The Peacock Reaches for the Pizazz : Television: NBC’s woes are rooted in cautious programming. New entertainment chief Don Ohlmeyer will provide some show-biz flair.

It was clear to television viewers, in the most obvious way, that NBC was coming apart at the seams.

In a matter of just months, Bill Cosby and his historic sitcom were gone; Johnny Carson was gone; David Letterman would soon be gone--to competitor CBS; and the producers of “Cheers” announced that NBC’s major hit of recent years would also be gone after this season.

As NBC lost its trademark shows, it also lost its identity. In a foolish move, which it now admits was wrong and is reversing, the network went whole hog for the 18-to-49-year-old audience that advertisers covet--and virtually told viewers over 50, who possess most of the nation’s money, to get lost.

Signaling its wrongheaded move, NBC unloaded three proven hits with older appeal--”Matlock,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “The Golden Girls”--along with “Night Court.”

While most of these shows were slipping, they still had given the declining network some ballast. Now they were gone and in the most damaging way--all at once, rather than over a period of time during which they could have helped the network stay afloat while rebuilding in its new direction.

With each passing day, it became only a matter of time before high-level changes would be instituted at the once-dominant network that had fallen into the cellar.

And it finally happened Wednesday when NBC named veteran producer Don Ohlmeyer as the new head of entertainment for the network, with Warren Littlefield--NBC’s entertainment president since 1990--retaining his title but now reporting directly to him.

As of now, NBC has become a comedy of errors. The youth-craze moves immediately came back to haunt NBC. “Matlock” resurfaced as a hit on ABC and “In the Heat of the Night” did the same on CBS. “The Golden Girls,” under the new title “The Golden Palace,” also turned out well in moving to CBS--the only remaining major network that welcomes viewers of all ages and is now the runaway ratings leader.

Nothing was more embarrassing for NBC than its yearlong indecision over “The Tonight Show,” when Jay Leno was named to succeed the retiring Carson and Letterman made known his anger at not getting the job. Rather than acting quickly to clean up the mess, NBC allowed itself to be barbecued, like a pig on a spit, by the comedian and his agent, Michael Ovitz.

A strong broadcasting hand was needed, but there was none. NBC President Robert Wright, who came from the network’s parent company, General Electric, was, by his own admission, no Grant Tinker--his predecessor who had led NBC to its greatest heights. Wright accepted responsibility Wednesday for the 18-to-49 decision that intensified the problems of his network.

Littlefield was the good soldier who had been an important factor in NBC’s wonder years, but he exhibited little of the flair and showmanship that had helped carry his predecessor, Brandon Tartikoff, through the lean times a decade ago when he, too, was rebuilding.

At the same time, Littlefield was a real friend to the TV drama series form, despite burying “I’ll Fly Away” on Fridays and letting such shows as “In the Heat of the Night” get away. NBC, with such series as “Law & Order,” “Reasonable Doubts” and “Sisters,” was the drama network.

Littlefield also did not whine publicly about taking the heat for what everybody knew--that Tartikoff had really left him with a sinking ship. Tartikoff, who counseled Ohlmeyer about this week’s move, himself had gotten out of NBC just in time and has admitted growing cautious in the last few years of his spectacular reign at the network.

This cautiousness and failure to develop a real base of new hits for NBC in the future was important. But just as important was Littlefield’s inability to overcome the situation, forge the kind of creative contacts necessary for restructuring and project the image of confidence and pizazz that was the trademark of the Tinker-Tartikoff era.

If there’s one thing that the 48-year-old Ohlmeyer has, executives say, it’s show-biz pizazz. Consider his comments in the book “Live TV” about the years early in his career when he worked on ABC’s new “Monday Night Football” series:

“When ‘Monday Night Football’ first started, it was important, because what we were able to create then was an impression. And we did it consciously. We were trying to create the aura of the old ‘Tonight Show’--that something would happen that was so outrageous, so strange, that everybody in the office the next day would be talking about it.”

In a conference phone call Wednesday, Ohlmeyer--whose appointment has also earned the enthusiasm of Tinker and another former NBC head, Fred Silverman--said the network had been wrong “to chase the 18-to-49 demographic.” The network, he said, “got too young, too narrow, too fast. I’m a firm believer that if we’re broadcasters, we need to get as many people into the tent as possible.”

Ohlmeyer said that Littlefield “has 100% of my confidence.” But he did acknowledge, “I’m going to be involved in programming in a collaborative way” with Littlefield.

While Ohlmeyer, in his newly created post of NBC’s West Coast president, will have various duties, entertainment results are what he was appointed for. And he made the old but true observation that it only takes two or three hits to turn around a network. But they have to be big hits. NBC has been using “Seinfeld” as its prestige trademark show--which it certainly is--but it is not a series that promises blockbuster audience potential.

In a separate phone interview, Littlefield said he was “relieved. There’s been a lot of speculation about what’s going to happen at NBC.” And now, he said, he could focus on programming and leave the corporate functions to Ohlmeyer. Littlefield said he did not regard his new situation as a demotion, but he added: “Clearly it’s a structural change. I haven’t lost anything that I feel I will miss.”

While NBC still certainly wants 18-to-49-year-old viewers, an example of what Littlefield calls the “course correction” is the resuscitation of a new version of “Bonanza” as a two-hour movie that could become a series. Not long ago, NBC was saying it didn’t want the show.

Keeping Littlefield in place has immediate practical benefits. As TV’s development season builds toward the spring announcements of fall schedules, producers and studios will at least know that they won’t have to deal with an entirely new set of faces that could alter planned projects.

But there will be changes, and Ohlmeyer’s hand is a strong one. Among other things, he may be able to sway Bob Costas, whose NBC contracts for sportscasting and an interview series run out this year. While formerly at NBC, Ohlmeyer hired Costas.