Major Networks Not Jumping at Olympic-Themed Projects

“Feet of Gold: The Michael Johnson Story.”

“Kerri Strug: Vault of Victory.”

“Jumping for Glory: The Saga of Carl Lewis.”

“Dan.”

These imaginary titles and others are glimmers in the eyes of producers who want to make TV movies surrounding the triumphs and stories of athletes in the just-completed Olympic Games.

But despite the immense interest in the Games, the rush of appearances on talk shows by many of the medalists and the buzz about endorsement deals, viewers should not be holding their breath for any dramatic renderings of the Games any time soon.

Executives at the four major networks are giving low scores to the possibility of any Olympic movie-of-the-week popping up on the air any time soon.

NBC, the network that won ratings gold with its coverage of the Atlanta action, has been particularly flooded with inquiries from Olympic-minded movie-makers and agents.

“We’ve been pitched everything from [gold medal gymnast] Kerri Strug to [decathlon gold medalist] Dan O’Brien,” said Lindy DeKoven, senior vice president of miniseries and motion pictures for television for NBC Entertainment. “Most of them have been human-interest stories, the inspiring triumphant stories. But we’ve said no to all of them”--including at least one inquiry about the Olympic bombing.

Executives at ABC, CBS and Fox said they also had no interest in Olympic-themed movies.

The opposition to post-Olympic films is in sharp contrast to a rush in 1994 by Fox, ABC and NBC to produce movies based on the rivalry between skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan following the Winter Olympics. Producers were hungry to capitalize quickly on the exploits of Harding, who pleaded guilty to hindering the prosecution of the attack on Kerrigan, while the saga was still on the front pages of tabloids.

Only NBC’s “Tonya and Nancy: The Inside Story” made it to the airwaves in April 1994, and it received a freezing reception from viewers. ABC’s project on Kerrigan fell through after she made unflattering remarks about Disney World during a parade where she was honored.

Since then, only a few Olympic-themed movies have been produced. One was this year’s CBS movie “A Brother’s Promise: The Dan Jansen Story,” about the speedskater who won a gold medal at 1994’s Winter Olympics.

DeKoven said NBC’s reluctance to commission Olympic movies was not due to the low ratings of “Tonya and Nancy.”

“Our sports department did a terrific job in presenting these stories during the Olympics,” she said. “They told the beginning, the middle and the end, and told it live. I don’t know how I could top that.”

DeKoven added that the athletes are currently so much in the public eye that by the time a TV movie was produced, interest would have waned.

Several producers said they were not surprised that Olympic fever was not spreading among the networks.

“Nobody will remember anything about the Olympics four weeks from now,” said writer-producer Michael O’Hara (“Switched at Birth,” “She Said No”). “Plus, unless you have a really compelling story, it just isn’t going to work. Yes, Kerri Strug, who vaulted with that bad ankle, was a dramatic moment, but there had better be a lot more to her story than that. You need a real hook, and so many of these have been done.”

Said producer Tom Settle, who worked on ABC’s aborted Kerrigan story: “I just didn’t see anything that was really compelling about these Olympics. Maybe Dan O’Brien, but I don’t think there’s enough there.”