A High-Tech Seal

Remember the Good Housekeeping “Seal of Approval?” Well, it now has a high-tech clone.

Info World, a weekly magazine on the PC industry, has introduced its own “buyer assurance seal” of approval. The seal, which is expected to appear on computer hardware and software packaging this fall, will establish safeguards that include a 60-day repair or replace guarantee for the product.

Info World’s $4-million Test Center will test and evaluate more than 1,000 products this year. To earn the seal, products must receive a “satisfactory” rating. And note: There is no requirement that the makers advertise their products in Info World.

“The seal was not designed to meet the needs of product vendors,” said Jonathan Sacks, president and publisher of Info World. “It was created to support PC buyers all the way.”

‘Midnight Spender’

“Midnight Caller,” Lorimar Television’s moody series about an ex-cop (played by Gary Cole) and his radio call-in program, recently started shooting episodes for its third season in San Francisco. And that was as good an excuse as any for the city’s Film and Video Arts Commission to put out a press release bragging about the program’s effect on the local economy.

According to the commission, the production company will spend $12 million, or $68,000 each day, on food, lodging, equipment, crew members and extras. That includes $13,000 per episode for catering alone. The first of the season’s 22 episodes is set to air Sept. 21 on NBC.

Some Variety on TV

First came the switch from straight trade news to big-scale cover stories on the likes of Francis Ford Coppola and New York Times theater critic Frank Rich. Then came plans for home delivery on the West Coast.

Now the new management at New York-based weekly Variety, cousin of the daily entertainment trade paper published here, is laying groundwork for a half-hour entertainment news show and maybe even a quiz show using the Variety name.

According to Variety sources, editor Peter Bart, an ex-film executive who took charge last year, is talking with producers about pilots for the shows.

Bart declined to comment.