Lear Tries Again With New Family

Norman Lear is throwing his hat in the ring again.

It’s not surprising since it’s an election year and Lear is known as a political animal because of his activist organization People for the American Way.

But this time the project is his newest TV comedy, “The Powers That Be,” a half-hour NBC series that is being given a one-hour debut Saturday.

After the debut, the show, which stars John Forsythe as a pleasant but not terribly brilliant U.S. senator with an ambitious family, will be hammocked between two hits, “The Golden Girls” and “Empty Nest.”

It’s been an up-and-down year for the groundbreaking writer-producer. His “All in the Family” series did quite well as a CBS prime-time rerun. The classic sitcom was also the basis of a splendid retrospective special, with Lear as host.

But “Sunday Dinner,” his attempt at a new CBS sitcom, flopped despite huge publicity over its attempt to deal with spiritual matters.

As with some other Lear productions, “The Powers That Be,” created by Marta Kauffman and David Crane, is full of outrageous characters.

“We’re looking at a dysfunctional family, which is nothing compared to the dysfunctional family that is the Washington Establishment,” says Lear. “When people say, ‘It’s too outrageous,’ I say I fight to be as outrageous as reality.”

The man’s got a point.

It’s surprising that the Comedy Central cable channel--which spoofed President Bush’s State of the Union Address as it was in progress--hasn’t developed a spot sitcom based on the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and their campaigns thus far.

While Lear knows he has a good time slot, he would have preferred one that follows “Seinfeld” because it would have been a “more harmonious” mix.

What’s the biggest difference Lear sees in TV today?

“It’s a more mean-spirited time, and not just in TV,” he says. “Network program executives are trapped by the bottom line, and that means it’s much more difficult.”

NOSTALGIA BINGE: Two of TV’s most famous sitcoms, “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “Happy Days,” are getting a big splash this week.

“The Happy Days Reunion Special” airs tonight on ABC with creator Garry Marshall joining such cast alumni as Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Tom Bosley and Marion Ross.

And the Van Dyke series, with the comedian and Mary Tyler Moore as Rob and Laura Petrie, is getting the marathon treatment from the Nick at Nite cable channel, which is running all 158 episodes through Saturday in a weeklong binge.

Van Dyke says that what impresses him about the much-honored series is the wisdom of writer-director Carl Reiner, “who in his foresight said not to do any slang or idioms of the day or topical events. So it holds up--except for the clothes.”

As for Moore, Van Dyke adds: “Mary was 23 when she started the show and she’d never done any comedy at all. Boy, did the talent spring out of her.”

There was plenty of talent in “Happy Days,” too, as illustrated by the behind-the-camera film success in recent years by various cast members such as Howard and Winkler, as well as Marshall himself.

“The people on ‘Happy Days’ were young and I encouraged them to write and direct and do other facets of the business because it can get shaky as an actor,” says Marshall.

“I did 13 series and this was the easiest to run because the people got along. There were plenty of problems but they seemed to be solved quietly. Every producer should have one of these, where there’s no suing.”

ON THE MONEY: “Northern Exposure,” with its remarkable sensitivity, writing and cast that includes Rob Morrow and Janine Turner, is not merely the best show on network TV--it belongs on any all-time, prime-time schedule.

FOLLOW-UP: More thoughts on the salute to Nat King Cole on last week’s Grammy show:

In a 1990 tribute marking the 25th anniversary of Cole’s death, producer-musician Quincy Jones wrote in The Times: “Nat played Vegas in the days when a black entertainer would headline in the main showroom and have to eat in the kitchen.”

Of Cole’s 1956-57 NBC series, from which sponsors fled because the singer was black, Jones wrote: “Headliners like Jack Benny and George Burns appeared on it for free, in a futile attempt to make it successful.”

In 1956, Cole was attacked on stage in Birmingham, Ala., by six white men.

Jones recalled last week that pioneering black performers, including such stars as Lena Horne and Billy Eckstine, often went through the humiliation of being filmed for motion pictures “as an insert that (the studios) could just lift out in the South.”

STATUS REPORT: ABC says it hasn’t yet written off the drama series “Life Goes On,” one of TV’s best, just because the network is planning a news series for the time slot the show has occupied opposite CBS’ “60 Minutes.” It would be nice to believe that.

JOKERS: Sometimes we feel we are being stampeded by the millions of wanna-be stand-up comedians on TV. But we did see a couple of really stylish young comics on “An Evening at the Improv” on the Arts & Entertainment channel. One is Jann Karam, a woman blessed with talent, looks and the gift of restraint. The other is Jerry Bednob, billed as “The Turban Cowboy” because of his self-directed India gags. Remember the names.

THE ENTERTAINER: Johnny Crawford, who played Chuck Connors’ son on “The Rifleman,” has a cabaret act as the leader of an old-style jazz band with which he croons. He was in “The Rifleman” from 1958-1963 and did some recordings in the ‘60s. He’s 45 now.

WHO’S COUNTING?: So let’s see--When Ted Turner launches his 24-hour Cartoon Network on Oct. 1, he’ll have no fewer than five nationwide TV channels. The others: CNN, Headline News, TNT and superstation TBS. CBS never, never should have resisted his overtures in the ‘80s.

BEING THERE: “The act of voting is in itself the defining moment.”--Chris Stevens (John Corbett), the town disc jockey in “Northern Exposure.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .