‘Videos’ Soars in Ratings for ABC, but ‘Elvis’ Fails to Follow Up

TV or not TV. . . .

ALL SHOOK UP: Who would have thought a bunch of amateur videos would be more popular than a television series about Elvis Presley?

It’s true, despite the huge buildup for “Elvis” as half of ABC’s new tandem with “America’s Funniest Home Videos”--both aimed at dislodging CBS’ “Murder, She Wrote” from its top berth on Sunday nights.

“America’s Funniest Home Videos” continued to soar in the ratings Sunday, earning a whopping 32% audience share in the overnight tally for 23 major markets--and beating “Murder, She Wrote,” which registered 26%.

But “Elvis,” in its second outing--and the first time it was paired with “America’s Funniest Home Videos”--staggered home with just 17% of the big-city audience.

National ratings are scheduled for release today.

How hot is “America’s Funniest Home Videos”? Well, those amateur tapes are flooding into the series at the rate of 1,000 to 2,000 a day, the show’s production office reports.

“Elvis,” which dramatizes the singer’s rise to fame up to his Army service, ran into a buzz-saw in its half of the 8-9 p.m. Sunday slot, perhaps the most competitive hour in prime time.

Airing from 8:30-9, it finished behind not only “Murder, She Wrote,” but also a special outing of NBC’s “Unsolved Mysteries” and the new Fox animated hit, “The Simpsons.”

Preceding “Elvis” at 8-8:30, “America’s Funniest Home Videos” easily outpointed “Murder, She Wrote,” “Unsolved Mysteries” and “America’s Most Wanted.”

Sunday’s competition was heightened by the Andy Rooney furor, which led to his suspension from “60 Minutes”--the lead-in to “Murder, She Wrote.”

A Mike Wallace commentary on Rooney, who denies making an insulting remark about blacks attributed to him in a publication, undoubtedly contributed to the high tune-in for “60 Minutes.”

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH: Johnny Carson, in rare form, has turned up the jets in his February sweeps ratings. He’ll give NBC the official word on his annual renewal decision next month, but he looks great--and primed to command late-night as long as he wants. He creamed all network competition during the week ending Feb. 2.

MISSION TO MOSCOW: Now that McDonald’s has opened a Moscow branch, Carson reports that Mikhail Gorbachev promoted himself to a better job. He’ll be “McDonald’s employee-of-the-month for life,” says Carson.

HO HUM: It’s now five weeks in a row that NBC’s “Today” show, without Jane Pauley, has lost in the ratings to ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

BROADCAST NEWS: For the last two weeks anyway, ABC has also firmed up its new lead in the nightly news, with the Peter Jennings report topping CBS’ Dan Rather by a wide margin.

BEAU GESTE: Certainly was sporting of KABC Channel 7 to run those pieces about competitor KNBC Channel 4’s “L.A. Law” last week, thus promoting the opposition during the February sweeps. No doubt KABC’s parent firm, ABC, will boast about such civilized behavior at the network’s next stockholders’ meeting.

TRUE GRIT: “Elvis” is a really swell series--but it would be better with the grittier style of “Leadbelly,” the motion picture about the legendary blues singer that Bravo showed Saturday night.

HAPPY HOUR: Had a rough day at the office, went home, caught Pavarotti on Bravo, and everything was all right. Know what I mean?

BLOOPER BOWL: See, CBS had this great idea--launch the new series “Grand Slam,” with John Schneider and Paul Rodriguez as modern bounty hunters, right after the Super Bowl, and watch it take off. Last week, without the Super Bowl, “Grand Slam” came in 68th in the national ratings, with a 13% audience share--no better than the admired series it replaced, “Beauty and the Beast.”

REDS: With communism losing ground in Europe, it’s time for a repeat of one of Dave Letterman’s great “Top 10” lists. Maybe you remember it: “Top 10 things to make communism fun again.”

GOOD MOVE: KNBC has recalled Soviet journalist Svetlana Starodomskaya, who first appeared on the station in November, to do a series of reports, starting this week, on the revolutionary events taking place in her country.

EXPERT TESTIMONY: Hope somebody asks Mick Jagger and Keith Richards what they think of the “Elvis” TV series when they appear on the “Today” show Wednesday and Thursday.

DRAWING BOARD: Chad Hoffman, a key figure in developing “thirtysomething,” “China Beach” and other series at ABC, last week began putting together a boutique operation of writers and producers, which he’ll run for the Hearst-backed King Phoenix Entertainment.

CREATIVE THINKING: Friend of ours poses this question: If the public tires of Roseanne Barr in her “Roseanne” series, might not John Goodman, who plays her husband, be just as big a hit starring in a revised version of the domestic sitcom, now that he’s an enormously popular performer?

SURE THING: What would the sweeps be without Victoria Principal in a CBS movie? In this one, “Sparks: The Price of Passion,” which airs Feb. 25, she’s the mayor of Albuquerque, runs into romance and blackmail and--oh, just about everything you’d expect from a mayor of Albuquerque.

BEING THERE: The film was Orson Welles’ brooding “Touch of Evil,” and Marlene Dietrich was speaking her classic lines in a rerun on cable. “He was some kind of man,” she said. “What does it matter what you say about someone?”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .