SHORT TAKES : Post to Air Presidential Shows

The Washington Post Co. will co-produce a series of eight one-hour specials called “Inside the White House” that will use newly available material from the presidential libraries to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt through Ronald Reagan.

The Post will put together the material, develop it and supervise the writing of the scripts that will be filmed by Ventura Entertainment at its Orem, Utah, studios. The shows will be available for syndication in fall, 1991. The programs will also be made available on home video, combined with photo books. Filming will begin early next year.

Co-executive producers will be Harvey Bibicoff, chairman of the board of Ventura Entertainment; Irwin Meyer, Ventura president, and Walter Pincus of The Washington Post.

Pincus, who won an Emmy as co-writer of the CBS News documentary “Defense of the United States” in 1981, and has served as a consultant to both NBC and CBS News, will also write the series.

It will be the first time The Post has used its resources and expertise in covering Washington for a TV series.

In addition to newly released information about the presidents and their personal lives, the series will make extensive use of their own writings and those of their closest aides. Dramatizations with actual historical dialogue will be combined with existing footage.

Pincus stressed Monday that “any re-enactments will be done only where there is an exact transcript of what was said.”