How to Build a Better Lineup

ABC has spent years hunting for a family comedy series that could serve as a companion to its long-running hit “Home Improvement.”

Such a program does appear to exist, but unfortunately, it’s “Everybody Loves Raymond,” which airs on CBS.

Network executives, who have already begun the process of generating new series candidates for next season, invariably talk about developing shows compatible with their existing hits. When CBS ruled Saturday nights in the 1970s, there was a certain cohesiveness to “All in the Family,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Bob Newhart Show,” just as the network enjoyed a decade later with “Dallas” and “Falcon Crest.”

Programmers often struggle to find such combinations. Fox followed “The Simpsons” with a number of short-lived programs before finally striking pay dirt with “King of the Hill.” Along the same lines, NBC has been mostly frustrated in its efforts to come up with shows to put on after “Friends” and “Seinfeld”--a challenge that’s taken on greater urgency now that the latter will end its run this season.

But why go to the trouble and expense of creating such programs, when it would make so much more sense to trade for them?

Sports franchises, after all, trade players all the time seeking to improve their respective lineups. So why shouldn’t television networks engineer trades that would be to everyone’s advantage?

Such a practice would clearly benefit the major networks--who continue losing audience to cable, the Internet and other time-consuming alternatives--as well as those programs that might reach a larger audience on a different network.

Most importantly, such shuffling would be a boon to viewers, who might no longer have to endure the half-hour bathroom/write checks/put-the-kids-to-bed breaks provided by the substandard new series they frequently find sandwiched between their favorites.

As an example of how the system might work, ABC could swap for “Everybody Loves Raymond” by giving CBS the Dan Aykroyd sitcom “Soul Man” (adding to its angelic arsenal, which already features “Touched by an Angel”), “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and perhaps a sitcom to be named later.

In similar fashion, Fox--having floundered trying to uncover a series to go with “The X-Files” or “Millennium”--might save itself further aggravation by trading for the WB network’s “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,” featuring a lissome teenager who battles against the forces of darkness.

As television’s equivalent of an expansion team, the WB might be inclined to part with “Buffy” in exchange for a proven veteran, such as one of Fox’s teen-oriented dramas, “Party of Five” or “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Either would provide a fine companion to nurture WB’s coming-of-age series “Dawson’s Creek,” which premieres Jan. 20.

WB’s family drama “7th Heaven,” about a minister and his brood, might also be attractive to CBS in light of that network’s success with “Touched by an Angel.” CBS, in fact, could put together an all-religion night, tossing in “Soul Man” and UPN’s “Good News.”

UPN could even help out top-rated NBC with “Star Trek: Voyager,” a perfect addition to its Saturday night “thrillogy” of escapist and fantasy series. NBC would probably part willingly with Jenny McCarthy’s show and two or three other undistinguished sitcoms, allowing hit-starved UPN to establish its own night of “Maybe-See TV.”

More elaborate negotiations could assemble a night of dramas from producer David E. Kelley, with ABC’s “The Practice,” Fox’s “Ally McBeal” and CBS’ “Chicago Hope” on one network or another. For that matter, the detectives on ABC’s “NYPD Blue” and NBC’s “Homicide: Life on the Street” would make a smashing team, perhaps paired with the uniformed cops of CBS’ “Brooklyn South.”

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Given that the networks remain in heated competition, mixing and matching shows may sound far-fetched; however, it’s actually happened to a degree over the last few seasons by virtue of castaways the networks have picked up from each other.

NBC landed ABC’s “The Naked Truth” largely because the network felt its leggy star, Tea Leoni, fit in with its “Must-See TV” profile. UPN nabbed ABC’s “Clueless” to go with its own teen comedy “Moesha,” while ABC snatched up NBC’s “Something So Right” in pursuit of that ever-elusive family sitcom hit. CBS even gave a home to “Unsolved Mysteries” after NBC decided the show had one foot in the grave.

Since a series moving from one network to another has invariably failed in the ratings already, such transplants rarely take hold--one reason the networks prefer to develop home-grown hits.

Still, the networks are too desperate at this point to turn up their noses at any potential audience-grabber, and for a variety of reasons the right show occasionally gets developed for the wrong network, where the program lacks a natural home.

Critically acclaimed failures such as ABC’s “My So-Called Life” and NBC’s “I’ll Fly Away” might have had a better chance on Fox and CBS, respectively, where they would have more closely fit the network’s audience profile. The same could be said of “American Gothic,” a macabre CBS drama of a few seasons ago that belonged more on a network associated with “The X-Files” than “Murder, She Wrote.”

In the case of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” the series is produced by David Letterman’s production company, which has ties to CBS through his late-night talk show. While CBS is understandably proud of the show, which has performed adequately behind “Cosby,” its ratings potential would clearly expand after “Home Improvement”--a show in desperate need of a strong sitcom to go with it.

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Making trades surely would be risky. Someone always gets the better of the deal. Still, the chance of landing someone’s promising laggard would seem to be worth it, rather than squandering millions of dollars creating new shows only to cancel them a few weeks later.

Viewers, of course, can always take matters into their own hands by taping programs and watching them when they wish--in a sense, setting their own network schedule. In a few years, the audience may be able to order programs whenever they want, rendering this whole issue moot.

As of right now, however, many VCRs still have a clock blinking “12:00 a.m.” in the corner, and people are getting tired of watching god-awful programs just because they happen to air between two they want to watch. With that in mind, the network gamblers should roll the dice, shuffle their respective decks and let the chips fall where they may.