canceled because of its thin premise of a cuddly Jackie Mason involved with a somewhat docile Irish widow (Lynn Redgrave). “Grand,” however, is packed with possibilities if the writers can keep it fueled.

In the pilot, Pamela Reed plays a sexy domestic who lives in a trailer with her daughter, and works in the homes of the town’s patriarch and an ambitious, newlywed couple. Michael McKean (Lenny in “Laverne & Shirley”) plays one of the newlyweds. John Randolph (“Prizzi’s Honor”) is the patriarch. And Ed Marinaro (“Hill Street Blues”) guests as Reed’s wandering ex-husband.

FIRED: “I’m out--it’s true,” said Ed Coghlan, news director of KCOP Channel 13. He got the ax Thursday because, he said, station president Bill Frank “obviously didn’t think the ratings were high enough.” Coghlan’s anchors were Wendy Rutledge and Warren Olney, who replaced the previously dismissed Tim Malloy. Chalk up another victory for competitor Hal Fishman over at KTLA Channel 5.

HOLIDAY CHEER: Swell idea by CBS to schedule a Christmas Day rerun of the 1971 special that inspired “The Waltons.” It’s called “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story,” will air from 3 to 5 p.m., and the cast includes Patricia Neal, Richard Thomas, Edgar Bergen and Ellen Corby. Since “The Waltons” was the basis of the Lorimar empire, this Christmas tale is really the show that started it all.

FLIP SIDE: Pity that CBS is so weak nowadays that a terrific series like Candice Bergen’s “Murphy Brown” has been pulling only 21% of TV viewers the last few weeks. The show would probably be a ratings smash on NBC. But it’s getting no help from its fast-fading CBS lead-in, “The Famous Teddy Z.”

MUSCLE: Angela Lansbury, star of CBS’ only Top 20 entertainment series, “Murder, She Wrote,” really has the network by the ears. Every year they want her to return now, she negotiates an extra series for her company in exchange. Happened again this week. Nice lady, but CBS must privately hate being cornered like that.

AS THOUSANDS CHEER: Good for the L.A. Telecommunications Commission for threatening to revoke Century Cable’s franchise if it doesn’t improve its service quickly. The wondrous American Movie Classics channel comes in so dark at times on my Century outlet that it’s barely watchable.

TRIBUTE: Walter Cronkite sent a message to the memorial get-together for Bill Stout this week at KCBS Channel 2. “Bill Stout was my hero,” wrote Cronkite. Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, who was sometimes a Stout target, said that he gave him a very special press pass. It had a photo of Stout and Gates together--which made it easier for the newsman to get through police lines.

REAL LIFE: The folks where she lived, Siler City, N.C., still called her “Aunt Bee”--that was Frances Bavier of “The Andy Griffith Show,” who died Wednesday at 86. Bavier reportedly fell in love with the town of about 5,000 while filming the Griffith series, and moved there 17 years ago. She lived with several cats and some attendants in a big stone house with 20 rooms.

DATEBOOK: Vanessa Redgrave’s interview this evening on CBS’ “Saturday Night with Connie Chung” should be worth a look-see. That is, if Chung does a better job with her than she did earlier this season with Marlon Brando. You know, TV’s got it all wrong. Wouldn’t it be better just to hear Redgrave and Brando talking to each other?

BEING THERE: “How come so many doctors are Jewish?” asked Sophia on “The Golden Girls.” “Because their mothers are,” replied a Jewish doctor.