Having a Devil of a Time

Lying, cheating, cleavage, cat fights and sexual blackmail have always worked better for Aaron Spelling than sweetness and love. Case in point: “7th Heaven.”

The weekly series on the fledgling WB network about a minister, his homemaking wife and their five children is one of the loveliest, most moral shows on the air. It’s also one of the least watched, ranking 160th out of 168 prime-time network series in the season that ended last May.

WB renewed it anyway, and Spelling, the man who will be forever remembered for “Charlie’s Angels,” “Dynasty” and “Melrose Place,” ranks this ratings-straggler as one of the most satisfying projects he’s ever produced, right up there with his acclaimed movie about AIDS, “And the Band Played On.”

“Before our kids were born, I guess I didn’t feel any responsibility about what our shows were saying,” said Spelling, whose youngest child is now old enough to vote. “I did a show called ‘SWAT’--hell, probably the most violent show on television. It never occurred to me that I shouldn’t be doing that. A show like ‘7th Heaven,’ there’s no way I can tell you my feelings because it’ll sound so corny.”

Which in a way is what Brenda Hampton was going for in creating the series.

“I wanted to do a show like the shows I loved growing up, like ‘Leave It to Beaver’ and ‘Donna Reed’ and ‘Father Knows Best,’ ” said Hampton, a former sitcom writer for “Mad About You” and “Blossom,” who runs the day-to-day production of “7th Heaven.”

“I loved those shows. So I pitched a functional family. I just wanted to do something totally opposite of what was on, with a family that gets along. Not for any particular marketplace . . . just to do a 1950s kind of morality play with a sense of humor.”

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Hampton insists she isn’t out to preach anything political, social or religious. Though Stephen Collins plays a loquacious minister, the show rarely mentions God or any sort of religious dogma other than omnia vincit amor (love conquers all). Just telling family stories--about teenagers kissing, about the death of a grandmother, about a mother freaking out at her elderly father bringing his new girlfriend over for a visit, about the busy parents trying to find a spontaneous moment for romance--is enough for her and her colleagues.

“It does sound, when you describe the show, awfully kind of sickly sweet and saccharine,” Collins said. “And we do have those moments, but there is something about the tone of the show--and maybe it’s because Brenda was a comedy writer first--that surprises people. There is constant humor and irony in these characters that undercut some of the gooey moments, and I think people find--even when they say, ‘Oh, that sounds so Pollyanna, I can’t watch something like that’--that the show is really fulfilling.”

Not that anyone is watching, at least by traditional network standards. Airing Mondays at 8 p.m., the show averaged 3.18 million viewers a week in its first season, which ended last May. Since then--without the competition of “Monday Night Football” or Spelling’s own “Melrose Place,” which is on hiatus for the summer--repeats of the show have improved but still rank at the low end of the Nielsen charts.

“Oh, sure, it was frustrating when my mom would call and say, ‘Your show is at the bottom again. You better not buy that new car,’ ” said Catherine Hicks, who plays Collins’ wife. “But we are doing better, moving up a slot here and there, and that makes me less depressed.”

Indeed, everything is relative at WB. The network’s affiliated stations cover just 86% of the country, according to programming chief Garth Ancier, and many of those stations are relatively young UHF outlets with little tradition of attracting large numbers of viewers.

So instead of measuring its shows against NBC or Fox nationally, WB examines most carefully how they perform in large markets like Los Angeles and New York, where it airs on strong VHF stations. And those figures are more encouraging.

In Los Angeles, for example, “7th Heaven” has come in second in its time period in recent weeks, beating several of the larger networks. And among teenagers, the show frequently finishes first.

“I’m a total optimist and understand that the WB is a small network, and so the only way we can go is up,” said Beverley Mitchell, 16, who plays 13-year-old Lucy. “But I look at the tons of letters I get from kids who see me as some kind of role model and how happy they are, because TV so often shows just the bad in people, the violence. And here we’re not killing people; we’re showing that there is good and caring in people too, and I get letters from adults saying that they are so happy that finally there is a show for their kids to watch, that they don’t have to restrict them from.”

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Despite the positive letters, commendations from parent groups and the vote of confidence from WB executives, Spelling remains puzzled and bothered by the show’s low ratings.

“It does hurt a little that you do a show this good--this funny and moving both--and the numbers are low,” he said. “I wish there was an appetite out there for more wholesome TV shows. I’d like to do them. But our show ‘Family’ never got a big rating. It was kept on the air because of the awards that it won and the recognition we got for doing a family show.

“I don’t know,” Spelling mused. “ ‘Touched by an Angel’ is getting a big rating for CBS, but that is really a fantasy show. ‘Second Noah’ was nice; they didn’t watch that. ‘Dangerous Minds,’ about a teacher helping kids in a high school, they didn’t watch that. And as proud as I am for some of the issues we tackled on ‘90210,’ I don’t think that is the reason it gets its ratings.’ ”

The “7th Heaven” cast includes two gorgeous teenagers in Barry Watson and Jessica Biel, who are hot stuff to many avid teen fans, and Ancier admits that, given the teen-heavy demographic makeup of his network generally, he would like the show to focus more heavily on the kids, whose faces could easily be marketed on bedroom wall posters.

But both Spelling and Hampton insist that the show won’t pander to the hormonal cravings of teenage viewers.

“I think we already have a good teenage audience,” Spelling said. “I think we have to get the mothers and fathers and older people to watch the show and not the kids who are there already, and you do that by having strong parents who have their own lives and relationship and with stories about the little kids too.”

* “7th Heaven” airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on WB (Channel 5).