TELEVISION : It’s a Control Thing : There is a long history of TV stars assuming producer titles, but today more and more of them are taking on new duties; for some it means more money or opportunity, for others it’s about being in charge

A former producer of the “Delta” series recalls one particular production meeting during which the star of the ABC show--who also happens to be one of its producers--was so exhausted she put her head on the table and would only lift it occasionally for odd comments.

“She simply is not a producer,” says the former staffer, “though I can appreciate her wanting to be heard and taken seriously. I can only tell you I would never go into another series with the star lined up as a producer.”

Well, he may have a hard time finding work. Networks and studios are giving TV stars producing titles like Santa hands out candy canes. Aside from Burke, whose show returned with major changes last Tuesday, there are a record number of performers now producing (or executive producing) their own shows: Burt Reynolds (“Evening Shade”); Carroll O’Connor (“In the Heat of the Night”); Gerald McRaney (“Major Dad”); Angela Lansbury (“Murder, She Wrote”); Jerry Seinfeld (“Seinfeld”); Paul Reiser (“Mad About You”); Roseanne and Tom Arnold with their his-and-her series (“Roseanne” and “The Jackie Thomas Show”); Linda Lavin (“Room for Two”); Garry Shandling (“The Larry Sanders Show”); Craig T. Nelson (“Coach”); Andy Griffith (“Matlock”); David Carradine (“Kung Fu: The Legend Continues”); David Hasselhoff (“Baywatch”).

And then there are all the television movies produced by stars such as Victoria Principal, Donna Mills, Treat Williams, Bruce Boxleitner, Marlo Thomas and Cybill Shepherd.

For some of these actors, producing is a new challenge to take up, the way other actors do with directing. For some--particularly middle-age women--it’s a way of making sure someone is creating roles for them. For others, it’s simply a title accepted for ego, money or prestige--a concession to be won from the increasingly less powerful networks, which are willing to give more to get what they hope is star-power insurance. If that means offering a production deal or letting the stars serve as one of multiple producers on their series, so be it.

For all of them, however, producing provides an additional way to exercise more control over their fate as performers. Even when done in conjunction with others, as nearly always is the case, it gives them input into the creative process at every point--from shaping the characters and scripts in the writing phase to hiring the directors to sitting in the editing room putting the final program together.

“That’s my name and my face up there, and I think I’ve come to know what the audience wants from me,” says Burke. (Apparently not what they saw in the first “Delta” last fall: This time she is back as a brunette.) James Garner’s company co-produced “The Rockford Files” but he let others take charge with “Man of the People” last season--resulting in a rare dud for the popular actor. “They didn’t understand me or what I do best,” he says now.

“For me, the producing just gives me a voice in the collaboration,” says Cybill Shepherd, who has produced several TV movies. “Had I had the producer credit on ‘Moonlighting,’ I never would have allowed Maddie to marry that wimpy guy on a train.”

There is precedent here: Desi Arnaz virtually invented the sitcom through his Desilu company, and Lucy was the creative force behind her later shows. Danny Thomas oversaw a phenomenally successful company. But somehow, it felt simpler then.

“Desi didn’t ask for the term producer but he accepted it, because he was trying to protect Lucy’s interests and he managed a large enterprise,” says veteran producer Sheldon Leonard. Leonard partnered with Thomas in the company that produced shows like “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “Gomer Pyle” and “I Spy.” But he points out that Thomas never took a producer’s credit or a fee, not even on his own series.

Nowadays, having the credit is important: “It gives me some respect from people who wear ties,” notes Craig T. Nelson of “Coach.”

The folks least happy about this trend are your old-fashioned, no-strings-attached producers, who feel this is yet another group stealing their titles. Writers on TV shows for years have been seeking more control over their work by demanding titles such as producer, story editor and script consultant.

“Our question is, are the stars genuinely functioning as producers or is it just titular?” says Leonard Stern, head of the Producers Guild, which is formulating a list of 26 requirements producers should meet before earning the title.

“By the same token, is someone else performing those functions and not getting the proper acknowledgment? We’re concerned that all this increases budgets, leads to a proliferation of credits and diminishes what a real TV producer is.”

“It’s hard to imagine diminishing the title TV Producer ,” responds Jerry Seinfeld, who, as co-executive producer of his NBC series, is one of the new breed of comedians-turned-series-actors (Bill Cosby, Garry Shandling, Paul Reiser) who feel entitled to the titles, so to speak. After all, the shows generally emerge from their heads and carry their personas and often their names.

“Since the show is our (co-executive producer and friend Larry David) sensibility, it just seems better to control it,” says Seinfeld, who insists, “I’m not into credits for credits’ sake.”

While he admits he doesn’t perform all producing functions--such as budgets--he is involved with casting, editing and writing. “We are the kingdom and the power,” he says, “and I would never not do this on a show. On the other hand, it doesn’t make life easier. I work seven days a week, 15 hours a day.”

Seinfeld, Cosby, Roseanne Arnold, Reiser and Shandling very much consider themselves producers, bringing more than anyone else to the party, simply because of their unique backgrounds.

“When you’re a stand-up, you’re producing, directing and starring,” says Shandling, “and you’re so clear of the level at which the material needs to be. I really think we can carry that discipline into any medium.”

There may also be the reluctance to trust others, having so long depended mostly on themselves.

Although Shandling says he handpicks “inspired” writers, ultimately the result is his: “Producing is a matter of controlling the vision,” he says. “This upcoming season, in particular, on ‘Larry Sanders’ (which takes viewers behind the scenes of a late-night talk show), the characters will grow deeper, and it’s important to write real human behavior and not let the show dissipate into some formula.”

For Paul Reiser, who created the idea for NBC’s “Mad About You” with Danny Jacobson, producing is about protecting his idea, but it’s not simply about being in charge. “I’m really learning about give and take,” he says, “not letting your vision waffle, but learning to take input from others. Still, I know my personality, and if I wasn’t a producer, I’d be battling for input.”

As with a lot of the star-producers, Reiser’s decision to seek more control was based on past experience.

As “just a hired hand” on his last series, “My Two Dads,” Reiser says he was constantly frustrated, trying to get the sitcom “to go in a direction no one else wanted it to go. I thought it would be more about the two guys, but it turned out to be about child-rearing. I made a promise to myself that on the next one, I’d really take my best shot.”

James Garner also laments not having authority to exert control over his last series, “Man of the People,” especially when it became apparent to him that he and his producers were nowhere near the same wavelength.

“I’m not bitter, because that’s not my personality, but it’s certainly why I’m going to protect myself on the next one,” he says.

That’s also why Delta Burke ended up as a producer on her series. Still reeling from her bitter exit from “Designing Women” following a very public exchange of personal and professional insults with the producers, she felt she had to get back some sense of self-worth.

“This is all because of that awful experience and how I got labeled,” she says. “When you’re just the actor, you can’t defend yourself, because it’s assumed those in charge are the adults and you are the child.”

The only studio that would give her producer status, she says, was Universal, which teamed Burke with seasoned writer-producer Barry Kemp (“Coach,” “Newhart”). In late January, with “Delta” on hiatus for a creative overhaul, he resigned, citing “professional differences” with the star. A spokeswoman for Kemp said, “As Delta Burke is a co-executive producer of the series, Mr. Kemp feels she should be entitled to pursue the series along lines in which she feels more comfortable.” (His company continues to help produce the series, whose next few episodes will determine if it will see a second season. He declined to be interviewed.)

Burke acknowledges she came in a novice, but insists she’s learning fast: “I sort of made myself Barry’s protege because I wanted to learn all facets of the job. Now I’m very excited and challenged because I really think I can do this.”

The networks insist they are not succumbing to every star’s whims merely to make them happy.

“You’re never held hostage as long as you have the ability to say no,” points out Peter Tortorici, executive vice president of CBS Entertainment. “We have to be careful we make deals with someone who has the skills, otherwise the risks are too considerable.”

“When an actor has created a character, or the character embodies their routine or persona, they truly contribute a lot,” notes ABC’s Stuart Bloomberg, executive vice president for prime time.

