Reborn on the Bayou : Tartikoff Creates 2nd Career From Base in New Orleans

Like the characters in “Cheers,” one of his biggest successes at NBC, Brandon Tartikoff seems to have found a place where everybody knows his name.

On the dusky streets of the French Quarter, he draws more stares than anyone except the strippers. In business meetings, he’s the Big Easy’s most famous link to Hollywood, while in restaurants he’s accosted by people intent on introducing him to himself--a ritual unique to celebrities.

“Hey,” says one patron. “You’re Brandon Tartikoff!”

Not bad for a guy who is supposed to be in self-imposed exile. When Tartikoff moved to this exotic port city one year ago for his daughter’s physical rehabilitation after a car accident, many of his Hollywood friends called it career suicide. Instead, it’s become the next great ride for the 44-year-old Tartikoff, who has reinvented himself as an independent producer.

Tartikoff’s new programs, developed from his base here, include “The Gospel According to St. Ann,” a four-hour Ann-Margret miniseries sold to ABC; “Last Call,” a late-night comedy-commentary show syndicated by MCA; “Op-Center” an NBC project from Tom Clancy, and “Weekly World News,” two specials based on the outrageous supermarket tabloid that recently reported that CBS Chairman Laurence A. Tisch is a space alien.

“L.A. people understand that I’m here for my daughter,” Tartikoff says over dinner. “What they don’t understand is what I’ve been doing from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. to keep from going crazy.”

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The former NBC programming whiz and Paramount Pictures chief expected a quieter existence when he landed here last fall--perhaps involving some writing, some golf and some time for reflection. Instead, a restless Tartikoff found himself knocking at the door one day of an independent TV station owned by Quincy Jones, where he produced a children’s variety special called “Big Time TV.”

After that came overtures from other local programmers, who seemed happy to make any Tartikoff-inspired project short of a balletic tribute to “The A-Team.” Tartikoff, for his part, found that the early projects that got him on the road to doing network productions could be produced locally for a fraction of the network cost.

“N.O. It Alls,” a New Orleans game show that Tribune Co. hopes to syndicate nationally, is done for $3,500 per show. The pilot for “Under New Management” at PBS came in at $25,000--”the cost of a wrap party in L.A.,” Tartikoff notes.

Much of the funding for Tartikoff’s Moving Target productions comes from his own savings. He scored big from the takeover battle for Paramount Communications, which has doubled the value of the stock he received under his exit agreement with the company last year. While Tartikoff is coy about the stock’s exact worth, he puts it somewhere in the millions.

With no staff and no formal office, Tartikoff works largely by phone. “I don’t even want to think about the bill,” he says. “I just pretend I have a WATS line to L.A.” He expects to be based in New Orleans for as long as two more years. But as 11-year-old Calla’s condition improves, Tartikoff has also started spending as much as half of every week on the road.

Last night he was in Los Angeles for the Fire and Ice Ball, an annual benefit for breast and ovarian cancer research hosted by his wife, Lilly, and Jane Semel, the wife of Warner Bros. President Terry Semel. He also spends time in Nashville and Orlando, where other shows are based.

Though he’s been away only a year, that’s apparently long enough to be forgotten by some people in the fickle world of show business. Tartikoff said he recently discovered that the “Brandon Tartikoff” sandwich at the Stage Deli in Century City has been renamed for Howard Stern.

Self-deprecating humor aside, Tartikoff’s exile remains a delicate topic because of concerns for his daughter’s privacy and Hollywood’s continuing obsession about whether he resigned or was fired by Paramount. He prefers to focus on the work, saying he’s lucky to have landed in a city like New Orleans, since much of his inspiration has come from the community.

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“House of the Rising Sun,” a project about a guitar-playing detective, is based on a New Orleans newspaper story. “Journey Into Justice,” a vigilante action-adventure story, started with a pitch from the night manager of a French Quarter bar. Likewise, “Under New Management” is the brainchild of New Orleans filmmaker Steven Tyler, who sent Tartikoff the script in the mail--one of dozens he receives every week as a result of his high profile.

