Cosby Due Salute as Prime-Time Mover

TV or not TV. . . .

CLASS OF ‘84: “The Cosby Show” is aging gracefully. It’s not a Top 10 regular anymore, but it finished 17th in the last national ratings--not bad for a series that debuted in 1984.

With Cosby reportedly set for a syndicated revival next season of “You Bet Your Life”--the show made famous by Groucho Marx--his NBC series appears to be winding down. As with Johnny Carson, NBC ought to set aside a chunk of prime time to salute him when he calls it a day.

Besides himself, his cast, the network and the behind-the-scenes staff of “The Cosby Show,” it’s mind-boggling to consider all the people that “Billion Dollar Bill” has made rich.

“Cheers,” “Family Ties” and “Night Court” were all on the air before he arrived with his landmark sitcom, but none even reached the Top 20 for the season until “The Cosby Show” became their lead-in and made them each worth hundreds of millions of dollars in later reruns.

“A Different World,” a spinoff of “The Cosby Show” that now often ranks higher than its parent series, also owes its success to the program that spawned it. Other series, including “L.A. Law,” have benefited mightily from the “Cosby” lead-in.

Two other “soft” series that debuted with “The Cosby Show” in the fall of 1984 were also surprise hits. “Murder, She Wrote,” with Angela Lansbury, was one. The other was “Highway to Heaven,” starring the late Michael Landon.

MODERN TIMES: We are now officially into the presidential election year, and a measure of how things have changed is that cable’s C-SPAN and CNN--rather than ABC, CBS and NBC--will be slugging it out for most complete coverage of the nominating conventions.

CROSSOVER: Traditional TV’s shotgun marriage with cable continues apace. We caught “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” on the Travel Channel. And it seems perfect casting to us that the “Today” show’s Willard Scott will be host of the Family Channel’s cable revival of the old “Amateur Hour” starting Jan. 26. But get this title: “The New Original Amateur Hour.” Huh? Don’t anybody here know English?

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL: “Studs” is the most repulsive series since the syndicated 1979 show “Three’s a Crowd,” a game program that was built around the question of whether a man’s wife or secretary knew him best. The sniggering premise outraged some real-life secretaries, and the show disappeared fast. No such luck, it seems, with “Studs.”

A WING AND A PRAYER: Throughout John Elway’s thrilling final drive giving Denver a win over Houston in the playoffs, I kept thinking how much he reminded me of another Stanford quarterback, Jim Plunkett--and I can’t think of a higher compliment.

DRAWING BOARD: ABC hasn’t said much about it, but a network spokesman acknowledges that Wednesday’s episode of “Anything but Love” has a scene in which the magazine editor (Ann Magnuson) says she’s had an abortion. Barring any last-minute network fiddling with the episode, she also indicates that she now realizes there are two sides to the issue, the spokesman says. It’s a brief sequence, he adds, and the subject is not raised again in future shows.

EARTHY: I didn’t like NBC’s “Sisters” series when it began, but I do now, and one of the main reasons is the sharply etched performance of Swoosie Kurtz. Saturday’s planned episode deals with parents’ fears when an elementary school teacher tests positive for the HIV virus.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Gentlemen, news is a network’s sacred obligation to serve the common good. To inform and educate. To uplift and, in some cases, shame. And the day we’re judged solely on profit is the day the death knell sounds on the free and open exchange of ideas that we call a democracy.” This, of course, was fiction--from “Murphy Brown.”

BOOKINGS: Richard Nixon is on a TV blitz this week--ABC’s “Nightline” tonight, CNN’s “Larry King Live” Wednesday and PBS’ “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” Thursday. He’s promoting his new book, “Seize the Moment,” and he’s a hot guest in view of the collapse of the Soviet Union and his acknowledged experience in foreign affairs.

HISTORICAL NOTE: This is the 30th anniversary year of the Cuban missile crisis, when President John Kennedy laid it all out on TV and called the bluff of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who finally backed down as Americans worried that a nuclear war was imminent. Very scary times. Some folks were stocking up on food in the basement.

FALLOUT: Even though its Emmy show rebounded strongly in the ratings last year, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences admits it may get a lower network fee than expected in the near future--because of the recession. Writing in Emmy magazine, Academy President Leo Chaloukian says: “We must be realistic about the times we live in and be prepared for fees that may be less than we believe are deserved.” Yeah--kind of like getting less than 4% interest on your bank account.

REMINDER: A reader from Seal Beach brought us to attention with a cogent argument about why it is important to many viewers that the networks stop canceling drama series. While everyone in TV assumes there are plenty of alternatives, such as the flood of movies on cable, she writes simply: “Not everyone has cable TV.”

BEING THERE: “In his time, Howard Beale had been a mandarin of television, the grand old man of news, with a . . . rating of 16 and a 28 audience share. In 1969, however, he fell to a 22 share, and, by 1972, he was down to a 15 share. In 1973, his wife died, and he was left a childless widower with an 8 rating and a 12 share.” --Narrator in the Paddy Chayefsky film “Network.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .