As Tartikoff Decade Ends, Will NBC Continue to Set the Pace? : Television: The onetime boy wonder introduced ‘Letterman,’ ‘Hill Street Blues,’ ‘Cosby’ and ‘Cheers’--shows that appealed to his generation.

It was Brandon Tartikoff’s decade. At his peak in the 1980s, TV was his oyster. But what probably aided his remarkable 10-year endurance record as president of NBC Entertainment was a sense of humor. There was, for instance, the Playboy interview in which he assessed his power: “Look, I don’t get 100 calls a day because I’m a hell of a guy.”

Perhaps it was his bout with a life-threatening illness, Hodgkin’s disease, that gave Tartikoff a healthy perspective. To even think of holding a killer job like network program boss for more than a few years is unimaginable. So when he was moved upstairs Tuesday to the new job of chairman of the NBC Entertainment Group, it was a miracle of survival.

And, oh yes, winning.

There was never any doubt, amid all his quips, that winning was what Tartikoff lived for. His switch comes amid a spectacular showing of five consecutive years as No. 1 in the ratings for NBC, which was the doormat of TV when former network president Fred Silverman appointed him to the key job in 1980, at the age of 31.

Tartikoff was the youngest entertainment president ever to head one of the Big Three networks. And although he will still oversee that NBC division in his new job, the once-in-a-lifetime experience of presiding over the emergence of such hits as “Hill Street Blues,” “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties,” “Cheers,” “Miami Vice,” “L.A. Law” and “The Golden Girls” is a thing of the past.

His new role is more long-term: expanding the network’s production of shows and finding new markets for them. Such moves are crucial to the networks as cable steals their viewers. Potential network growth areas include overseas and syndication--if the government lifts bans on NBC, CBS and ABC’s selling reruns of shows that they themselves produce.

When Tartikoff took over NBC Entertainment as a boy wonder, things seemed a lot simpler. The networks were more secure. But now, as a grand old man of 41, he’s being called upon to show his smarts in the new world of TV. And the network entertainment divisions now are all in the hands of programmers who are 30-something: Tartikoff’s successor, Warren Littlefield, and CBS’ Jeff Sagansky are both 38, and ABC’s Bob Iger is 39.

For a while in his early days, it didn’t seem that Tartikoff would last very long at NBC. Under Silverman, who dominated program decisions, he was strictly second fiddle but nonetheless took much of the blame as the network continued in the cellar, and he often was rumored as being on his way out. Still, Silverman did give him his break. Tartikoff clearly had promise.

And even then his humor showed. Asked at a panel of TV executives, “Is it true that no one at NBC can give an answer without checking with Fred Silverman?,” he paused and replied: “Can I get back to you on that?”

Tartikoff finally had a chance to blossom as a decision-maker when Grant Tinker succeeded Silverman as head of NBC in 1981. Tinker asked Tartikoff to stay on, turned over real authority to him and then, as is his practice, quietly acted as his mentor and company policy-maker, offering his young protege advice when needed.

Time marches on: That is essentially the role Tartikoff now will play with Littlefield.

And like Tinker, Tartikoff will never be far from the playing field. While he may not make the decisions on specific shows or when they will be seen, or sit in regularly as producers and writers hustle their projects, you can be sure his presence will be a major factor.

If, indeed, Tartikoff retreats more into the background to give center stage to Littlefield, TV will lose something--the kind of individual showmanship that Ted Turner uses so effectively to draw attention to cable. One of the true highlights of TV in the 1980s was watching Tinker and Tartikoff humanize an impersonal corporation--NBC--in their amusing, sophisticated and informal public appearances, both individually and as an enviable stand-up company team.

In a way, though, it could also be good timing for Tartikoff to recede a bit and allow NBC to develop a new image under Littlefield. For while the network has won the ratings game the last five seasons behind “The Cosby Show,” NBC has lost some of the gloss that once set it apart.

The mantle of network innovation now has passed to ABC, the home in recent years of such series as “Moonlighting,” “thirtysomething” and “Twin Peaks.” The scheduling of such shows as Geraldo Rivera’s special on satanism, while not recent, nonetheless delayed Tartikoff’s bid to become the new statesman of network TV, succeeding Tinker, although certainly no one was, or is, better qualified for the role.

Tartikoff brought tremendous pluses to the network arena, among them the fact that he was the first member of the TV generation to become the president of an entertainment division. It was only natural, then, that “Late Night With David Letterman” and “Miami Vice” were introduced during his regime, bringing an entirely new attitude to TV and influencing numerous shows.

Yet the team and programs that enabled NBC to reach its zenith in both ratings and quality are now scattered, gone or aging. Tinker is producing a new series for CBS. Steven Bochco, co-creator of “Hill Street Blues” and “L.A. Law,” moved to ABC. “Cheers,” “The Cosby Show” and “The Golden Girls” remain strong but are getting old. ABC is pulling closer. TV leadership for the ‘90s is up for grabs.

Tartikoff said recently that Tinker once told him, “Don’t look at the ratings--look at the show.” That is splendid advice. Tartikoff renewed “Family Ties” during its early years with only a 16% share of the TV audience because NBC believed in the show. How much he followed Tinker’s advice for this fall’s schedule is questionable, but he clearly hopes to leave the job a ratings winner on the strength of a new sitcom, “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” which stars rap musician Will Smith.

Whether Tartikoff successfully handles the new chores assigned to him by parent company General Electric remains to be seen. He will continue to be in charge not only of NBC Entertainment but also NBC Productions, which has not been noticeably impressive, and the NBC Program Development Group, which has attempted to cross-pollinate the network’s programming units.

NBC President Robert Wright said Tuesday that Tartikoff’s leadership of the Program Development Group has resulted in “heightened activities from news, new projects in the owned stations (of the network) and in sports.” Yet during that leadership, Tom Brokaw’s nightly NBC news remains last, the “Today” show has collapsed and NBC no longer has the rights to baseball, once its trademark sports showcase. These are all areas in which leadership has failed.

It is a mark of Tartikoff’s personal stature in network TV that he remains its foremost executive, despite his pratfalls. Some think he may be getting moved upstairs to prevent Littlefield from defecting, but most believe, as one rival executive says, that Tartikoff “is a fabulous piece of manpower. The bloom may be off the rose, but if G.E. buys a studio, who better to run the whole thing than Brandon? He could be to G.E. and NBC what (Chairman) Michael Eisner is to Disney and its vast, mixed-media empire.”

In that Playboy interview, by the way--done when Tartikoff was 33--he was asked: “Where do you see yourself at the age of 40?” He replied: “Doing something completely different . . . where I’d have to start from scratch.” He added: “Television is a burnout industry. . . . The network is a machine that eats you up, and the machine always needs to be fed.”