TV Violence Backlash Targets Networks : Television: Time for rest of the industry to share burden of responsibility, CBS chief Jeff Sagansky says.

CBS is making tangible changes in programming plans this fall to address rising Congressional concern over TV violence, but it’s time for the rest of the industry to share in the burden of responsibility, said a frustrated CBS Entertainment president Jeff Sagansky on Saturday.

“Everybody has to be a part of this,” Sagansky told an annual gathering of TV critics in Universal City. “It can’t just be the networks fighting the battle.”

Sagansky, who has testified in recent Congressional hearings on the issue, also took a shot at lawmakers who have threatened legislation to regulate the airwaves if television doesn’t clean up its act.

The networks are an “easier target” than the National Rifle Assn., Sagansky said.

He also said he “got a kick” at the hearings seeing the number of Congressmen who are down on TV violence, claiming that it leads to a violent society, and yet support the right to bear arms.

In describing how CBS is responding to concerns over violence, Sagansky acknowledged that four trial episodes of the Chuck Norris series, “Walker, Texas Ranger,” which aired in spring, contained some “very tough shots.” The series, which CBS ordered for next season and took over production of in-house, will be noticeably less violent this fall, according to Sagansky.

“If the scene is gratuitous and doesn’t make the character go forward,” then it will be cut, Sagansky said.

CBS will also reduce the number of TV movies based on real-life crime stories that have become a staple of the network’s Tuesday-night movie slot. “We’re going to vary the mix next year. They won’t be all true crime dramas,” Sagansky explained.

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But CBS will continue to produce such movies, which are the most likely candidates to receive the new parental advisory labels adopted by the networks this fall to let parents know what their kids are watching. CBS is also looking harder at the time periods when those movies are promoted and how the violence in them is depicted.

“The real question is, when we put these movies on, is there an underlying social issue being addressed in a responsible way?” he said.

Most of Sagansky’s comments were directed at the rest of the industry’s unwillingness to change their violent ways, especially syndicated and cable television. For example, “We would never let ‘The Untouchables’ air like it is on our network,” he said, referring to the syndicated action series from Paramount Television.

Sagansky found that “even Congressmen don’t know what channels they’re watching these things on. . . . There are far more (violent) shows on cable.”

Apparently tired of receiving the brunt of criticism, Sagansky also swung the spotlight on the Hollywood producers who create programming for the networks. “The next step is to get the producers to understand some of the issues that have been presented to us,” he said.

To that end, Sagansky expressed optimism for the Aug. 2 conference on TV violence, when the entire industry will sit down in Los Angeles for the first time to discuss the issue. “My hope is that with the violence conference, (the rest of the TV industry) will be brought into the whole debate.”