‘Tales of the City’ Sequel Seeks Support : Television: PBS still refuses to fund a follow-up. But ‘Tales’ author Armistead Maupin and producer Alan Poul are seeking other backers.

Fans of the San Francisco saga “Tales of the City” take heart: There may yet be a sequel.

Although PBS remains steadfast in refusing to provide funding for a follow-up to the acclaimed miniseries (which is being rerun tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28), “Tales” author Armistead Maupin and producer Alan Poul are hopeful about their attempts to raise the money elsewhere.

“I think we’ll get it made,” says Poul.

Great Britain’s Channel 4, which produced and financed the original, is still willing to put up half the $8-million budget for a sequel. But executives there, dumbfounded and embittered by PBS’ decision, are not as optimistic.

“The PBS withdrawal, in our view, has killed the show,” says Peter Ansorge, Channel 4’s deputy head of drama.

Nonetheless, Maupin and Poul feel they may be close to something.

“We’re putting together a financial package that consists of money from Channel 4, money from Canada and then money from an American broadcast entity,” says Poul.

A Canadian production company has agreed to put up $1 million for Canadian broadcast rights, providing that interior shots are filmed in Vancouver and some Canadian actors are used, according to Maupin.

“In terms of the American money,” says Poul, “we’re pursuing several options.”

One possibility is to obtain funding from a consortium of “30 to 40 of the leading PBS stations,” which all have expressed interest in getting the sequel made, says Poul. In that scenario, the sequel would appear on those PBS stations without being on the PBS network.

Poul says he also is in talks with TV companies outside the PBS system, including cable.

And Maupin, who first wrote “Tales” as a serial in the San Francisco Chronicle and then saw his stories become internationally best-selling novels, says he is pursuing another fund-raising source: “I’m making personal pleas to everyone I know who can write a check.”

When Channel 4 decided to make the original “Tales,” it sought co-production funding in the United States but was turned down by every company it approached. Then, a week after filming began, PBS agreed to pay just under $1 million of the $8-million budget for U.S. broad-cast rights.

The six-hour miniseries drew lavish praise from critics and the highest ratings PBS has received for drama in more than a decade. But it also brought the wrath of some conservative religious activists and politicians who objected to the program’s portrayal of sybaritic San Franciscans, gay and straight, circa 1976.

Based on the program’s success both in the United States and Britain, where “Tales” won the British equivalent of an Emmy for best drama serial, Channel 4 decided to go ahead with the sequel. This time, the channel asked PBS to put up half the money, saying it could not afford to finance the miniseries alone again.

PBS said no. Since then, the network has taken a severe beating from media commentators across the United States for abandoning the sequel. Although the network says its reasons were strictly financial, there is widespread belief that it feared political repercussions.

“Because they’re publicly funded,” says Maupin, “they’re desperately afraid their life’s blood will be taken from them for making homosexuals look like regular human beings.”

Says Channel 4’s Ansorge, “I suspect it’s a combination of commerce and cowardice.”

From the financial point of view, he believes PBS’ move follows a longtime--and somewhat deceptive--tradition.

“PBS has a history of acquiring prestige productions from Britain for very little money,” Ansorge says. “I think the prestige they’ve gained from British television productions has been a slight cover-up of the (economic) reality.”

* “Tales of the City” begins a rerun at 10 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28.