Was Vic (The Brick) Jacobs Spiked at KCOP?

It wasn’t a marriage made in TV heaven.

Both sides admit it--recently departed KCOP Channel 13 sportscaster Vic (The Brick) Jacobs and the station’s newly hired news boss, Jeff Wald.

Wald, who built a winning, no-nonsense news report with Hal Fishman at KTLA Channel 5, says he wanted the flamboyant Jacobs to “tone down the caricature” because “I don’t think he needs that. He has talent.”

Jacobs says, “For me to say suddenly that I’m changing my whole style to fit into this operation--where’s the payoff? I wanted to be free.”

He soon was.

The two men didn’t see eye-to-eye on the contract commitment that Jacobs wanted. Last week the wild sportscaster moved over full-time to Rick Dees’ KIIS-FM morning radio show.

Wald says it really wasn’t a matter of oil and water when it came to him and Jacobs.

The raspy, Brooklyn-born Jacobs, who’d knocked around from Guam Cable TV to Roswell, N.M., to Austin to Fresno, burst onto KCOP in 1988, decked out in spiked hair and a bolo tie.

He got his nickname by hurling plastic-foam bricks at the camera.

“I liked his writing style,” says Wald. “What I didn’t like was his spiked hair and clothes at the beginning. Some people sampled him and didn’t come back. But he’s toned down his act.

“I said that I’d like to extend his contract until the end of the year and see if we could work with him and give him support. He has the abilities. I wanted to give him a fair shake.”

Wald says he didn’t want to make on-air changes so soon, but Jacobs asked for a year renewal--and he couldn’t give it because the station was “evaluating” the newscast.

Says Jacobs: “They did not give me a commitment that was satisfying for me and my family. And truthfully, I think it would have been a battle, a giant compromise on my part to compromise my style.

“I feel I’ve changed enough. I was a rock ‘n’ roll lounge lizard sportscaster when I came, and after three months the station wanted a change. And I changed, because I respected them. At that point, I made a vow that I’m not changing again.”

So straight-laced Tony Hernandez now is KCOP’s sports guy.

“I am the wild thing,” says Jacobs.

THE ENTERTAINER: Sammy Davis Jr. was a gutty guy. And you can see just how gutty by tuning in Thursday to ABC’s “America’s Dance Honors,” which was taped several months before his May 16 death.

Sounding perceptibly ill from the cancer that finally claimed him, he nonetheless was still the showman as he accepted the lifetime achievement award of the National Academy of Dance Hall of Fame.

He was introduced by Liza Minnelli. And as he began to deliver his acceptance remarks, someone in the audience shouted, “We love you, Sammy.”

Davis smiled broadly and said, “Thank you.”

And then he thanked “all the people who said the prayers for me.”

The show, which also features former First Lady Betty Ford, Paula Abdul and Cyd Charisse, is dedicated to Davis in opening remarks by Minnelli.

ENCORE: While you’re waiting to be surprised by Steven Bochco’s weekly musical police drama, “Cop Rock,” on ABC this fall, a major rerun on KCET Channel 28 may help get you in the mood. Playwright Dennis Potter’s 1988 miniseries, “The Singing Detective,” a musical drama that is one of the great TV shows of all time, begins Sunday. Not to be missed if you haven’t seen it.

ONE FOR THE BOOKS: With voting now taking place for Emmy nominations, let’s hope no one forgets Lane Smith’s monumental performance as Richard Nixon in ABC’s “The Final Days,” chronicling the period before he resigned over Watergate.

SAY WHAT?: “Celebrating Excellence. Worthy of Your Emmy Consideration,” read the ad from Columbia Pictures TV. Among the shows put forth were “Peaceable Kingdom” (canceled), “Free Spirit” (canceled), “The Famous Teddy Z” (canceled), “Sugar & Spice” (canceled), “Living Dolls” (canceled) and “Hardball” (canceled). Maybe there should be a new Emmy category: worst nominated show.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS: Is “Twin Peaks,” which starts production soon for fall, really looking for an “extremely scary, monstrous giant, minimum 7 feet tall,” as rumored by casting sources? We called over to the “Twin Peaks” office, and the folks there said they couldn’t confirm--or deny. So we didn’t even ask about the other rumor--you know, that they’re also looking for a woman “as old as the hills.”

ANOTHER ’48 HOURS’: Dan Rather’s erratic but sometimes brilliant “48 Hours” series took a big step toward becoming a first-rate newsmagazine by adding CBS correspondents Richard Schlesinger, Phil Jones, Harold Dow and Erin Moriarty, who’ll join staff reporter Bernard Goldberg. This is a very good group.

GOING TO THE DOGS: CBS will offer a new series called “Prime Time Pets” on Mondays at 8:30 p.m., featuring animals and their owners in “heartwarming and humorous situations.” Would we kid you?

ONWARD AND UPWARD: CBS’ planned Aug. 10 special, “Funny You Should Ask,” airs a poll answering such questions as: “Do you like the way you look in the nude?” and “What part of the body do you look at first on the opposite sex?” CBS--the Tiffany network.