TELEVISION : Networking, ‘90s Style : Ted Harbert is the architect of ABC’s No. 1 lineup. (It’s a network where families matter.) A look at TV’s changing landscape through the eyes of an executive who isn’t wild about all those changes.

Ted Harbert, the 39-year-old president of ABC Entertainment, is sitting in his Century City office on the verge of what many would consider a major career achievement.

Next Sunday, when the so-called official 30-week TV season ends, ABC will be the No. 1 network in prime time for the first time in 16 years, thanks to such shows as “Home Improvement,” “Grace Under Fire,” “NYPD Blue,” “Ellen” and “Roseanne.”

But a funny thing happened on the way to the television winner’s circle. NBC rained on ABC’s parade.

With such blazing new hits as “ER” and “Friends” joining “Frasier,” “Seinfeld” and “Mad About You,” NBC, a near corpse in the last few years, will finish the season in second place but is on such a hot streak that it is the network creating the buzz with advertisers and in the television industry.

More important, with such 8 p.m. NBC sitcoms as “Mad About You” and “Wings” aimed at young adults--added to the racy 8 p.m. Fox entries “Melrose Place,” “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Martin”--there is a widespread belief that the landscape of television is changing significantly, making obsolete many of the traditional, more innocent early-evening family series that have long been an ABC staple. Examples: “The Donna Reed Show,” “The Brady Bunch,” “Happy Days,” “Full House” and “Family Matters.”

“Do I think NBC’s changed the rules? Yeah,” Harbert says. “Do I think that’s a good thing necessarily? Not totally.”

At another point, speaking of the networks’ evolving look, he says flatly: “The sexual content is the big change.”

What has happened is that the sponsor dictatorship that demands 18-to-49-year-olds as the prime viewers of prime time now has been accepted more than ever at all four major networks--ABC, NBC, Fox and even old-fashioned CBS--if advance word of next season’s pilot development is any indication.

In the recent past, the obvious point was that viewers over 49, or perhaps as ancient as 54, were virtually non-people in the eyes of advertisers. Now, however, with the early-evening slots being commandeered more and more for the 18-to-49 audience, youngsters may also be joining elders as the disenfranchised in television’s prime-time hours.

Even Harbert, whose network has long subscribed to the 18-to-49 theory despite its history of early-evening programming for children and their families, is frustrated.

“Do you know how ridiculous it is to have four networks--now five and six--all trying to put on 18-to-49 shows?” he says, adding the new United Paramount and Warner Bros. lineups to the mix. “There’s not that many good ones. You’re going to see a lot of lousy shows because we’re trying too hard to do the same kind of show for the same audience.”

ABC, of course, is still sitting pretty, with the best-balanced programming throughout the day, secure management and lots of money in the bank. The trade magazine Broadcasting & Cable reported last week that profits for the ABC-TV network soared 84% last year to a record $340 million--more than the CBS and NBC networks combined.

But as the underdog with new hits that draw precisely the viewers that sponsors covet, NBC is gleefully going for the jugular, unabashedly stressing its big advances with the 18-to-49 audience in its publicity and barely taking note of the other age groups.

Harbert pledges loyalty to ABC’s kids-oriented sitcom lineup on Fridays but adds: “Let’s be clear. My job is to deliver 18-to-54 adults to the sales department to sell. And if the gambit of putting on kids shows, hoping they’ll bring their (parents), is not working as well, I’m going to have to respond.”

One can only wonder whether soft shows such as ABC’s “The Wonder Years” or “Doogie Howser, M.D.” would make a network schedule anymore. And as for programs focusing on older adults, Harbert says:

“If Susan Harris wrote ‘The Golden Girls’ tomorrow, would it get on network television? I hope so, but I bet you it probably wouldn’t, because networks would be afraid that it wouldn’t have enough 18-to-49.”

Asked what the response would be if someone came in and offered a good idea for a series about four 10-year-olds or four 60-year-olds, Harbert adds:

“On the 10-year-olds, we’d talk about it for Fridays. On the 60-year-olds,” he says, searching for words, “the truth is--and I had to say it to (producer) Fred Silverman when I said goodby to ‘Matlock’--I said, ‘The sales department can’t sell it.’ I’m not saying that’s a good thing, but they can’t sell it, because the New York advertising agencies will not buy it.

“The fact is, (ABC’s) ‘Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman’ makes quite a bit more money than (CBS’) ‘Murder, She Wrote,’ even though ‘Murder, She Wrote’s’ ratings are much higher. It’s fascinating to me.

“My parents have disposable income. They spend it. But the point the advertising agencies continue to make is that (older viewers’) habits are made, and what they want are the young adults that are still forming their habits and (deciding) which detergent they’re going to buy for the next 40 years. And they want to get you (to choose) between Tide and All. And they want you making that choice when you’re 23, not when you’re 63.”

In this environment, Harbert, who has been with ABC for 18 years, exudes confidence, even though NBC has made significant cuts into its lead with the young-adult audience. Acknowledging NBC’s powerhouse Thursday evening, propelled by “ER” and “Seinfeld,” he nonetheless thinks the network cannot compare with ABC’s strength night in and night out.

What is striking this season, however--and a warning to traditional TV--is that NBC, with “ER” and “Friends,” was the only one of the four major networks that was able to come up with a new breakout hit.

“The truth,” Harbert says, “is that we did not have any new big hits this season, whereas NBC has a couple of shows that have just gone through the roof. But over the years, we’ve established enough hits--recently with ‘Grace’ and ‘Ellen’ and ‘NYPD Blue’--that the large number of successful shows we have gives us a balanced schedule.”

When it comes to the possibly endangered species of all-family viewing, he adds: “That does not apply to ‘Grace.’ It does not apply to ‘Roseanne.’ It does not apply to ‘Home Improvement.’ This network is based on going to the grass roots. You don’t see a lot of big-city New York shows on ABC. We have not given up on that family audience. The advertisers seek that family of four-plus (members). It suggests a lot of consuming going on.”

On Madison Avenue, however, advertisers see what may well be blowing in the wind. Joel Segal, a top executive of the McCann-Erickson ad agency, says that ABC has “a great many more pilots this year than last. Their comedies are more adult. They’re not doing as many with kids in them. They see the success of ‘Mad About You,’ and even ‘The Nanny,’ earlier in the evening.”

Says Harbert: “Last year at this time, we made just nine comedy pilots and six of them were what we call kid-driven, where the kids were causing the problems in the show and the parents reacted. This year we’re making 17 comedy pilots and zero are kid-driven. . . . The focus of the show is more on the adults.”

At Zenith Media in New York, analyst Betsy Frank, like Segal, notes ABC’s lack of new hits this season. She thinks “Home Improvement” took “some bruising” in head-on competition with upstart NBC’s “Frasier.”

“On the positive side,” says Frank, “ ‘Grace Under Fire’ is going to do just fine when it moves away from ‘Home Improvement.’ ” And it has done just that in a tryout that started March 29 as a test for next season.

Audrey Steele, a Zenith research executive, says: “While NBC has had all these breakout hits to promote, ABC has certainly done well, but nothing springs to mind of a real event nature.”

As for CBS, which has dropped from first to third in total household ratings and now is dead last with the 18-to-49 audience, Frank says:

“Their situation is pretty grim. But I think when you reach that point, you’re in a wonderful position where you can take risks. CBS’ development projects looked great. At this point, the worst thing you can do is stay with the same old strategy and just hope for the best.”

Citing ABC’s recent deal with the new production team of Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen and its alliance with the Grey-Brillstein company, which turns out HBO’s superb comedy “The Larry Sanders Show,” Frank says: “ABC has always been willing to spend money.”

On the other hand, ABC recently lost one of the premier programmers of all time, Brandon Stoddard, who is resigning as president of the network’s in-house production company in June. He oversaw such memorable shows as “Roots,” “The Winds of War,” “War and Remembrance,” “Something About Amelia,” “The Day After” and “Moonlighting.”

Going into the stretch, ABC has a half-point ratings lead over NBC, a margin that is insurmountable with only a week to go in the season. And the prestige of the network is clearly enhanced by several of the news shows that surround prime time--Ted Koppel’s “Nightline” and Peter Jennings’ “World News Tonight,” which has been No. 1 in the evening news race for 134 of the last 135 weeks.

