Network Sharks Move to Get a Ratings Bite

TV or not TV. . . .

INSIDE MOVES: On NBC, a shark finishes off a star of “Baywatch” this Friday.

At ABC, the signing of Victoria Principal for two series robs CBS of a top headliner.

At CBS, Valerie Bertinelli tries a comedy series to get the network back on track.

Separate moves, but all part of midseason network strategy to win the upper hand.

So was NBC’s Saturday “Hunter” episode in which the police partners played by Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer finally went to bed with each other.

Just in time, too. She leaves the show this season.

Look, folks, this is TV maneuvering at its finest.

First, “Baywatch.”

On the very night that TV offers the Miss USA Pageant, NBC has the nerve to kill off Miss Universe of 1980, Shawn Weatherly, in “Baywatch,” which is about lifeguards.

No imagination. NBC could have been topical, meaningful. It could have done her in with an oil spill, or sewage in the ocean.

Instead, a shark.

The dreaded moment Friday comes when sharks threaten surfers off Malibu.

“I go out, pull a kid up on a boat,” says Weatherly, “and before they’re able to get me in, the shark gets me.”

She’s happy to be leaving the series, even this way.

“They got further and further away from dealing with my character. Jumping around and being athletic isn’t enough.”

ABC’s deal with Principal isn’t as dramatic.

But it does strip CBS, where Principal starred Sunday in “Sparks: The Price of Passion,” of another big name.

Past CBS headliners who have defected include Carol Burnett, Bea Arthur, Betty White and Carroll O’Connor.

But at least Bertinelli, also a CBS movie regular, is staying.

Her new detective show, “Sydney,” will finally give CBS a sitcom on another night besides Monday when it debuts March 21, a Wednesday.

CBS is dying partly because it lacks comedy hits. “Murphy Brown” and “Designing Women” aren’t enough.

By the way, that Miss USA Pageant airs on CBS Friday. It’s the 39th presentation--and do you remember the first queen back in 1952? Jackie Loughery, who married Jack Webb.

UPSET: It’s not often that anything beats CBS’ “60 Minutes” in the ratings, but Sunday’s hour rerun of ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos” did the trick in overnight figures from 23 major cities. “Videos” pulled 30% and 32% of the audience for its two half hours, while “60 Minutes” posted 27% throughout.

DEAD END: How rough are things at CBS? Well, the new series already bumped by the network include “The People Next Door,” “The Famous Teddy Z,” “A Peaceable Kingdom,” “Wolf,” “Top of the Hill,” “Snoops” and, in recent days, “Island Son” and “Grand Slam.”

SLEEPER: Who would have thought that “Jake and the Fatman,” with William Conrad and Joe Penny, would have hung in there this long for CBS?

FREQUENT FLYER: And how about the TV staying power of Robert Stack--from “The Untouchables” to NBC’s very hot “Unsolved Mysteries”? But it was a movie, “Airplane!”, that really re-introduced him to the new generation.

HEAD GUY: President Bush is the subject of an hour Wednesday NBC special, “A Day in the Life of the White House,” and then on Friday addresses a breakfast of the TV academy at the Century Plaza.

THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE: The TV academy holds a special meeting Wednesday prompted by dissidents unhappy with Fox’s winning of the Emmy Awards for three more years for about $9 million. No question Fox TV had the top bid and is expanding, but network foes, pointing to the close 20-16 vote that approved the deal, want academy governors to take another look.

BUSINESS IS BUSINESS: Funny--they may be on opposite sides in the Emmy squabble, but Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox, and NBC are partners in Sky Cable, a proposed direct-broadcast satellite service that would deliver up to 108 channels to viewers who buy a small antenna dish--12 by 18 inches--for only about $300. It’s planned for late 1993, and could render obsolete current views on such matters as the importance of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.

ZAPPING: Caught “The Razor’s Edge”--the original one with Ty Power--on the American Movie Classics channel, and Gene Tierney has got to be the best thing ever to come out of Brooklyn. Of course, when she had to utter the line, “That was Somerset Maugham on the telephone,” I almost reached for the Jack Daniels.

GROWING PAINS: “My father,” Arsenio Hall told Sally Jessy Raphael, “was a Southern Baptist preacher from Georgia. He was a very, very tough man. There was no card-playing at my house, you couldn’t play certain records, you couldn’t dance. I was from a very serious household. My mother wasn’t allowed to wear pants. My dad used to screen my music.”

PAPER ROUTE: Niles Merton, publisher of the Los Angeles-based gay publication The Advocate, which was central to the Andy Rooney case, says he’s not planning an editorial comment on the newsman’s status at CBS. “It’s really CBS’ job,” says Merton. Rooney denied racial remarks in The Advocate attributed to him, and explained his feelings about gays in a letter in the same issue.

FAIR AND WARMER: Andrew Amador, the weather guy canned by KCAL Channel 9 (then KHJ), has landed in the key TV market of Detroit after learning a tough lesson. “Sports and weather stars become dynasties in the top markets--they just don’t go away,” says Amador, who spent most of the past year at KNX Radio.

BEING THERE: “Holler, but don’t hit.” Wisdom from Mr. Ed in “Mr. Ed.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .