ANALYSIS : For NBC’s Tartikoff, the Timing Was Right : Television: The entertainment division chief, restless under G.E.’s ownership of the network, is leaving for a bigger playing field while his flame still burns brightly.

Rarely has Hollywood watched so intensely a career move by one of its own as when Brandon Tartikoff plunged into talks to leave NBC and take over Paramount--an act consummated Wednesday.

In a decade as head of NBC’s entertainment division, Tartikoff, 42, had taken a hapless network from the basement to the penthouse. It was difficult to imagine NBC without him. In victory and even defeat, he had become the heart of the organization--a showman who had become a household name and had won a special place in the Hollywood community because of his personal charisma as much as his television acumen.

At the height of his intoxicating six-year run at the top of the ratings--unleashing hit after hit, from “The Cosby Show” to “Cheers” to “Miami Vice” to “L.A. Law” to “Late Night With David Letterman”--he was television’s equivalent of the storied young genius of motion pictures, Irving Thalberg, who became a legend guiding MGM.

Thus, all eyes in the hardened Hollywood community focused on Tartikoff with a special interest that went well beyond the Paramount job he might or might not take. From New Year’s Day of this year, when he was in a serious auto accident, from which his daughter Calla is still recovering, he seemed to be faced with a multitude of crises in his life. And this was one case when Hollywood didn’t just shrug.

It is all too true--for better, and often for worse--that Hollywood is a tight, socially inbred little community, and Tartikoff was definitely family.

So would he or wouldn’t he make the move? And what were the factors that brought him to the point where he seemed to be dismissing his repeated pledges to remain at NBC and was finally considering one of the many film studio jobs offered to him over the years?

And, oh yes, how would his leaving affect NBC’s future? That future has been clouded since NBC’s 1986 purchase by a non-broadcaster, General Electric; for since the buyout there has been a definite decline at the network in risk-taking, prestige--and, inevitably, ratings.

For Tartikoff personally, the timing seemed perfect to leave NBC. If he didn’t, he might suffer the indignity of seeing his glory years, already well behind him at the network, tarnished further by NBC’s ever-visible slippage. Although NBC recently won its sixth consecutive season in the ratings, it is by no means a certain victor again in the new fall competition, for its audience has dropped sharply and ABC and CBS are within a hair of first place.

He would, in short, exit gracefully--still on top.

But Tartikoff has always seemed a breed apart from run-of-the-mill network entertainment chiefs. It is not merely, as Bob Iger, president of ABC Entertainment, said last year, that Tartikoff is, to many, “the most talented person to ever inhabit the office.” He seems to be driven by more than the natural inclination to win.

All of Hollywood knows of his grace, ironic humor and extraordinary concentration in the face of an illness, Hodgkin’s disease, that threatened his life. And although, as he says, the January auto accident and its aftermath caused him to re-evaluate a number of things in his life, other factors were also at play.

In the last few years, he seemed almost burned out at NBC. His single greatest programming error may well have been putting on the notorious 1988 satanism special by Geraldo Rivera.

It seemed to indicate that NBC, gentlemanly in the past even when it was losing, was suddenly a frightened first-place network that was driven by the fear that G.E. would sell it off as fast as any of its other divisions if it didn’t perform at the bottom line.

Tartikoff was clearly feeling the pressures of the new world of TV and the endangered position of networks and particularly of their quality shows. In one speech, he said he would not want to work in a business where a “Hill Street Blues”--the show that brought NBC back from the grave--would have no place.

The youngest person ever named to head a network entertainment division--he got the NBC job in 1980 at age 31--he seemed increasingly bored and restless, according to friends.

He wanted more--most of all, it seemed, to run a studio. Maybe, the talk went, NBC would buy him one. Or maybe he could run a studio that could buy him a network, which he could oversee as part of his duties. He was, when energized, a tremendous piece of manpower, and all that remained was finding the right place to turn on the juice again.

