‘Seinfeld,’ ‘Improvement’ Reruns Get Premiere Billing : Television: Producers seeking maximum return spend heavily on promotion as two series debut in syndication.

Generally, when a big studio sells a popular sitcom into syndication, it sits back and counts the multimillion-dollar fees it collects from hundreds of local stations desperate to air reruns of “The Cosby Show,” “Roseanne” or “The Simpsons” in the 7-8 p.m. hour.

But with “Home Improvement” and “Seinfeld,” the two most popular network shows of the past two years, sitting back and counting the cash is not enough.

Both Disney’s Buena Vista Television, which produces “Home Improvement,” and Columbia, the Sony-owned home of “Seinfeld,” have funneled back a great deal of their takes to launch the comedies in syndication today.

Taking a cue from its movie merchandising division, Columbia has teamed with both General Mills and Coca-Cola in a $25-million promotional push that will feature “Seinfeld” art on 7 million packages of breakfast cereal and on plastic collector’s cups at fast-food restaurants and other venues where soft drinks are sold.

Disney, meanwhile, produced a new episode of “Home Improvement” to kick off the show’s second life in repeats. No network series in history has gone to the trouble and expense of creating an episode specifically for its syndicated run.

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All this plus the countless ads trumpeting the shows’ arrival on their respective local stations. Why? Is there possibly anyone out there who doesn’t know about Jerry and Kramer or Tim Allen, his Tool Time Girl and the weird guy behind the fence?

No, said Barry Thurston, president of Columbia TriStar Television Distribution. But people aren’t used to the idea that these popular programs will now be available on different days.

“The television marketplace is so fractured, there are so many choices, so much competition, that the days of selling the show and asking the stations to promote it are gone,” Thurston said. “You have to reach out beyond promos on just that station, because no matter how big a fan of ‘Seinfeld’ someone might be, there’s no guarantee that they will know that it’s going to be on every day on a new channel at a new time.”

Moreover, while both studios have already banked the cash from selling the reruns, they do have a stake in the ratings. Both Disney and Columbia get to sell one minute of advertising in each half-hour--local stations keep the rest. In addition, the higher the rerun ratings, the more money each studio can ask from local stations when the initial purchase period expires in about four or five years. “MASH,” for example, did so well in its first rerun that it garnered a higher price the second time out, according to Mort Marcus, president of Disney’s Buena Vista Television.

Mostly, though, it comes down to the studios maintaining good relations with their customers--the stations, which paid by the bushel for these two shows.

“Home Improvement” sold for more money than any sitcom in history except for “The Cosby Show,” collecting more than $2.5 million per episode from 190 stations. All told, it should earn the studio, its creators and stars about $600 million.

“Seinfeld” was bought by more stations, a record 224 stations, but at slightly lower rates. It should surpass by a wide margin the current No. 2 syndicated money-earner, “Who’s the Boss?,” which made Columbia about $450 million in 1988.

“Any time a station steps up to pay the price that they have on ‘Home Improvement,’ we feel we have a responsibility to help them in any way we can,” Marcus said. “Granted, it is a big show and people will eventually find it whether you promote it or not, but the stations’ investment in this is so huge that we really have an obligation to them to get out there and create some heat and buzz for the show in a way that is worthy of their financial commitment.”

Hence, the new episode, airing tonight. It features Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson (the married couple at the center of the show) racing tanks over an obstacle course at a Marine base in 29 Palms, Calif. Episodes previously shown on ABC will then follow beginning Tuesday, while this fresh episode will air again as part of the series’ network run later this season.

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Neither Marcus nor Thurston expects the daily availability of these sitcoms to detract from either show’s network ratings. Both invoked the example of “Cheers,” which shot to No. 1 in prime-time after it started airing in syndication.

Which show will do better in reruns? Many industry observers give the edge to “Home Improvement” because it has a broader appeal to children, teens and families. And it crushed a then-struggling “Seinfeld” when the two sitcoms faced off in 1993. It was that drubbing that prompted NBC to move “Seinfeld” behind then-top-rated “Cheers” and transformed a ratings loser into a juggernaut.

But such speculation is immaterial because the shows will butt horns in the same time period in only a handful of cities around the country, according to Thurston. In about 40 markets, they will air on the same station. In most others, including Los Angeles, the repeats will be seen at different times.

“These stations have invested such large sums of money to buy them that the last thing they want to do is put one against the other and dilute their own show,” Thurston said. “The typical general manager will want to keep his show away from the other to keep ratings up as high as possible.”

* “Home Improvement” reruns will air weeknights at 7 on KTTV-TV Channel 11; “Seinfeld” will run weeknights at 7:30 on KTLA-TV Channel 5.