The 800-Pound Peacock

It took just four words from NBC executive Lindy DeKoven last year to send her colleagues sitting inside a corporate office leaping out of their chairs.

“I’m thinking ‘Peter Benchley’s “The Beast,” ’ “ said DeKoven, NBC’s senior vice president of miniseries and motion pictures for television.

“Great!” exclaimed Vince Manze, the network’s senior vice president of advertising and promotion. “We love it!” exclaimed John Miller, executive vice president of advertising & promotion and event programming.

Then the two honchos calmed down and asked DeKoven, “What is it?”

When DeKoven explained that she was proposing a movie based on Benchley’s bestseller about a horrifying ocean creature that terrorizes a small seaside community, the ideas started flying from Manze and Miller and others inside the office as they brainstormed on ways to turn “The Beast” into a major event of the 1995-96 season.

Those ideas soon took shape in the outline for a multimillion-dollar promotional campaign: huge billboards in Times Square and on Sunset Boulevard. An avalanche of commercials and teasers. Countless buses with placards of a bikini-clad swimmer unaware of the massive tentacles reaching out to grab her. Giant tentacles wrapped around the “Today” show’s Windows of the World studio in New York.

Higher corporate powers drew the line at the latter notion. But all the other plans were quickly put in motion. Now executives at NBC and MCA Television Entertainment, the distributor of the four-hour miniseries that premieres April 28, say it is almost impossible to walk down the street or to watch NBC and not see ads for “The Beast.” Both NBC and MCA are keeping their fingers crossed that the movie will be a blockbuster.

Elsewhere in the TV industry, however, the long-range planning and the aggressiveness of NBC’s “Beast” campaign are seen as the latest examples of how the network itself has come on like a beast in the past two years, using its tentacles of savvy marketing, relentless promotion, smart programming and risk-taking tactics to reclaim the prime-time ratings crown this season that it held through most of the 1980s but then lost in 1992.

With its invincible Thursday night slate, its surging Tuesday night lineup, lavish, heavily promoted projects such as the “Gulliver’s Travels” miniseries, “stunts” like the one-hour episode of “Friends” following the Super Bowl and the late-night triumph of “The Tonight Show” leading the way, NBC has reversed itself just two years after languishing in third place among the major TV networks.

Analysts say the network once again has captured the taste of the viewing public much as it did during the 1980s, when a little comedy called “The Cosby Show” carried the network to dizzying heights. CBS overtook NBC during the 1991-92 season and reigned for three years, then was replaced at the top last season by ABC. Now NBC has bounced back with a monster-like vengeance.

And the momentum is so strong that some experts are saying that NBC may be poised to dominate the TV landscape as it did during the ‘80s.

“The fact that cannot be denied right now is that NBC is the network,” said Christine Murtaugh, vice president and group supervisor for the Media Edge, a firm that handles media buying for AT&T; and other large advertisers. “They are possibly at the edge of a dynasty, and are so much ahead of ABC right now.”

The coronation is not unanimous. Some executives at rival networks say that NBC is a one-night network, with the huge ratings on Thursdays masking lackluster performances from its programs much of the rest of the week. Talk of an imminent dynasty is premature, they contend.

But others say that the television business is cyclical and it is once again NBC’s turn to shine.

Said Greg Meidel, chairman of MCA Television Group: “Every network has their day in the sun. NBC knows this. They’ve been No. 1 before, then they fell out of place. Now they’ve recaptured it, and with the help of ‘Friends’ and ‘ER,’ they’ve launched this incredible frontal attack. Everything at the network is now breeding on itself.”

Industry executives and analysts point out that many of NBC’s hottest series, such as “Friends,” “ER” and “Frasier,” are relatively young shows that have only been on for two or three seasons and have not yet reached their plateau of popularity. Meanwhile, ABC and CBS have to lean heavily on aging warhorses such as “Roseanne,” “Home Improvement,” “60 Minutes” and “Murphy Brown.”

They also say NBC’s brand name of “Must See TV” has given it an identity that other networks lack. “Plus, they have this great promotional base on Thursdays, three whole hours where the greatest number of eyes are watching,” observes David Janollari, executive vice president of creative affairs for Warner Bros. Television, which produces “Friends” and “ER” for the network. That promotion base has also boosted interest in the non-prime-time parts of NBC’s schedule.

“What NBC has done is create a marketing machine that continues to give them the momentum and the strength,” Meidel said.

While giving no small amount of credit to its roster of hits, NBC executives say the star-making machinery in the corporate offices is also responsible for making the peacock soar these days.

They credit the promotion and marketing department’s hyper-paced promotional spots and end-credit sequences to heighten viewer interest about upcoming shows; a team approach among a diverse group of top decision-makers from different departments who are involved in every step of a project from inception through broadcast; strong support and cooperation from affiliated stations; and an impressive bench strength of development projects aimed at key demographic groups.

“A lot of our cylinders are firing right now,” said Warren Littlefield, NBC Entertainment president. “There are a lot of parts of our company that are working extremely well.”

Explaining the turnaround, Littlefield said: “We really have spent a lot of time thinking about who we want to be, and we’ve spent a lot of time articulating that to our [program] suppliers--the studios. When you have that kind of approach, then you have many people out there in the community saying, ‘Here’s what NBC needs,’ and bringing us more choices. I think our success today is really a sign that we have made intelligent choices.”

Kerry McCluggage, chairman of the Paramount Television Group, which makes “Frasier,” “Wings” and “JAG” for NBC, added: “They convince you this is the best place to bring your writers and producers. They’ve done a very effective job of selling their network. There is attitude.”

Among NBC’s highlights this season:

* Super Bowl XXX in January was the most-watched program in the history of television.

* The Thursday lineup of “Friends,” “The Single Guy,” “Seinfeld,” “Caroline in the City” and “ER” reigned supreme like no other night of programming before it. They occupy five of the top six spots in Nielsen’s season-to-date standings, with only ABC’s “Monday Night Football” breaking the sweep at No. 5.

* The addition of “3rd Rock from the Sun” to the Tuesday comedy lineup of “Wings,” “Frasier” and “The John Larroquette Show” firmly established NBC as a challenger to ABC’s long-held dominance on that night.

* “Gulliver’s Travels,” a two-part adventure film that even NBC executives thought was a risky undertaking, helped propel the network to a victory in the February ratings sweeps and is the highest-rated miniseries so far this season.

* The “Today” show, which in recent years has been in a tug-of-war with ABC’s “Good Morning America” for top rung in the morning, has been in first place for more than six months.

* After getting trounced by David Letterman for nearly two years, “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” has been racking up regular wins over CBS’ rival “Late Show” since last summer.

* Even a drama like “Homicide: Life on the Street,” which seemed headed for cancellation just a few seasons ago, has done so well that it was just picked up for two seasons.

But executives at rival networks insist that NBC’s success story is warped by the overwhelming size of its Thursday ratings. And there is speculation that the departure of some key development and promotion executives, particularly development wunderkind Jamie McDermott, could hurt the network. McDermott, who left in February, is expected to become president of ABC Entertainment later this year.

NBC certainly has suffered missteps this season. Many of its new series, such as “Pursuit of Happiness,” “Brotherly Love,” “Minor Adjustments” and the second-year “seaQuest 2032,” were axed, once-promising “Hope & Gloria” has languished on Saturdays, “Mad About You” has lost some of its luster on Sundays, and “JAG” and “In the House” are on shaky ground. A cloud still seems to cover “The Single Guy” and “Caroline in the City,” as critics continue to question whether those shows would survive on their own outside their haven amid “Friends,” “Seinfeld” and “ER.”

NBC still has not risen above its traditional third-place ranking in the daytime. Its Saturday prime-time lineup is in disarray, and talk continues to swirl about the vulnerability of “Saturday Night Live.”

“My house has broken windows,” said Alan Sternfeld, senior vice president of program planning and scheduling for ABC, “but NBC’s house is drafty as well.”

