Wanted by CBS: New, Younger Audiences : Television: The network is trying to establish an 18-to-49 beachhead, but the entertainment chief doesn’t plan a blood bath like in the early ‘70s.

CBS program boss Peter Tortorici is on the phone, promising a prime-time face lift for his network.

The new 1995-96 television lineups are due out next month, and CBS, the last of the major networks to believe that people over 55 are still alive and well, has suddenly found itself in the vise of advertisers who want programs for 18-to-49-year-old viewers, or even those up to 54.

Tortorici, president of CBS Entertainment, does not speak of a blood bath--he promises that such shows as “Murder, She Wrote,” “60 Minutes” and “Murphy Brown” will be back--but, in a blunt moment, he says:

“The fact is, we need more young viewers watching CBS. I’d like my kids to say once in a while, ‘You know, Daddy, CBS isn’t boring for kids.’ ”

Some observers--including Tortorici--have commented on the kind of philosophical change CBS gambled on in the early 1970s when, unlike now, it was still No. 1 but decided to go more contemporary and less rural as the urban population grew.

That was a blood bath. In short order, such popular entries as “Hee Haw,” “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Green Acres,” “Petticoat Junction,” Red Skelton, Jim Nabors and “Mayberry R.F.D.” were given the ax.

And in the few years that followed, CBS suddenly had a new face represented by such fledgling series as “All in the Family,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “MASH.”

CBS today certainly doesn’t have the luxury of unloading hit series--it has very few, finished third among the four major networks in the ratings this season and was last with the 18-to-49 audience. But the goal, says Tortorici, is the same as it was in the make-over a quarter of a century ago: “to find voices and characters that speak what’s on everybody’s mind.”

“ ‘All in the Family’ was the launch pad then. It mirrored what was going on in households across America, the war between the generations.”

Producer Fred Silverman, who became head of CBS programming in 1970, is among those who recalls when the network had gotten “older and more rural,” adding that the popular series canceled during the purge may have drawn viewers but not advertisers.

“ ‘All in the Family,’ ” says Silverman, “saved my job, Bob Wood’s job (Wood was the gutty president of CBS-TV who pushed for the program turnaround) and made the whole network.”

While Madison Avenue and the industry think CBS unquestionably is--based on its fall development projects--trying to establish an 18-to-49 beachhead, Tortorici, 45, promises he won’t be showing the door to the network’s loyal older audience.

He speaks of a balanced schedule and not trying to do everything at once: “We have some core strength.” When it is suggested that maybe half of his 22 prime-time hours are expendable, he issues a firm no. He’s thinking of seven hours, maximum, but it all depends on how good the new contenders are.

So what’s safe--at least at this point?

“It’s safe to assume that all of the Sunday and Monday shows will be back,” says Tortorici. In addition to “Murder, She Wrote,” “60 Minutes” and “Murphy Brown,” the series include “Dave’s World,” “Cybill,” “Chicago Hope” and “The Nanny.”

Other shows that will be back, he says, include “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “Walker, Texas Ranger” and “Picket Fences.” He is personally thumbs up on Dan Rather’s “48 Hours” and says that Dick Van Dyke’s “Diagnosis Murder” has a good shot “but is not guaranteed a place on the schedule yet.”

A lot can change between now and May, when the fall shows will be selected. For example, says Tortorici, Tuesday’s “Rescue 911” could have a “strong case” going for it, yet he did not give it a flat return endorsement.

Most other CBS series appear to be in the same boat or worse, depending on how well the network fares with its program development.

That development, says Tortorici, involves about 35 series projects, most of them comedies: “We need more young viewers watching CBS. We have to bring more of what the other guys (networks) have and what the advertisers want. But in pursuit of younger adults, I don’t want anyone to think that CBS thinks people over 55 are worthless. That’s a lot of nonsense.”

A turnaround usually takes several seasons, he says, perhaps remembering the flak that NBC took for unloading a number of its older-skewing shows, including “In the Heat of the Night,” “Matlock” and “The Golden Girls,” in an attempt at a fast make-over focusing on the 18-to-49 set.

That goal paid off for NBC with “ER,” “Friends” and “Frasier.” Says Tortorici: “NBC took the brickbats, but they had a plan, and in fairly short order they’re competitive again.”

What, then, are some of the possible series cooking on the CBS burners?

Separate from its current development, the network recently announced a multi-series, long-term deal with “NYPD Blue” co-creator Steven Bochco. As for the more immediate fall-season possibilities that CBS is considering, here are some of the comedies:

* Andrew (Dice) Clay and Cathy Moriarty play a fighting, married couple with two kids in “Bless This House.” Fran Drescher, star of “The Nanny,” is producing a spinoff starring Tracy Nelson and Patrick Cassidy called “The Chatterbox,” about the denizens of a New York beauty salon. Joan Cusack portrays a TV producer in a series from the company of Jim Brooks (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Simpsons”). CBS’ late-night star David Letterman is producing two shows, a buddy comedy called “Emmett and Earl” and a series with Bonnie Hunt as a young TV journalist.

* Also, Jean Smart (“Designing Women”) stars in “High Society,” in which she plays a book publisher and divorced mother of a 17-year-old arch-conservative son. Elizabeth McGovern and Hank Azaria headline “If Not for You,” about “two young lovers in love with the wrong people.” Lorraine Bracco (“GoodFellas”) plays a single parent in New York in “My Guys.” Writer-director Nora Ephron (“Sleepless in Seattle,” “When Harry Met Sally . . . “) has the show “Putting It Together,” about two 30-year-old female friends who work at a New York magazine.

Among CBS’ drama projects:

* Darren Star, who created “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Melrose Place,” is developing “Central Park West,” about “a cross-section of young New Yorkers.” John Grisham is producer-consultant of “The Client,” featuring a character from his book. Rapper Tone-Loc is one of the headliners of an Aaron Spelling police show, “Crosstown Traffic.” Talk-show host Montel Williams plays an urban high school teacher in “The Education of Matt Waters.”

* In addition, Don Johnson portrays a San Francisco cop in “Off Duty.” Scott Bakula is a Los Angeles cop in “Prowler.” And then there’s “New York News,” a tale of a Big Apple newspaper, with Mary Tyler Moore as the publisher.

“Our programming,” vows Tortorici, “will be more conducive to getting a young audience to watch us.”

Madison Avenue wins again. It’s just another illustration of who really runs TV. The movie industry sells its films directly to the public. The TV industry sells viewers to advertisers.