Postwar Surprise: No TV Movies in Works : Programming: Is it network strategy not to reveal its projects--or has extensive Gulf coverage exhausted the drama?

You’ve seen the Persian Gulf War. Now how about the Hollywood version?

Not so fast.

The TV networks, usually quick to whip headlines into prime-time drama, say they’re open to ideas but they’re not certain how the war will play.

“We’ve already seen it,” says one producer.

Surprised?

You’d think the war, its heroes, the secret military planning and the flag-waving happy ending would inspire a flood of can’t-miss TV projects. After all, polls reported that 80% of Americans supported the conflict. Seems like a guaranteed big tune-in.

It’s possible, of course, that the networks are playing possum--to avoid rip-offs of projects that we’ll hear about shortly.

It’s also possible that it’s another case of Hollywood being out of touch with America.

Consider President Bush’s triumphant TV address Wednesday, when even political foes such as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) were seen applauding, with little other choice.

But Allen Sabinson, vice president of TV movies and miniseries for ABC, reflected the attitude of all the networks when he said through a spokesman: “We still don’t have anything in development, but we would be open to the right story.”

And while that story conceivably could be about someone like military hero Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf or captured CBS reporter Bob Simon, the networks say they’re also looking for the kind of account that hasn’t been widely exposed:

A personal story with the war as a backdrop.

That kind of story might not evolve until the POWs and troops coming home provide the material that wasn’t seen in the six-week TV war.

“A personal, compelling story is something we would always consider,” says Ruth Slawson, vice president of TV movies and miniseries for NBC.

“We’ve seen everything from a news viewpoint,” she added in a striking revelation of how TV’s first live war has forced changes on Hollywood drama.

In the past, Hollywood could invent larger-than-life personas for heroes who were only read about or seen in newsreel clips. When we visualize World War II Gen. George Patton, we think of George C. Scott portraying him. But we’ve had so much TV contact with Schwarzkopf, it would be difficult to buy anyone else in the role.

Susan Baerwald, whose company is associated with NBC Productions, thinks there could be interest in a “personal story from among the troops that had its stateside story and its desert story. Visually, it’s got to be something we haven’t seen. Perhaps a story about the captured CBS news team, because who really knows what happened to them?”

Book deals about the war have begun to shape up more quickly than TV and film deals. Norman Brokaw, chairman of the William Morris agency, thinks “there would certainly be” a movie in the book he just sold to Doubleday, “Live from Baghdad: A Personal Memoir,” by Robert Wiener, who produced CNN coverage from the Iraqi capital.

The three CNN correspondents who reported dramatically from their hotel room on the allied bombing that launched the war--Peter Arnett, Bernard Shaw and John Holliman--may all wind up with book deals, said a spokesman for the Atlanta-based TV news network. Holliman is already represented by the Morris agency, Brokaw said.

One TV movie that is proceeding is ABC’s story of President Bush’s early years. Roger Ailes, Bush’s television adviser in the 1988 presidential campaign and now a communications consultant for top corporations, is co-executive producer and says that a second draft of the script is being written.

Bush’s defeat of Hussein may well have given new impetus to the project, although Ailes says “we’re not planning to (add) any material from the war” and that the story focuses on the future President “from his final year in high school through World War II,” in which he was a pilot.

Coming on the heels of Bush’s popularity throughout the Gulf War, the ABC film, if it makes it to the screen, would surely not hurt his campaign for re-election next year. Bush’s image would naturally be further enhanced by more films about the war. And Ailes is considering other war-related TV dramas.

But John Matoian, CBS’ vice president for movies and miniseries, says, “We’ve pretty much resisted” stories about the conflict “because it’s all been covered so extensively and so well. So we don’t feel it would be that big a draw.” Matoian says he’s been pitched story ideas, “but I’ve yet to hear one that puts a new light on the war.”

It’s a good bet, however, that CBS, ABC and NBC are all still listening carefully for sure-fire ideas. “Nothing was pitched to us during the war,” says NBC’s Slawson, “which surprised me, because the TV community tends to jump on breaking stories.”

“I haven’t seen one idea cross my desk,” says a top agent and packager of TV shows. “People in this business are sophisticated and know it takes 18 months to get a show on, which would make it stale. But it can be done if you get a fast commitment from a network and a fast go-ahead. The best story that comes out may be something we don’t know about yet--a soldier incident out of a magazine or small book.”

Adds an ABC official: “So little is known about what really went on at the front. And until something comes out from the individuals who were there, who’s going to know what went on? We’re open, but all things have to be considered before you jump in.”

The folks out there in America, of course, may just be happy to get some slam-bang patriotic films that celebrate the victory and its heroes. Will the networks fall into line? Are they paying back the Administration for its wartime media control? Stay tuned.