Tartikoff’s witty, regular-guy persona plays well in New Orleans. Just as he tended to pop up on his own shows at NBC, he has become the darling of the local media--playing guest host on a talk radio show, readily granting newspaper interviews, attending sports events and generally making himself available to a creative community starved for opportunity.

“At our first meeting, I asked, ‘What should we call you?,’ ” Tyler recalled. “Brandon said, ‘How about Bwana?’ ”

PBS has committed enough money for 13 “Under New Management” scripts and will soon decide whether to fund production. At a meeting last week, Tartikoff and Tyler spent two hours polishing scripts with a group of part-time writers that included a college professor-author, a cabaret performer and a Cajun filmmaker.

In this Hollywood by the bayou environment, the set of a public affairs show substitutes for a conference room, and snacks consist of fast food. But Tartikoff--whose style is surprisingly collaborative--says he enjoys the give and take.

“This is about as close as you’re going to get to a real network meeting in Louisiana,” he says. “I started this as a way to stay in the game and to keep myself in shape. . . . But the place I like to be best is in a room with a writer or writer-producer talking about a show. That’s the orgasmic experience. The rest is foreplay.”

“Under New Management” represents a labor of love--”The last thing I want to do is not deliver for the first people who said, ‘Yeah, we believe in you,’ ” Tartikoff says. But “N.O. It Alls” could bring a big payday.

Tartikoff sketched out the idea for the game show on his kitchen table, then sold it to Tribune’s WGNO-TV. The Chicago-based company hopes to syndicate it nationally if the bugs can be worked out. While the show’s done only modestly well so far, the producers say they’ll have a better sense of its potential by spring, when its time slot is resolved.

In a New Orleans meeting with Tribune Entertainment executives, Tartikoff’s only conceit to his past success was a propensity for name dropping. Sentences often began with variations on, “As Fred Silverman said once . . . “ Nonetheless, Tribune seemed thrilled to have him in their corner.

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Tartikoff says his long-range goal is to build an independent TV factory like those of Grant Tinker and Norman Lear, who made fortunes from programs such as “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “All in the Family,” respectively. And the way to do that, he believes, is to keep spinning out ideas, whether they revolve around a New Orleans bar or espionage in Washington.

“I want to bring the same spirit to my company in the ‘90s that they brought to theirs in the ‘70s,” Tartikoff says. “I’ll be a content provider, because that’s what I know how to do.”

Tartikoff’s New Lineup

Brandon Tartikoff has developed 25 TV and movie projects since settling in New Orleans, including:

National TV Shows

* “The Gospel According to St. Ann”: An ABC miniseries written by Tom Fontana and starring Ann-Margret.

* “Op-Center”: A four-hour NBC movie, created by Tom Clancy, about government and political intrigue.

* “X’s and O’s”: A six-hour CBS serial set in Nashville about four ex-wives of country music stars.

* “Last Call”: An irreverent late-night commentary show to be syndicated by MCA Inc.

* “Weekly World News”: Two specials inspired by the supermarket tabloid, being produced in conjunction with National Enquirer Publications and Kathy Kloves.

* “Under New Management”: A topical PBS series set in a New Orleans restaurant-bar.

* “The Steven Banks Show”: A one-man PBS comedy, described as an adult version of the Soupy Sales show.

* “Out of the Whirlwind”: A one-hour dramatic series for NBC produced with Jeffrey Lewis of “Hill Street Blues.”

* Unnamed NBC series: NBC has also committed to buy one of three other series in development by Tartikoff.

Films

* “Without Remorse”: Based on the Tom Clancy book.

* “Backups”: A musical comedy from the “House Party” team of Reginald and Warrington Hudlin for Interscope.

* “Trophies”: With producer Joel Silver at Warner Bros.