Viewers Call Vlad, Phil Twice a Week

TV or not TV. . . .

TOGETHER AGAIN: Phil Donahue and Vladimir Pozner have teamed up for another crack at a TV series.

Everyone knows Donahue. And many viewers of TV news know Pozner, the journalist and former Soviet spokesman who first gained attention in this country on “Nightline.”

Their latest venture, “Pozner/Donahue,” is a twice-weekly viewer phone-in show on CNBC cable, which introduced the series last month.

The half-hour programs air at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, with repeats at 10 p.m. the same nights. The show is also rerun at 7 and 10 p.m. Saturdays.

Pozner, who speaks flawless English--he lived in New York as a youth--hopes the duo’s latest venture is more successful than their ill-fated, weekly one-hour syndicated series of last season. That series featured guests as well as callers.

But according to Pozner, CNBC said, “We’d just like to have Vlad and Phil talk to each other and bring the public in.”

Pozner credits Donahue’s “persistence” for making the program possible: “Phil really wants to do this show.”

CNBC, apparently high on the series, says it will air a special 90-minute edition of “Pozner/Donahue” on election night, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., “also offering viewer call-in and periodically checking in with NBC News to keep track of results.”

In an interview from his home in New York, Pozner said: “CNBC says the show is doing really well. Maybe we’ll go to an hour format in January.”

Like the hosts’ previous series, the new show is produced for broadcast in both America and Russia, says Pozner.

“It’s very refreshing to talk to the audience. Most guests are totally predictable,” he adds. “The main merit of this format is that it’s the most democratic of all formats.”

In the 1980s, the two hosts presented, as special programming, a “Citizens’ Summit” format in which Donahue’s studio audience was in the United States and Pozner’s was in the former Soviet Union.

The Paris-born Pozner says he learned some lessons from last season’s syndicated series with Donahue, which he feels was not promoted properly: “When you’re syndicated, you’re at the mercy of station managers.” Some of them put the show on in the middle of the night.

“Phil is considered by some as a flaming liberal and not really a journalist,” says Pozner, “and yours truly is certainly considered left of center.”

Donahue, of course, has his other series--his daytime talk show. But if the CNBC program is successful, would Pozner consider moving from Moscow and making the United States his permanent home?

Not likely, he says: “I look at this as a temporary job abroad, maybe a two-, three-, four-year job. I go back (to Moscow) for the summer months anyway. I would not emigrate unless something were to happen in Russia of such a magnitude that it would make it impossible to work in Russia.”

NUMBERS GAME: If you want to know why ABC, which puts a high premium on the 18- to 49-year-old audience, places such major value on “Roseanne,” just consider last week’s ratings as an example. The series, which stars Roseanne Arnold, pulled a strong 32% of the overall national audience, but an even higher 36% with the 18-to-49 crowd.

TIGHT SPOT: It’s getting mighty lonely for “I’ll Fly Away” at the tail end of NBC’s Friday night schedule now that the network has canceled the two hours of series that preceded it. The distinguished program, which stars Sam Waterston and Regina Taylor, deserves a safer haven on a better viewing night.

NOSE-DIVE: The clones of Fox’s “Beverly Hills, 90210” are falling fast. NBC’s “The Round Table” already is canceled. Fox’s hugely promoted “Melrose Place” ranked 85th among 90 shows in the national ratings released last week. And another Fox entry, “The Heights,” apparently isn’t going anywhere in popularity either.

KEEP ON TREKKING: Well, sure, “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy!” and Oprah Winfrey just keep rolling along, but the constant eye-opener among syndication powerhouses is “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” which has about 245 stations. Hard to believe the original 1960s series ran only three seasons on NBC and never finished among the Top 25 shows.

STAR: Barring an NBC schedule change, the late Anthony Perkins will be seen as a detective Monday in the TV movie “In the Deep Woods,” about a woman (Rosanna Arquette) who realizes that someone close to her may be a serial killer.

FAMILY VALUES: Pity that cable’s Family Channel is just rerunning its “New Original Amateur Hour” instead of airing fresh shows. Producer Albert Fisher says, however, that he and host Willard Scott are free to take new programs of the series elsewhere if anyone’s interested. Tough sell in the age of “Studs.”

BULLETIN BOARD: In just over a decade, CNN has widened its scope to more than 350 broadcast affiliates from coast-to-coast.

SURE THING: Look, after he loses, why not offer Ross Perot a prime-time half-hour series to keep an eye on money issues and what the President--whoever he is--is doing about them? Here’s a guy who got 20% of the audience with a half-hour commercial for himself. I’d be all ears.

BLUEPRINT: TNT’s plan to film a series of major dramas about American Indians gets under way this fall with the production of “The Broken Chain,” starring Pierce Brosnan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Graham Greene, Wes Studi, Floyd Westerman, Eric Schweig and Carlos White Shirt. It’s set at the time of the Revolutionary War and will be broadcast in 1993.

BEING THERE: “I don’t care, Alice, I’ve got my pride. Before I’d let you go to work, I’d rather see you starve.” --Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) in “The Honeymooners.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .