ABC Seeks Profit With Reality Shows

TV or not TV. . . .

PATTERNS: They didn’t ex actly give away any state secrets, but the two top entertainment guys at ABC did give some clues to the network’s thinking during the weekend.

Despite ABC’s continuing profitability, “we’ve seen the best days,” said Robert Iger, the new boss of the network’s entertainment, news and sports divisions, who also noted that “it’s been a bad year for the one-hour drama.”

One reason that dramas are increasingly being replaced by news and reality series is “because they are in fact dramas,” added Ted Harbert, who reports to Iger as the new president of ABC Entertainment.

ABC’s next new prime-time news series, “Day One,” is scheduled to debut in March and will replace the admired drama “Life Goes On” in the Sunday lineup. There will probably be more prime-time news shows in the future, said Iger.

While “Life Goes On” is not yet canceled, the “chances of that show coming back (next season) are comparatively slim,” said Harbert.

The two executives answered questions from the nation’s TV columnists Sunday at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel during a press tour.

Acknowledging viewer interest in real-life TV movies “ripped from the headlines”--such as the three recent Amy Fisher films--Iger thought there might be a desire for more fiction, saying that drama series provide a needed balance for the medium.

This season, ABC has had major ratings problems with such dramas as “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,” “Civil Wars,” “Going to Extremes,” “Homefront,” “Crossroads” and “Covington Cross.”

On the comedy front, Iger said he thinks “The Jackie Thomas Show,” starring Tom Arnold and produced by Arnold and his wife, Roseanne Arnold, “is fulfilling its promise” thus far.

“The performance up to now has been good,” Harbert said, adding that “I haven’t formed a final opinion” about the new half-hour show.

During questioning, Iger said “it would shock me” if Roseanne Arnold defected from “Roseanne” if “The Jackie Thomas Show” was canceled. In an interview session later Sunday, Tom Arnold said his wife would not leave her series.

Iger, outlining programming goals, said he wants more shows that are “events” and “make noise.” This spring, for instance, ABC plans to broadcast Oliver (“JFK”) Stone’s miniseries “Wild Palms,” described by the network as “a mind-bending mixture of horrifying drama, deadpan realism and hallucinatory soap opera.”

Such short-form productions, said Iger, can attract talent not usually associated with television.

ABC’s “Twin Peaks,” he added, was a mistake as a weekly show and should have been a seven-hour miniseries titled “Who Killed Laura Palmer?,” with the question answered at the end.

Harbert, announcing that pop star Michael Jackson would be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey in a 90-minute program Feb. 10, was asked who initiated the show. Jackson “went to Oprah,” said Harbert.

A miniseries about the singer and his musical family, “The Jacksons: An American Dream,” helped ABC win the November ratings sweeps.

BOX SCORE: NBC’s “Today” show came back in a big way, but ABC’s “Good Morning America,” hosted by Charles Gibson and Joan Lunden, was the network wake-up champ for the third consecutive year in 1992. How close was it? “GMA” edged out “Today” by one-tenth of a ratings point.

SWITCH: Who would have thought that tough-as-nails Fox TV would be the network doing the most to bring back weekly variety series?

First came “The Tracey Ullman Show,” then “In Living Color”--and now Fox is gearing up a new, half-hour variety entry starring the gifted Robert Townsend (“Hollywood Shuffle,” “The Five Heartbeats”). It will be called “The Robert Townsend Variety Show,” and production is scheduled to begin this spring.

REMINDER: Caught Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd in a rerun of “Moonlighting” on Lifetime cable Saturday, and the series holds up very well. It also made one think that ABC, which is doing so much bellyaching about its troubles with drama series nowadays, not long ago was the creative leader with such programs as “Moonlighting,” “thirtysomething” and “China Beach.”

Do you think maybe it has something to do with good old-fashioned showmanship?

SITTING DUCKS: As if you didn’t know, the Comedy Central cable network, which kept the political campaign in proper perspective, will be there again Jan. 20 for President-elect Bill Clinton’s inauguration.

The network will present a one-hour, tape-delayed special at 8 p.m. “as a public service to those viewers who, after 12 years of Republican reign, still have day jobs and are unable to watch the proceedings live.” Title of the special: “America Gets the Bill.”

CENTRAL CASTING: While it’s not my kind of show, it was very clever of “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” to cast Jane Wyman as star Jane Seymour’s visiting mother on Saturday in the CBS frontier tale. Solid performance from the longtime veteran.

BULLETIN BOARD: Rush Limbaugh predicted that his new, syndicated, TV talk show would--like his radio program--take off in the ratings despite the fears of station managers worried about his views. And the flamboyant conservative turns out to be right. He did very well nationally in the November sweeps.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT: Two things I never tune out when I come across them on TV: Judy Garland singing “I Don’t Care” and Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro in “True Confessions.”

BEING THERE: “ ‘Star Trek’ is a ‘Wagon Train’ concept--built around characters who travel to worlds ‘similar’ to our own.”--Gene Roddenberry, creator of “Star Trek.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .