Some Hits, Some Flops: TV’s Season

TV or not TV. . . .

SUMMING UP: Hits and misses of a television season best forgotten:

Breakout series: “Seinfeld.” But can it keep up its high voltage next season when its lead-in, “Cheers,” is gone?

Fast fade: “Melrose Place,” despite huge hype.

Surprise hit: “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” the traditional networks’ major new success--which shows you what kind of season it’s been.

Bummer of the year: The “Dateline NBC” rigged truck crash fiasco.

Class of the field: Garry Shandling’s “The Larry Sanders Show” on HBO.

New power: The Larry King show, after its election campaign interviews.

Biggest new-series disappointment: ABC’s short-lived “Going to Extremes,” which had all that beautiful Caribbean scenery, all those beautiful people and nothing to say.

Top deal: David Letterman leaving NBC for CBS. Among his Top 10 reasons: “CBS had the best Amy Fisher movie.”

Top mystery: Conan O’Brien, Letterman’s NBC replacement. Until now, he’s had about as much visibility as the Unknown Comic, who performed with a paper bag over his head on the old “Gong Show.” Let’s hope things turn out better.

Emerging blockbuster: “Home Improvement.”

Gone with the wind: ABC’s “Covington Cross” and “Crossroads.” Were they really on this season?

Catching on: “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”--a slow but steady ratings growth for the Will Smith sitcom.

Top new prime-time star: Ross Perot.

TV woman of the year: Amy Fisher. Network officials sort of apologized for putting on three television movies about the young lady--and they’d do it again in a flash.

Just one of those years.

TV MOMENT: If only James Worthy had taken that last shot in regulation time against Phoenix on Sunday. He was hot, hot, hot.

NIGHT TALK: Alfre Woodard is scheduled for “Later With Bob Costas” after the Letterman show tonight, and Raymond Burr visits the interview series Monday.

BY THE NUMBERS: When all was said and done, CBS’ “Love & War” was the highest-rated new series for the so-called official season that ended last month, ranking 15th among all shows.

COMPETITION: NBC isn’t blotting out the Letterman show just because he’s leaving for CBS, but at least in the promos I’ve seen lately, only the guests are mentioned, not the star--a tactic we noted before but now seems more pronounced. It’s still bush league.

ANNIVERSARY: Smart move by NBC to turn over all three hours of the network’s prime time Friday to Bob Hope for his 90th-birthday blast.

By chance, we were watching “Road to Utopia” on the American Movie Classics cable channel the other night, and there’s Hope shoveling coal in the boiler room of a ship bound for Alaska. A man in a tuxedo walks by. “Are you in the picture?” says Hope. “No,” says the guy. Hope: “What are you doing here?” Guy: “I’m on my way to Stage 10.”

Moments later:

Hope continues to do all the shoveling, all the work, while pal Bing Crosby just stands there and watches. Hope to Crosby: “You look like an agent.”

Happy days.

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: Fox TV has fewer and smaller affiliate stations than the Big Three networks, so its top hit, “The Simpsons,” ranked only 30th among all series this last season. Still, that’s a strong showing considering Fox’s underdog position as the youngest of the major national networks.

“The Simpsons” would shoot up in the ratings for total homes if it were on any of the Big Three, with their wider reach. Nonetheless, it is a ratings powerhouse in Los Angeles, does extraordinarily well with young audiences and has a much higher profile than shows with better statistics simply because they are on ABC, CBS or NBC.

Other Fox series that did well despite the network’s current disadvantage in total audience penetration include “Married . . . With Children,” “Martin,” “In Living Color,” “Cops 2” and “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

On the negative side, the ever-experimenting Fox wound up with the 14 bottom-ranked series of the season, among them “Sightings,” “Down the Shore,” “The Heights,” “Flying Blind,” “The Edge,” “The Ben Stiller Show,” “Woops!”, “Likely Suspects,” “Key West” and “Class of ’96.” Also failing in the ratings was the spring anthology “Tribeca.”

Despite Fox’s sometimes gross programming, however, its main appeal lies in its willingness to wing it with such worthy entries as “Tribeca” and “The Ben Stiller Show,” even if they don’t fly in terms of audience.

The worst thing Fox could do is go conservative next season when it tries to expand its basic 18-to-34-year-old audience to 18-to-49. The last thing we need is a clone of the Big Three.

COMING ATTRACTION: “Jack Benny: Comedy in Bloom,” an hour biography of the great performer narrated by Tom Smothers, has been picked up by KCET-TV Channel 28 from HBO and will be broadcast May 20 at 8 p.m.

THE LONG GOODBY: NBC is planning a promotional blitz, complete with radio tie-ins around the nation, for the May 20 finale of “Cheers.” Title of the radio promos: “Last Call.”

HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE TV: ABC’s “Full House” was a big hit again this season--the No. 10 series--and one of these days I’m really going to sit down and watch it and study it and ponder it. But don’t pin me down.

BEING THERE: “You’re obviously suffering from delusions of adequacy.”--Alexis Carrington (Joan Collins) in “Dynasty.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .