Bochco Takes 2 More Turns at the Plate

TV or not TV. . . .

BOTTOM LINE: So far, it’s one hit, “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” and one flop, “Cop Rock,” for producer Steven Bochco in his 10-series deal with ABC.

Now come his next two entries: “Civil Wars,” a drama about divorce lawyers, and “Capitol Critters,” a cartoon series about animals who live in the White House basement.

“Unless something truly goes wacko,” Bochco says, “the good-faith assumption going in” is that both shows will be on ABC next season under the multi-series agreement.

“Civil Wars,” with Mariel Hemingway and Peter Onorati--the loose-cannon detective in “Cop Rock”--as divorce attorneys, “is less a law show than ‘L.A. Law’ and much more a human drama,” Bochco says.

“It’s about men and women in the kind of crisis that is very recognizable in most of us--either we’re divorced or know somebody who is.”

Casting Hemingway (“Personal Best,” “Manhattan”) came about “as it so often does--you’re 30 seconds from starting the show and you don’t have anybody you really want yet, and suddenly someone walks in the door who’s fresh and lights up the room.”

Bochco (“Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law”) figures “Capitol Critters” won’t be ready until January, explaining:

“The lead time is so incredible with animation. It goes to Taiwan for the actual animating because costs here are prohibitive. Then it comes back here for adjustments. Then it goes back to Taiwan. So we won’t have a finished episode until October, and then six by December.”

Despite the White House setting, Bochco says “Capitol Critters” won’t be hard-edged satire. “It does have some contemporary relevance,” but the long lead time for each show will make the humor more generic than topical, he suggests.

“We have some political fun. We will often be privy to cabinet meetings and presidential advisers. But it’s not as hard-edged as ‘The Simpsons.’ I’ve always looked at ‘The Simpsons’ not as a cartoon--you could put actors in the roles and do the show.”

Any final reflections on why “Cop Rock,” the heralded musical police drama, bombed?

“I think it embarrassed people that in the intimate privacy of a bedroom or wherever people watch TV, characters were breaking the reality of TV as they knew it. People began to sing. It embarrassed them.”

WORKING STIFF: Ed Asner is, as usual, working here, there and everywhere. How do you think he got those seven Emmys, more than any other TV actor?

With the May ratings sweeps starting this week, he turns up Sunday and Monday as a lawyer in a big-ticket NBC miniseries, “Switched at Birth,” about two babies somehow swapped in a nursery and raised by the wrong biological parents.

“I read the real-life story and was fascinated by it,” says TV’s eternal “Lou Grant.”

What’s more, plans call for Asner to join the CBS series “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill” as a regular, playing, as he describes it, “a right-wing, conservative ex-cop” who helps out the public defender’s office where star Sharon Gless works.

Great idea and a strong added argument to bring back the show next season.

But we caught up with Asner the other day far from Hollywood--in Kansas, where he was doing a play, “On the Level,” at Johnson County Community College. How come?

“It’s near my hometown, Kansas City,” he said by phone. “I’m regarded as an illustrious hometown boy, and I come home periodically, and the director of the theater thought it would be a good idea to initiate a series every year and name the series after me. There’d be a prominent star each year, and we’d start a scholarship at the college.”

Then there are Asner’s other projects. He’s doing voices for animated shows like “Captain Planet” and “Fish Police,” and “I’ve got a few commercials out”--not to mention his superb contributions to dramas on public radio.

“I’d love to have a successful series, with enough time to do a movie now and then, and do the radio work that I do, and then I’d be happy,” he says.

Total pro.

VISITOR: CNN’s Peter Arnett says he’s focusing on his coming book and hasn’t given much thought to movie or TV projects about his exploits in the Gulf War. He was given a party here last week at the home of longtime buddy, newsman and fellow Vietnam correspondent Murray Fromson, now director of USC’s Center for International Journalism.

IT’S A LIVING: Recently retired Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Kelly, a familiar face during the Gulf War briefings, will be technical adviser for ABC’s two-hour docudrama “The Heroes of Desert Storm.” It will deal with the exploits of U.S. servicemen and women during the conflict and will be broadcast this fall.

DRAWING BOARD: Ken Burns and the creative team that turned out PBS’ landmark documentary series, “The Civil War,” have been rounded up by Time Life Video to produce a 10-hour television program, “The Old West.” Time Life is talking with PBS about carrying the show. Burns says the story of the West “tells us as much about who we are as a people as any subject I know.”

HIGH CONCEPT: Oh, maybe it’s just an idea, but it’s floating around--building a new sitcom around “L.A. Law’s” Corbin Bernsen (Arnie Becker) and Susan Ruttan (Roxanne Melman). It’s a great notion. Hey, I’d watch.

SLEEPER: CBS has really stumbled onto something special with “Northern Exposure,” and the audience seems to be catching on as the ratings grow. It’s worth a major push by the network.

TRENDY: Latest contender in TV’s flood of reality shows is producer Fred Silverman (“In the Heat of the Night,” “Matlock”), who’s making a pilot called “Perfect Crimes,” which would re-create the stories with actors.

FALLOUT: With all those pay cuts in TV news, does that mean no more mileage for anchors who dash back from dinner just in time to be made up and read the headlines?

BEING THERE: “Having a dream isn’t stupid, Norm. It’s not having a dream that’s stupid.”--Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) in “Cheers.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .