Producers Will Air Views on TV Ratings Proposals

Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, and the committee that will create the first TV-ratings system will meet today in Los Angeles with the group that will be most directly affected by ratings: the producers of individual TV series.

Marcy Carsey, one of the executive producers of “Roseanne” and “Grace Under Fire,” and Steven Bochco, co-creator of “NYPD Blue” and “Murder One,” are among those who will attend the meeting. Bochco has expressed opposition to ratings, which many producers fear will hurt creative expression and stigmatize adult dramas among advertisers.

“This meeting will be the producers’ opportunity to vent,” said one network executive involved in the ratings effort.

Valenti--who is spearheading the creation of a TV-ratings system based on the familiar MPAA ratings for theatrical films--has said that the ratings will be determined by the TV networks, syndicators and others who distribute the programming.

But, in interviews before the meeting, several producers told The Times they intend to seek a role for producers in rating their shows.

“We are going to insist on a role for producers in ratings,” said David Levy, executive director of the Caucus of Producers, Writers and Directors, which represents many behind-the-scenes talents. “The producer, with input from the writer, should work with the network to come up with an appropriate rating.”

In an interview this weekend, Valenti said he was not opposed to this idea. “Producers ought to have some say in how the ratings are done,” Valenti said.

Several producers have been unhappy with their exclusion so far from the TV-ratings process. The entertainment industry’s opposition to the telecommunications bill that called for TV ratings was led by Washington lobbyists. And there were no producers among the 30 movie-studio chiefs, network presidents and others at the Feb. 29 White House summit where the industry promised President Clinton that it would devise a TV-ratings system by 1997.

“This was all about politics--nobody who actually creates TV shows was represented,” Dick Wolf, executive producer of NBC’s “Law & Order,” said.

“This is not some secret society that’s going to create ratings,” Valenti said. “We started off with the networks and the movie studios, but we want to hear what the producers have to say about how we can create a ratings system. That’s why we’re having this meeting.”

Several prominent producers--including “Picket Fences” creator David E. Kelley and “Designing Women” creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason--declined the invitation to today’s meeting. Representatives for Kelley and Bloodworth-Thomason said Friday that both were unable to attend because they were shooting pilots for shows for the fall season.