Tartikoff Says NBC Might Expand Into Feature Films : The future: He says the network, like Disney a few years ago, has a lot of ‘unrealized assets’ that can be put to use.

Brandon Tartikoff, newly assigned by NBC to look at “the big picture,” hinted strongly Thursday that some of the network’s future might lie in a major expansion into feature films.

His mandate is to take NBC “to a higher level,” he said. “There’s a lot of unrealized assets with us, much like what existed at Disney when they decided to break out of their envelope”--a reference to the boom that the company underwent after an aggressive new management team headed by Michael Eisner took over in 1984.

On Tuesday, as part of an executive shuffle, Tartikoff, NBC’s chief programmer for the past decade, was named chairman of the NBC Entertainment Group to expand the company’s production of entertainment programming and the market for such fare.

So Thursday’s previously scheduled meeting with TV critics and reporters at the Century Plaza--in the midst of their annual summer meetings with the networks to hear about the fall season--was a swan-song session for Tartikoff in his role as chief architect of the NBC schedule. With him was his successor as president of NBC Entertainment, Warren Littlefield.

The session erupted with show-business flourish. Will Smith, the young black rapper who will star in NBC’s “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” in the fall, came bouncing on in his usual looper T-shirt and did a rap with the black-suited Tartikoff on the chairman’s winner-and-loser shows. At the end, they hugged.

It was like a pep rally, with about 50 NBC executives crowding into the room to honor the boss. As the applause was dying, the 140 critics put on Bart Simpson face masks.

Smith shrieked, “Oh, that’s ugly!” Tartikoff, taking the podium, returned, “This is what I dream about at night, and this is what it looks like.”

Bart stars in “The Simpsons,” the breakout animation comedy that fired the baby Fox Broadcasting network into the Top 10 and now will be pitted in the fall against “The Cosby Show,” which has been Tartkioff’s and NBC’s signature success.

But before getting into thoughts about any grand plans, Tartikoff had a couple of announcements: NBC had picked up the critically applauded “Shannon’s Deal,” an hour drama starring Jamey Sheridan as a down-and-out lawyer, as a midseason replacement; and popular radio interviewer Larry King will host an hour talk-variety special Oct. 28.

Littlefield had his own announcements, including the naming of two other midseason series: “Blossom,” a half-hour comedy pitting a 13-year-old girl (Mayim Bialik) against her single-parent father, a musician, and “Sisters,” a contemporary drama about four sisters, who will be played by Swoozie Kurtz, Julianne Phillips, Patricia Kalember and Sela Ward.

Asked by a reporter if he really wanted to run a movie studio, as persistent rumors have alleged, Tartikoff didn’t respond directly. But he began discussing changes in the feature film business and said that “the movement is more toward television and less toward features,” with reference to greater quality in storytelling, including cable and other non-network productions. He cited TV projects done by filmmakers David Lynch, John Sayles and Michael Mann.

“I think it’s safe to say that anybody in the feature film world is a phone call away from anybody in network television,” he said. “Feature film writers and producers are frustrated by the blockbuster mentality that permeates that business (features). . . . Unless you want to make ‘Total Recall 4’ or ‘Predator 9,’ they’re not dying for your phone call there.”

“I’m not guaranteed that General Electric (NBC’s parent company) will buy me a big toy to play with,” Tartikoff said, but he wants to take “the knowledge and know-how” at NBC and reach a higher level.

He said that his contract has “several years” to run. As to whether he would like a studio job, he said, “I wouldn’t want to rule it out.”

On the matter of Fox, he acknowledged that it is successful with younger age groups, including some upscale audience. But he couldn’t resist this shot: “I don’t think there’s a Nielsen index for IQ, but there is for age.”