ABC wins more of the 44 half-hour time periods on the weekly schedule than NBC in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic that most advertisers seek, Sternfeld said. And ABC has won the majority of nights this season in both households and 18-49 viewers, he said.

“NBC’s dominance is once a week,” said a high-placed executive at another network. “I don’t see what else they have that they can point to with any satisfaction. Put ‘Caroline in the City’ on Saturday nights and see what happens.”

Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC West Coast, dismisses the comments, noting simply that NBC’s average rating for prime time this season is 11.7, compared to 10.8 for ABC, 9.6 for CBS and 7.4 for Fox (with each point representing 959,000 homes).

“Saying those things is like the end of the Super Bowl, and the final score is 28-27, and the guy who scored 27 says, ‘Well, we won the first three quarters and we gained more yardage than they did and our quarterback had more completions than theirs did,’ ” he said.

He said the network is determined to achieve dominance, using the building blocks of entertainment, sports, late-night and daytime programming in a domino effect to build upon one another.

“It all feeds on each other, and really is a team effort,” Ohlmeyer said. “If we do an outstanding job in prime time, and our affiliates don’t do a great job with their 11 p.m. news, then we’ve wasted what we do in prime time in terms of helping Jay [at 11:35].

“If we can drive an audience into Jay and ‘Late Night With Conan O’Brien’ and ‘Later With Greg Kinnear,’ then there will be X millions of homes that have [the TV set] on [Channel] 4 when they go to sleep at night. When they turn it on in the morning, it’s on 4, so then they’ll watch ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Today.’ And when [NBC Sports President] Dick Ebersol gets Super Bowls, that gives us a great platform to kick off midseason replacements. It’s all intertwined.

“We don’t just want to be the No. 1 network, we want to be the network,” Ohlmeyer added. “What we want to do is run the table.”

Much of the credit for NBC’s turnaround is given to Ohlmeyer and Littlefield, who some call the odd couple of network television because of their differing styles and demeanors.

The sweater-clad Ohlmeyer, who first came to NBC in 1977 as executive producer of sports and has overseen sports programming at ABC and for his own company, is the outspoken and cocky executive with a savvy business sense and fiercely competitive spirit.

The lower-keyed Littlefield, who rose through the program department ranks to become head of NBC Entertainment in 1990, is the fashionably attired programmer whose smoothness is equally adept at wooing stars, writers and producers, and at helping to shape some of the creative concepts behind many of NBC’s hits.

Tom Werner, partner in the Carsey-Werner Co., one of the most prominent production houses in the television industry, defined the duo’s differences: “Warren has passion at a time when there are many executives at studios and networks who don’t have passion. He is enthusiastic about the medium. He loves looking at rough cuts, getting his hands dirty.

“Don, on the other hand, is largely responsible for the overall look and direction. He’s a terrific producer, and he understands both sides of the equation. Most importantly, they are extremely competitive. They want to win.”

Ohlmeyer said he and Littlefield complement each other.

“Warren and I look at things differently,” he said. “Warren enjoys dealing with the talent and the agents. That’s really not my forte. Conversely, I have produced shows and directed shows, so I have a different perspective. What I try to do is create an environment where Warren and all the others only have to worry about working on the shows.”

While others are heaping kudos upon the pair, they in turn credit what they called a smooth running operation that churns like a well-oiled machine. The elements started clicking soon after Ohlmeyer was brought in over Littlefield in early 1993 as president, West Coast.

At that time, NBC was on hard times. Johnny Carson and David Letterman were gone. There were few hits. And the development slate was bleak.

“The first part of the strategy was to stop the bleeding,” Ohlmeyer recalled. “The second part was to build a killer night. The third part was to use those killer shows from that killer night as tent poles to build on other nights.”

Crucial in that effort was the restructuring of the entertainment division’s corporate pyramid. Instead of a group of separate executives dealing with shows at different phases, a team of executives from different departments was formed to register opinions on each phase of a project.

Another high priority was tackling NBC’s programming prospects.

“There was some fairly good material, but the casting was really wrong,” Ohlmeyer explained. “So the next year, we paid a lot more attention to detail, a lot more to casting. The end results are the cast of ‘ER’ and ‘Friends,’ which are two of the greatest casts ever in the history of television.”