Many production executives remain wary, however. “You are generally talking here about amateurs doing professionals’ work,” says Lawrence Lyttle, an independent producer and former programming executive for Warner Bros. TV.

“It would be like me wanting to act. Our feeling (at Warners) was, we want actors’ input, but there has to be one boss and that should be the one most qualified to do all aspects of producing.”

On the other hand, Fred Silverman, who ran programming for all three major networks and now co-executive-produces “Matlock” with Andy Griffith and “In the Heat of the Night” with Carroll O’Connor, is high on most actors taking on the added role: “These stars generally have a good sense of what they can and can’t do, and their characters are the centerpieces of the shows.”

O’Connor already had been a producer of “Archie Bunker’s Place” and “Bronk” when he signed on as the Southern sheriff in “In the Heat of the Night.” He was immediately frustrated by the lack of power and eventually worked himself to omnipotence.

“I guess I’m kind of a difficult person,” the actor says, “but it was a question of disagreeing with what they wanted and I wanted.”

O’Connor says he demanded the network (NBC) and studio (MGM) get rid of the first “Heat” producer, which they did; then eventually he did the same with the producer brought in for the second season. (The second producer, David Moessinger, denies O’Conner’s account. “He didn’t fire me; all the people quit because we couldn’t stand working with him,” Moessinger says. “Anytime an actor takes over a show it declines. Both the quality and ratings of his show have declined since he took it over.”)

“I threatened to quit unless they made me executive producer,” says O’Connor, “and I had a pretty good excuse in that I’d just had heart surgery. NBC said they didn’t want the star running the show but I said, ‘I believe I have the sophistication and the know-how.’ ”

With all the extra responsibilities, oddly enough, O’Connor says life is still a lot easier. “It’s a curious thing. The hours are longer, but there’s not nearly the stress and strain. It’s good to be the boss. I don’t have problems. I have the final say and I know that what goes on that screen is 100% mine.”

Linda Lavin, who has been producing movies and other projects for years, agrees with O’Connor in that respect: “The best thing about control,” she says, “is you don’t need to prove you have it anymore. You can let all that go and just do the work.”

Lavin, who did not produce her hit series “Alice,” loved the idea brought to her about a mother living with her grown daughter and became one of the executive producers of “Room for Two.” (The series is due to return to the ABC schedule this spring but has yet to be picked up for fall.)

“My philosophy is, I hire all the best people and let them do their work,” says Lavin. “I work on the things I do best, and that’s serving as a liaison between the acting company on the floor and the people upstairs writing. My other production passion is editing and I’m good at it. I’ve worked really hard at producing and I take the responsibility very seriously.”

Even the activist producer guild members say they have no objection to actors turning producers, provided they are truly doing the work. Such is clearly the case as well with Burt Reynolds, who has long produced and directed feature films.

“He knows how everything works and what he hasn’t known, he’s learned very fast,” says Dan Richland, agent for “Evening Shade” creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. “We made the deal to do the show with him and he’s more qualified than anyone.”

Nor did anyone complain when Angela Lansbury, after eight successful seasons as star of “Murder, She Wrote,” became its executive producer this season. “I felt, in a sense, I’d been preparing for this,” says Lansbury. “I feel I’ve earned it and don’t take it lightly. My main concerns are the scripts and the casting. But then, this was a very well-oiled train before I started driving it.”

Lansbury has enjoyed, and taken advantage of, some of the perks that come with her new clout: She’s added her brother Bruce as writer and supervising producer, and her son David runs her company. She’s also gotten CBS to promise her the same time slot and night for her next series, likely to be “The Adventures of Mrs. Polifax.”

Lansbury says the extra duties have given her a second--or ninth--wind for doing her show, something many of the actor-producers say.

“I’d gone about as far as I could as an actor and I like new challenges,” says Gerald McRaney of “Major Dad,” who helped develop his CBS series about a military man with kids. “I used my years on ‘Simon & Simon’ as a well-paid finishing school to learn about producing. In television, the creativity and power lie with the producer.”