Networks Offer a Cut-Rate Sweeps

TV’s recession sweeps arrive next week, with retrospectives of “MASH” and “The Bob Newhart Show”- plus juiced-up series--disguising the cut-rate November race.

Blockbuster miniseries are out. Instead, “Designing Women” is planning an episode in which the cast argues about the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings. “Life Goes On” begins a tale of a teen-ager who has tested positive for the HIV virus. A hurricane story ties together the Miami-set series “The Golden Girls,” “Empty Nest” and “Nurses.”

And in a unique ploy, NBC will present the film “Back to the Future III” twice in one week--on Nov. 17 and Nov. 22--using the pay-TV technique of repeat showings in a brief period. Says Preston Beckman, NBC vice president of program planning:

“Because ‘Back to the Future III’ has not aired on any cable outlets, we believe the aggregate viewership of these two telecasts will be very strong, drawing those viewers who usually look to cable for theatricals. That’s the audience we want to tap into.”

ABC is trying to get a maximum sweeps payoff from its top star, Roseanne Barr Arnold. She headlines a Nov. 13 TV movie, “Backfield in Motion,” as a woman who organizes a mother-son football game to get closer to her son. And her “Roseanne” series will do a two-parter set in Las Vegas on Nov. 5 and 12.

“Designing Women” creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason says she is writing an episode she has titled “The Strange Case of Clarence and Anita,” which CBS has scheduled for Nov. 4.

“Linda has always written topical shows,” says Peter Tortorici, executive vice president of CBS Entertainment, adding that the sexual harassment issue that was at the center of Thomas’ confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court “goes to the heart of the relationship between men and women.”

“I felt very frustrated watching the hearings as a professional woman,” says Bloodworth-Thomason. “I spoke to a lot of other women who felt the same. Once again, the old boys’ network had kicked in and sent us packing. While I will present all viewpoints (on the show), I definitely have something I want to say. I felt that with a show like ‘Designing Women,’ I would be remiss if I didn’t do this.”

Bloodworth-Thomason says that in the episode, six members of the cast, including the four principal female characters, “get into this huge, knockdown, drag-out fight. It (the issue) is important to them.” In the end, she says, they split 3-3 in the argument.

CBS is the season’s prime-time ratings leader going into the sweeps, one of four months each year in which program competition helps determine the prices that local stations charge for commercials. The upcoming Nielsen sweeps run from Thursday through Nov. 27.

Last season, CBS’ rebound was helped by a package of retrospectives of “All in the Family,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Ed Sullivan Show” that earned good ratings and notices. The network has another “classics weekend” coming up in this sweeps:

On Nov. 23, there will be a retrospective of “The Bob Newhart Show,” which co-starred Suzanne Pleshette and ran from 1972 to 1978. On Nov. 24, there will be another Sullivan special because of the huge ratings success of last year’s collection of clips from the series. And on Nov. 25, “Memories of ‘MASH’ ” will complete the package.

NBC has a unique package of its own on Nov. 9 when it uses its hurricane story for what the network calls a “seamless night” that connects “The Golden Girls,” “Empty Nest” and “Nurses” for two hours. “The Golden Girls,” normally a 30-minute entry, has a special one-hour episode to lead off the night.

There’s a good deal of cross-pollination of characters during the three shows since all of the series are set in Miami and are produced by the same company. Dinah Manoff of “Empty Nest” guest-stars on “The Golden Girls.” Estelle Getty of “The Golden Girls” does a cameo on “Empty Nest.” And Betty White of “The Golden Girls” and Park Overall of “Empty Nest” both turn up on “Nurses,” which has a hospital setting.

Special episodes of regular series will help carry the networks in this bargain-basement sweeps. Carroll O’Connor gets involved in an interracial romance with Denise Nicholas on “In the Heat of the Night” on Nov. 19. Tyne Daly joins her real-life brother Timothy Daly in his “Wings” series Nov. 7. “Night Court” has its bald bailiff (Richard Moll) getting married Nov. 20. ABC’s “Life Goes On,” meanwhile, launches its story of teen-agers and AIDS Nov. 3, with Chad Lowe playing the young man who tests positive.

A few specials spice the mix. There’s an MTV 10th anniversary special on ABC Nov. 27, with Madonna and Michael Jackson. “A Party for Richard Pryor,” a tribute hosted by Eddie Murphy, airs on CBS Nov. 23. And Robert Stack revives his old role from “The Untouchables” in NBC’s TV movie “The Return of Eliot Ness” on Nov. 10.

In terms of pure sweeps competition, industry eyes will be checking out--of all things--that newly revived old warhorse “Matlock,” with Andy Griffith, to see if it can continue to pull NBC out of the depths on Friday nights during the critical sweeps.

Bumped from NBC’s fall schedule, it returned last week with a powerful showing--a two-hour special that drew 26% of the audience. NBC quickly decided to run “Matlock” four times instead of three during the sweeps competition.

What “Matlock” also did was throw a monkey wrench into CBS’ carefully laid plans to woo the same older audience with a new Friday lineup of “Princesses,” “Brooklyn Bridge” and “The Carol Burnett Show.”

“Princesses” is already gone. “Brooklyn Bridge” has been switched to Wednesdays effective Nov. 6. Burnett, who was to arrive with everything else nicely in place, now must try to pull an audience on her own. Her new variety series debuts Friday.

Overall, the picture of network TV that emerges with this sweeps is significant: A modest schedule that employs cost-conscious ingenuity rather than high-priced blockbusters. No “Winds of War.” No “Lonesome Dove.” Welcome to TV’s lean cuisine.