Also, risks were taken to further the goals.

One of the more controversial came two years ago when NBC took the popular “Frasier” out of its comfortable Thursday night slot to do battle with ABC’s “Roseanne” on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ABC blinked, and countered by moving its top-rated “Home Improvement” against “Frasier.” The executive producers of “Frasier” initially were very vocal about their unhappiness with the move, fearing their show might lose some of its following.

“But it turned out to be the best thing that could happen,” said David Lee, one of the Grub Street producers in charge of “Frasier.” “ ‘Frasier’ proved to have very strong legs, and it knocked ‘Home Improvement’ down a notch. It also knocked the value of the show up in the syndication market, which would have never happened if it had remained behind ‘Seinfeld.’ ”

Two of NBC’s most popular shows may undergo the same fate next season. Ohlmeyer said it is almost certain that both “The Single Guy” and “Caroline in the City” will be moved away from their Thursday slots to other nights.

The diversity of the executives also was key in determining what might hit with viewers, Littlefield said. He cited the example of “3rd Rock From the Sun,” which was developed by ABC but ultimately rejected.

“We think we’re thinking right now like the viewers,” he said. “We looked at ‘3rd Rock,’ and it made us laugh. The difference at ABC was there was a lot more analysis and saying, ‘We’re not sure, what if it’s a one-trick pony?’ We just came at it from a different point of view --’It’s funny, it’s different, it’s smart, it’s NBC, we love it, we want it.’ The rest of it was tactics.”

In turn, Carsey-Werner, the producers of “3rd Rock,” were delighted with NBC’s interest.

“From the moment that Warren saw the pilot, there was a real understanding and a commitment to what many people thought was an odd idea,” Werner said. “Then they backed their bet with the most extraordinary promotion for a new show I’ve ever seen. They must have done 20 different spots. I don’t think this show would have been a hit on ABC or CBS. An audience knows when a network is in love with a show.”

Promotion is one of the most critical factors behind NBC’s current success, Ohlmeyer and Littlefield said. Planning begins long before a show airs.

“The promotion and advertising departments are the real beasts,” Littlefield said. “They start working on something while it’s being shot.”

It was an onslaught of advertising and promotion that turned the risky “Gulliver’s Travels” into a major February sweeps hit, Littlefield said.

“A number of us read the material, and we thought it was a big risk,” he said. “It was a children’s classic, it didn’t have Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen attached at the time. There was no real track record for this type of project. But we knew producer Robert Halmi Sr. was top-notch on these kinds of things. We thought, ‘Maybe this can be the event of the season.’ ”

When NBC was pleased enough with the project to schedule it during February, the promotion and marketing team kicked into gear with a massive campaign, targeting schools, the press and viewers with mailers, billboards and commercials.

The strategy proved successful. And what aired on the second night of “Gulliver’s Travels”? A teaser for “The Beast.”

As for next season, some analysts say NBC has smooth sailing compared to the challenges facing the struggling CBS and ABC.

“None of the four major networks has as little work ahead of them for the new season as does NBC,” said media buyer Paul Schulman, president of the Paul Schulman Co. The network has so many established shows that “there aren’t that many open time slots.”

Still, NBC executives say their focus will be on establishing a third night of comedy--Monday, Wednesday or Sunday. One experiment toward that end will happen this evening when NBC revamps its Sunday schedule and tries out new episodes of “3rd Rock,” “NewsRadio,” “Mad About You,” a repeat of “Frasier” and the drama “Law & Order.”

“We really have to focus on Saturday,” Ohlmeyer added, “where all the networks stink. Mondays, we will have to do some adjusting at 8 p.m. Wednesdays at 8 we have to address. But other than that, we could go with the same schedule next year that we have right now.”

Still, Schulman noted: “NBC has to be careful. This is a cyclical business, and the people on the bottom take the biggest risks. You could see CBS or ABC coming on like gangbusters next season, spending a lot of money and taking a lot of chances. It could turn around just like that.”