Fewer Episodes for Some PBS Series : Television: Cutbacks will free funding for other shows. And two programs will disappear.

Popular PBS series will be returning to the public-television network this fall, but by next year several will feature fewer episodes and two will be cut altogether, as the financially strapped system struggles to save money.

Jennifer Lawson, executive vice president for programming and promotion, told public-television producers and executives meeting here Monday that the cuts were ordered to free up funding for new shows.

The move comes at a time when recession-battered local stations--whose dues and fees pay for much of what PBS does--have been unable to contribute as much as the national network had anticipated because of their own financial problems. Lawson implored station officials not to withhold funds.

“We did not anticipate the stations’ need to spend less money,” Lawson said. “Without funds, we cannot develop new kids’ series or other new programs.”

Programs whose episodes are scheduled to be reduced include “Great Performances,” which will be pared from 18 episodes in the 1992-93 season to 13 episodes the following season, and “Nature,” which will shrink from 20 to 16 episodes. Also affected will be “The American Experience,” “American Playhouse,” “The Frugal Gourmet,” “Frontline,” “P.O.V.” and “The Victory Garden.” Many of these series have already been trimmed and will be showing fewer episodes this fall than in previous years. Two programs, “The 90s” and “Wild America,” will go off the air altogether after funding for this fall’s season runs out.

Meanwhile, Lawson laid out a plan for the next several years that will feature a four-hour block of programming on weekday mornings aimed at pre-school children and another block in the afternoons aimed at children ages 6 through 12.

She said PBS’ priorities for the next several years will be to serve children younger than 12 and adults older than 35. This is a marked change from recent years, when PBS under Lawson had vowed to increase programming for teens and attempted to woo young audiences with programs like “Edge” and “The 90s.”

Lawson insisted in an interview that PBS was not abandoning those age groups. “It’s not a question of exclusion,” she said. “It’s a question of emphasis.”

In the fall, Lawson said, a new series aimed at teen-agers called “In the Mix” will debut, and PBS is researching the possibility of a show for late night, a time slot that tends to attract young adults.

A programming director for a small Western station, who asked not to be identified, said the people being targeted by PBS “are the people who donate money. Teen-agers don’t contribute and, statistically, the parents of teen-agers don’t contribute.”

Another part of Lawson’s plan included the unusual decision to solicit programming ideas not on a particular topic but, like commercial networks, aimed at a certain time slot. Specifically, the network is looking for ideas for one or more series to be aired nationally at 8 p.m. on weekdays.

The program will be funded in cooperation with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for a total of $6 million.

Don Marbury, who announced the search for the new series Monday, said that he and Lawson truly have no idea what kind of program they will fund: It all depends on the ideas submitted. “What’s an 8 o’clock program?” Marbury asked the convention. “I have $6 million that says, ‘You tell me.’ ”

Among the new public-TV programs planned for the 1992-93 season were “The Realm of the Russian Bear,” a nature program produced in Russia; “The Kennedys,” a four-hour series to air over two nights; “Dinosaurs,” a documentary about the evolution and demise of the great pre-historic beasts; “Behind the Scenes,” an arts series for children hosted by magicians-comedians Penn and Teller, and “Dancing,” a 10-part series about dance.

Marbury also announced funding for several new series beyond next season, including “Muhammad Ali--The Whole Story,” about the prize fighter; “Africans in America”; “The Natural History of the Senses,” about the five senses and how they work; “Legendary Trails,” about famous trails and pilgrimages, and “Great Railways II,” which will use the railroad as a vehicle to show people, places and cultures.