There were, for instance, talks of NBC and Universal getting together. It didn’t happen. Then, recently, a dry-sounding but enormously significant decision by the Federal Communications Commission--which limited network ownership of shows and profits from syndicated reruns--reportedly dismayed him. One of his titles is president of NBC Productions, and the FCC ruling not only restricted his hoped-for profitable ventures in the creative area but also was a roadblock to network TV in general as its profits and audience decline.

Well, maybe, then, it was said, Paramount, deep into syndicated series with such shows as “Entertainment Tonight” and the Arsenio Hall show, would buy Tartikoff a network. The FCC could well prove an opponent in such a maneuver as well, but there is no doubt that Tartikoff, at a multi-faceted studio such as Paramount, would have a much wider playing field on which to gambol.

For months--in fact, for several years--there have been clues all over the TV landscape that Tartikoff was looking for a new show business fix.

Just last March, at an NBC presentation of its fall projects for advertisers, he made an extraordinarily revealing statement. Referring to the Reno hotel where he had stayed for a month while recuperating from his car accident, he noted that it had no cable TV, only network programs--and “it was pretty scary” viewing.

He spoke of “gaping holes” for intelligent viewers. Speaking of network TV’s 1990-91 schedule, he said, “A season in which there were no breakout hits says something about the ennui of the viewers.” And, he said, you can’t blame it all on the added competition of a multi-channel cable environment. He spoke openly of NBC’s “lack of success the last few seasons.” He admitted to a fear of falling from No. 1.

“The fall from first place may take place from lack of risk-taking,” he added.

Many of those who watched the presentation sensed a man who seemed to be looking critically at his own work and values. And his special relationship with the TV community emerged poignantly when, after receiving a standing ovation, he thanked those present for their “outpouring of cards and calls” and said that “there’s a connection here” that went beyond business.

The rise and decline of NBC under Tartikoff is the stuff of show business legend.

When he was named head of NBC Entertainment in 1980 by the network’s former president, Fred Silverman, he had little final authority. But things changed when Grant Tinker became chairman of NBC in 1981, replacing Silverman; he told Tartikoff that the programming authority was now his. Tartikoff recalls Tinker telling him, “I’d like you to stay, and let’s see if we can make NBC a better place.”

It took a few years. But soon NBC no longer was the ridiculed network of “Hello Larry” and “Flamingo Road.” A flat-out commercial hit, “The A-Team,” helped plenty. But at the same time, a new breed of shows that appealed to young, intelligent, urban audiences--the kind sought by advertisers--became NBC’s trademark: “Hill Street Blues,” “Cheers,” “St. Elsewhere” and “Family Ties” among them.

What carried NBC over the hump and to exhilarating success was the unexpected, explosive impact of a little-heralded family sitcom called “The Cosby Show,” which debuted in 1984. In short time, it was a sensation and the program that carried the network to the No. 1 ratings position that it has yet to relinquish.

The trouble was, what do you do for an encore when No. 1 gets to be a habit? NBC gave Tartikoff new toys to play with. In 1984, while still president of NBC Entertainment, he was also named president of NBC Productions, an in-house unit that has done well with some of its TV programs but has made little impact on the motion picture scene.

In 1988, in what was probably a major error, Tartikoff was also named president of the NBC Program Development Group. The error was not in having him play a major part in such a group but in making him the chairman while the heads of such divisions as NBC News were simply members. This formalized what everyone already knew--that Tartikoff was NBC’s No. 1 guy. But it also sent a disturbing message--a perception that even the news division was somehow touched by the entertainment department.

One of Tartikoff’s longtime associates, producer Dick Ebersol, best known for “Saturday Night Live,” was put in charge of NBC News’ “Today” show and quickly precipitated a crisis by orchestrating the plan that resulted in Jane Pauley being forced off the series and being replaced by Deborah Norville, who now has given way to Katie Couric. Ebersol finally acknowledged blame for the entire Pauley debacle.

Under news division president Michael Gartner, who was a distant second to Tartikoff in status at NBC, little has emerged in the way of creative journalistic programming. On the other hand, a flashy, sometimes racy exercise such as NBC’s new “Expose” magazine series has been allowed to infiltrate the prime-time schedule on a weekly basis.

In 1990, finally, Tartikoff relinquished the presidency of NBC Entertainment to his longtime aide, Warren Littlefield. Tartikoff now became chairman of the heretofore nonexistent NBC Entertainment Group, and it looked like he was packing his bags. He even joked that he actually had no division to head. But he now was operating even more in the corporate atmosphere of network television--yet another added qualification for a job like, say, running a studio.

But NBC stations had become so dependent on Tartikoff’s wizardry--despite disastrous fall seasons in 1983 (when his new series went 0 for 9) and 1989 (when he went 0 for 5 with such lemons as “Nutt House” and “Sister Kate”)--that they were nervous about his departure from day-to-day programming.

Never mind that his big, promised hit of this season, “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” didn’t materialize as anywhere near the success he visualized for it. Never mind that NBC fell on its face again last fall, except for several new entries including “Law & Order”--in a schedule that was Tartikoff’s apparent swan song. It was just difficult to imagine NBC in anyone else’s hands.

In March, after Tartikoff reported that he was back at work full-time following his accident, Broadcasting magazine quoted an NBC station executive as saying:

“That allayed some of the concerns. Nobody is suggesting anything negative about Warren. But when he was named entertainment president, everybody was pretty well assured that Brandon would still be a major player, that Warren would not just be thrown in there to sink or swim on his own. People believed in Brandon and what he has accomplished over the years.”

The fact that there weren’t many major NBC hits in recent years didn’t seem to matter. The fact that NBC is so dependent on old shows such as “Cheers” and “Cosby” that it must now pay them outrageous prices to return didn’t seem to matter. Showmanship, or the perception of it, counts for something, after all.

And under the graceful exterior and elegant suits of Brandon Tartikoff beats the heart of P.T. Barnum.

THE TARTIKOFF ERA

A sampling of Brandon Tartikoff’s hits and misses during his 11 years as programming chief at NBC: * 1980-81-- Hits: “Hill Street Blues.” Misses: “The Brady Brides,” “Marie,” “The Gangster Chronicles.”

* 1981-82-- Hits: “Gimme a Break.” Misses: “The Flintstones,” “Billy Crystal Comedy Hour,” “Chicago Story,” “Bret Maverick.”

* 1982-83-- Hits: “Cheers,” “Family Ties,” “Silver Spoons,” “The A-Team,” “Knight Rider,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Remington Steele.” Misses: “Casablanca,” “Bare Essence,” “Gavilan.”

* 1983-84-- Hits: “Night Court.” Misses: “Bay City Blues,” “Manimal,” “Buffalo Bill,” “The Yellow Rose.”

* 1984-85-- Hits: “The Cosby Show,” “Miami Vice,” “Hunter,” “Highway to Heaven.” Misses: “Hot Pursuit,” “V,” “Sara.”

* 1985-86-- Hits: “The Golden Girls,” “227,” “Valerie” (later “The Hogan Family”). Misses: “Amazing Stories,” “Misfits of Science,” “All Is Forgiven.”

* 1986-87-- Hits: “L.A. Law,” “Alf,” “Matlock,” “Amen.” Misses: “Crime Story,” “The Tortellis,” “Nothing in Common.”

* 1987-88-- Hits: “A Different World,” “In the Heat of the Night.” Misses: “A Year in the Life,” “Day by Day,” “Beverly Hills Buntz.”

* 1988-89-- Hits: “Empty Nest,” “Unsolved Mysteries,” “Midnight Caller,” “Dear John.” Misses: “The Jim Henson Hour,” “Baby Boom,” “Dream Street.”

* 1989-90-- Hits: “Wings,” “Carol & Co.” Misses: “Baywatch,” “Nutt House,” “Sister Kate.”

* 1990-91-- Hits: No clear-cut hits. Misses: “Sunday Best,” “Hull High,” “Lifestories,” “Ferris Bueller.”