Frohnmayer Issues Report on NEA-Backed TV Shows

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman John E. Frohnmayer used a platform offered by Bravo cable to issue a 248-page encyclopedic publication, “Arts on Television: 1976-1990,” listing the more than 1,000 arts programs supported by the federal agency over the past 15 years.

Bravo, he explained later, invited him. As a for-profit company, Bravo cannot receive funding from the NEA, but Frohnmayer praised Bravo for seeking to present “the best” of the arts--much as the NEA does.

Speaking before television writers and critics Thursday in Marina del Rey, Frohnmayer joked that most of the programming listed in the publication aired prior to his becoming chairman two years ago. But the chairman, an appointee of President Bush, added that in 1990 eight major series that received NEA funding brought “125 total hours of TV to 310 million people at a cost of a penny and a quarter per viewer.” of taxpayers’ money.

The book, which provides a description of content for each of the programs and where viewers may obtain a video copy, is available at the U.S. Government Printing Office in Washington for $17.