ABC Calls on Stars of Past for New Sitcoms

Delta Burke is back and ABC’s got her. Likewise, Julie Andrews and Linda Lavin and Hal Linden, all of whom have their own sitcoms shaping up on prime-time’s third-place network.

Even the “Fonz” himself, Henry Winkler, will host a “Happy Days” reunion special in March.

“Have there been some disappointments?” ABC Entertainment President Robert Iger asked TV critics Saturday. “Yes. But that doesn’t meant the future isn’t bright.”

At the annual winter press briefing on the networks’ plans for the remainder of the current season, Iger maintained that both his network’s entertainment division and the network itself made money last year. NBC President Robert Wright told the same group of critics last week that all three networks lost money.

Wrong, Iger said flatly.

“We have tried very consciously not to spend money just to get ratings points,” Iger said. “We are in business for the long run.”

In response to an accusation that ABC might soon begin to look like “Nick at Nite” with its resurrection of old shows, Iger pointed to several new projects that he called innovative, such as “Star Wars” creator George Lucas’ multinational production of a one-hour springtime replacement series chronicling the turn-of-the-century adventures of the young Indiana Jones.

ABC is also bringing back the “Twin Peaks” producer team of David Lynch and Mark Frost, this time with a half-hour sitcom about the “Lester Guy Show,” a fictitious live TV variety program that supposedly aired in the 1950s. The series, titled “On the Air,” will debut in the spring.

But ABC does have its share of chestnuts returning to prime time one more time.

Julie Andrews, who hosted an ABC variety series in 1972, will get her own comedy series this year, tentatively titled “Julie.”

Iger also revealed that “Designing Women’s” Delta Burke will have her own as-yet-untitled series, beginning next fall, and that Hal (“Barney Miller”) Linden returns with a dramedy hour called “Jack’s Place.” Linda (“Alice”) Lavin will also return with a half-hour mom-and-daughter comedy.