NBC Revamps Schedule for Next Season : Television: The No. 1 network admits that it is vulnerable after all of the series it introduced last fall failed.

Network leader NBC, acknowledging that it is “vulnerable” after a season in which all of its new fall series failed and its ratings dropped, on Monday announced a major overhaul of its prime-time schedule, replacing six hours of programming for 1990-91.

Enlisting such TV veterans as Jane Curtin, Ed Begley Jr. and Robert Urich, as well as rap music performers, NBC will present nine new series in the fall, seven of them comedies. Significantly, seven of the nine shows are in the nightly lead-off slots, where NBC once was effective almost every evening in attracting viewers to stay with the network throughout prime time.

Only three of NBC’s 8 p.m. series--”Matlock” on Tuesdays, “Unsolved Mysteries” on Wednesdays and “The Cosby Show” on Thursdays--are back in those time periods on the fall schedule. CBS, last in the ratings, has been plagued for years by not being able to develop a steady flow of 8 p.m. hits to hook viewers for the night.

“We have recognized our vulnerable positions and attacked them aggressively with diverse and exciting programming,” said NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff, whose network, once the leader in creative series such as “Hill Street Blues” and “St. Elsewhere,” has been increasingly criticized for its conservative shows.

Last fall, for instance, it introduced five new series--”Sister Kate,” “The Nutt House,” “Hardball,” “Baywatch” and “Mancuso FBI”--and all have been canceled. The last time NBC failed with all its new fall entertainment series was the 1983-84 season, when it went 0-for-9.

The only new series from this season returning in the 1990-91 lineup were late starters on NBC--Carol Burnett’s “Carol & Company,” “Grand” and “Wings,” all comedies. And it is significant that each was aided greatly by powerful lead-in shows. “Grand” and “Wings” both were launched following “Cheers,” and “Carol & Company” was assisted by the lead-in tandem of “The Golden Girls” and “Empty Nest.”

With NBC’s daytime schedule slipping in the ratings and “Today” in a prolonged slump since the departure of Jane Pauley at the end of 1989, there is more pressure on the prime-time lineup to pick up the slack. Revenues for “Today” have fallen off, for instance.

But NBC’s prime-time ratings, the backbone of the network, slipped from a 15.7 season average in 1988-89 to 14.6 for the official 1989-90 season that ended in mid-April. With each rating point equal to 921,000 TV homes, that represents a loss of about 1 million viewing households.

Although NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., has won the ratings race for five consecutive seasons--coinciding with the dominance of “The Cosby Show”--its lead over its chief challenger, ABC, was narrowed this season. ABC held firm with a 12.9 rating this season, the same figure it registered the year before.

In addition, ABC inherited NBC’s creative mantle by developing such shows as “The Wonder Years,” “thirtysomething,” “Roseanne,” “Twin Peaks” and “China Beach.” Where NBC once cornered the market on break-out hits, the two major successes this season came from competitors--the cartoon sensation “The Simpsons” on Fox Broadcasting Co. and “America’s Funniest Home Videos” on ABC.

Still, NBC is the network to beat and remains well ahead in the ratings. In announcing the network’s new fall lineup Monday, Tartikoff said, “This new schedule represents an aggressive strategy by NBC to remain dominant in prime time by combining fresh, contemporary programming aimed at key demographics with an already solid list of returning shows.”

He added, “NBC has made changes on all but one night--adding seven comedies for a total of 17.” The network said that this represents “a record number of comedies on a prime-time schedule.” NBC has been held together by two nights of comedies, led by “The Cosby Show” and “Cheers” on Thursday and “The Golden Girls” and “Empty Nest” on Saturdays.

The network’s seven new comedies for fall are:

* “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” which stars pop rapper The Fresh Prince (Will Smith) as “a kid from a tough West Philadelphia neighborhood sent to live with his wealthy relatives in Bel Air, where he must adjust to his new family.”

* “Ferris Bueller,” based on the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and starring Charlie Schlatter as “a charming, clever young man who successfully schemes to prevent high school from interfering with his pursuit of happiness.”

* “The Fanelli Boys,” in which the widowed matriarch of an Italian family in Brooklyn “orders her four adult sons to move back home to straighten out their lives.”

* “Parenthood,” based on the film of the same name and headlining Begley, William Windom, Sheila MacRae and Jayne Atkinson in a story focusing on “the characters and conflicts of an extended family.”

* “Working It Out,” in which Curtin and Stephen Collins portray two divorced people involved in a relationship in “the presure cooker of life in the ‘90s.”

* “American Dreamer,” which stars Urich and Carol Kane and deals with “a widower who gives up his career as a TV foreign correspondent to raise his two children and write a newspaper column.”

* “Hull Street High,” a one-hour comedy--all the other new NBC sitcoms are 30 minutes in length--which uses the musical form to chronicle events at a high school. The series stars Mark Ballou, Cheryl Pollack and rap performers G. Love E., Phillip DeMarks, Trey Parker and Carl Anthony Payne.

NBC’s two new drama series are:

* “Signs of Life,” a reality-based series that uses actors to show “how illness affects a patient both medically and personally, focusing entirely on the patient’s point of view.” A narrator helps weave the show’s elements together.

* “Law and Order,” with Michael Moriarty and George Dzundza in a tale that focuses on police detectives and prosecutors.

In an increasingly common programming move, NBC will present six consecutive comedies as its Saturday night lineup--”Parenthood,” “Working It Out,” “The Golden Girls,” “Empty Nest,” “Carol & Company” and “American Dreamer.”

In addition to last fall’s series canceled by NBC, other shows not returning to the network include “Down Home,” “Working Girl,” “Shannon’s Deal,” “A Family for Joe,” “Ann Jillian,” “Alf,” “The Hogan Family” (which will move to CBS), “My Two Dads,” “227,” “True Blue” and “Nasty Boys.”

The veteran sitcom “Amen,” owned by Johnny Carson’s production company, didn’t make the fall lineup. But NBC said the show has received a full-season order “and will join the schedule in the first available time slot.”

Also rejected for fall was “The Magical World of Disney.” But the network said “The Disney Comedy Adventure Hour,” which will present half-hour action comedies, “will go into production shortly with several pilots to contend for a regular berth in January.”

Here is NBC’s night-by-night lineup:

Sunday: “Hull St. High,” “Signs of Life,” “Sunday Night at the Movies.”

Monday: “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” “Ferris Bueller,” “Monday Night at the Movies.”

Tuesday: “Matlock,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “Law and Order.”

Wednesday: “Unsolved Mysteries,” “The Fanelli Boys,” “Dear John,” “Hunter.”

Thursday: “The Cosby Show,” “A Different World,” “Cheers,” “Grand,” “L.A. Law.”

Friday: “Quantum Leap,” “Night Court,” “Wings,” “Midnight Caller.”

Saturday: “Parenthood,” “Working It Out,” “The Golden Girls,” “Empty Nest,” “Carol & Company,” “American Dreamer.”

ABC’S FALL SCHEDULE

The rival network also announced its prime-time lineup for the 1990-91 season. Story, F1. NBC released its schedule after Calendar’s deadline.