And then there’s Roseanne.

Not long ago, she raised hell about Harbert’s current tryout of her show at 8 p.m., telling The Times that she didn’t want the earlier slot and that, if it is switched there next season, she would so “radicalize” her series that it would have to be moved elsewhere.

Harbert says he told Roseanne that ABC’s running series, including hers, would be put back in their regular slots for the May sweeps--which help determine advertising rates--”because the whole thing about the sweeps is protecting the 10 o’clock lead-in to the late local news, so I can’t fool around with the sweeps. It’s too important to the stations.”

But what if “Roseanne”--which got off to a strong start in its new tryout slot--does great at 8 in its six-week spring run?

“If it does great at 8 o’clock,” he says, “I think it’s going to stay at 8 o’clock (next season). I think that’s the leading possibility.”

Harbert says that he wants to look at various program possibilities and time-slot performances before going into the May scheduling meetings at which the fall lineups are announced and that he wants to present a “big, strong show” at 8 p.m.

“ ‘Roseanne,’ ” he says, “is the best-written family comedy on television. It is bluntly honest, brutally realistic sometimes. But it is the way it is for a lot of people out there, and that’s why she gets the response she gets. So I just don’t have any qualms about that show being on at 8 o’clock. ‘Roseanne’ is the leader of our current generation of hits.”

In short, the sometimes controversial topics tackled by “Roseanne” seemingly are no longer taboo at 8 p.m.--certainly not in the new 8 p.m. network world of “Mad About You” and “Melrose Place”--unless, perhaps, the star “radicalizes” her content way beyond what now is acceptable. And even if that happens, would it matter in the new network world where young adults count for more than kids?

Harbert says he has a dilemma: “We are moving away from ‘Full House.’ Here’s what happened. Seventy percent of the households now have more than one TV set, and that fact has changed viewing. You now have parents putting their kids in one room to watch their show and they can go in the other room and watch a more adult show designed for them--whether it be ‘Melrose Place’ or ‘Wings’ or ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ or ‘Mad About You.’

“The ABC strategy all these past decades is, at 8 o’clock, put on shows that have a lot of kid appeal, and the kids will bring their adults. But that is when the whole family sat together and watched TV. With this multi-set household, they’re splitting up.

“More important than how ABC did this season or how NBC did, what really matters is: What’s going on in the home out there? What’s going on with the way families are watching TV?”

Is that a partial cop-out for NBC’s surge this season? After all, the seeds of 8 p.m. program change were planted years ago when pay TV started to show adult-oriented films at all hours. But Matt Williams, co-creator of “Home Improvement,” agrees that there has been a radical change.

“ ‘Mad About You’ and ‘Wings’ playing at 8 has shifted the whole nature of TV,” he says. “I think ABC is truly being challenged by NBC. NBC has brilliantly put together some programming. I think that over next season, you’re going to see a lot of changes. What were quintessential family shows, with kids or teen-agers--are they dinosaurs now?

“It gets mind-boggling. Everything’s a scramble for demographics now. The worst thing producers can do is start developing with only the demos in mind. Now it’s ‘kids don’t sell,’ so you’ve got to be young, hip, urban, professional. It gets crazy.”

Will he alter “Home Improvement”? No, Williams says: “We’re not going to sit down and say, ‘Oops, we’ve got to have more edge.’ ”

Marcy Carsey, whose company produces both “Roseanne” and “Grace Under Fire,” says that “nobody likes their shows to be moved” but reminds that “All in the Family”--a groundbreaking, issue-oriented, controversial comedy--was an 8 p.m. series. She also acknowledges Harbert’s point about multi-set homes:

“I believe Ted when he says he has to be more adult-oriented at 8 o’clock. We assume that ‘Roseanne’ wouldn’t change at 8. The show is strong because it is what it is.”

Harbert, meanwhile, wholeheartedly endorses Williams’ assessment that TV is changing:

“It is. It is. Absolutely. Matt’s right. To me, that is the story. The content that is in ‘Melrose Place’ used to be in a 10 o’clock show like ‘Dynasty.’ The content of a ‘Mad About You’ used to be in a 9:30 show. Those time-period guidelines we’ve been following for decades are all drifting away.”