Snooping Around in Other People’s Lives

The task at hand, here at Lucky Duck Productions, is choosing a properly stirring musical conclusion for a Lifetime “Intimate Portrait,” this one recounting the many trials and triumphs of newswoman Connie Chung.

Perhaps flute arpeggios? “Schlocky,” decrees editor Lisa Shreve. Swelling strings? Producer Lori Savitch feigns snoring. They agree on a sprightly piano, to be played over the final montage of Connie covering campaigns, Connie at the anchor desk, Connie strolling hand-in-hand with husband Maury Povich.

Another Lucky Duck team is out shooting an “Intimate Portrait” that profiles actress Mary Steenburgen; a third has started interviewing historians about Helen Keller.

“They’re so popular,” marvels Lucky Duck Chief Executive Linda Ellerbee of the biography shows that are cable’s current mania. “People watch and go, ‘That’s sort of like my life.’ Or, ‘That’s nothing like my life.’ ”

Either way, business is booming: Lifetime has commissioned 52 new “Intimate Portrait” shows this year. By summer, it will be possible to spend most of prime time watching biographies.

At 8 p.m. six nights a week, “The E! True Hollywood Story” offers dishy accounts of celebrity adventures and misadventures, from Robert Downey Jr.’s to Rock Hudson’s. At 9 there’s the progenitor of the craze, A&E;’s respectable “Biography,” which began as a weekly series and is now a daily staple, having profiled 700 people from Julius Caesar to Sid Caesar.

That creates a tough choice because, at 9 nightly, VH1 runs its rock ‘n’ roll confessional “Behind the Music,” when you can hear how the outrageous Motley Crue lads had trouble with drugs. And how Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had trouble with drugs. And how Boy George had trouble with drugs.

Afterward, depending on the day of the week, there’s “Intimate Portrait” on Lifetime. Or MTV’s “BIORhythm.” Or ESPN’s “Fifty Greatest Athletes.” E! has two other bio shows, “Celebrity Profile” and “Mysteries & Scandals,” and Bravo’s got “Bravo Profiles.”

At A&E;, which can take the credit or the blame for this outbreak, programming chief Michael Cascio likes to quote comedian Fred Allen: “Imitation is the sincerest form of television.”

Not that you could mistake “Biography,” with its diligent tone and eclectic range of subjects, for E!’s lurid “Mysteries & Scandals.” Each bio series cultivates an attitude calculated to appeal to its niche audience.

What most of these shows share is the nearly irresistible combination of high ratings and low costs. “Behind the Music” has been VH1’s most watched scheduled offering since its 1997 debut. “Biography” is by far A&E;’s most popular prime-time show. E!’s prime-time ratings have jumped 51% on the nights it runs bios. The Nielsen ratings remain puny by broadcast standards but are cause for rejoicing at cable networks.

These shows can be assembled from free or relatively inexpensive archival footage and photos, bolstered with a couple of one-camera interviews. “If you’re talking a half-hour episode, you’re talking $50,000 or $40,000, maybe even $30,000,” says Ed Papazian of Media Dynamics, a New York publishing and consulting company. Even big spender A&E; is known to allocate in the neighborhood of $160,000 for an hourlong “Biography.”

That’s a bargain compared with a half-hour sitcom or hourlong drama. And the shows typically have numerous “encore presentations.” “On a broadcast network, that’s called a rerun,” says A&E;’s Cascio. “On cable, it’s another viewing opportunity.”

The biggest cost is the right to use copyrighted material. News footage is in the public domain, but other charges add up: $7,000 for a minute-long film clip, $50 for an old studio photo, $1,000 for a Richard Avedon portrait, $8,000 to $12,000 for a minute of tape from the Carson-era “Tonight Show.”

But an “authorized” biography that enlists its subject’s cooperation, like “Behind the Music” or “Intimate Portrait,” can glean many visuals for free from a subject’s home movies and family albums.

Costs Can Determine Who Is Profiled

How much impact such considerations--the cost factors, the authorization issue--have on the quality and credibility of the bios is a subject their own creators debate. Some shows take a warts-and-all view of their subjects; others are syrupy.

And these considerations may also determine who is profiled. Take the problem of securing certain rights: Lucky Duck would love to produce an “Intimate Portrait” of opera’s Beverly Sills, but “we’d have to pay every musician onstage with her while she was singing,” Ellerbee laments. Other legal barriers have eliminated such candidates as Anne Frank, while women with less lofty achievements--Cindy Crawford, Andie MacDowell--receive “Intimate Portrait” homage.

Lifetime and VH1 both decline to pursue any (living) subject who doesn’t cooperate by granting an interview, encouraging friends and associates to do likewise and providing background material.

Each Network Aims for Its Niche Audience

It’s a trade-off that assures a more personal perspective, says Jeff Gaspin, creator of “Behind the Music.” Gaspin doesn’t think his show’s cooperation ethos undermines its willingness to let chips fall, partly because the musicians it profiles are fairly shameless sorts. “It’s rare that things are off limits,” he says.

Artists don’t get to approve the final show, VH1 says. Still, when singer Chaka Khan felt “uncomfortable after the fact” and asked to have sections of her interview omitted, Gaspin says, the episode was shelved.

Lifetime acknowledges that its “Intimate Portraits” are by design as inspirational as informational.

At A&E;, such shows are politely dismissed as some other form of programming. “They’re more like these interesting, spill-your-guts, autobiographical, authorized things,” Cascio says. A&E; proceeds whether a subject likes the idea or not. “ ‘Biography’ is not autobiography,” Cascio says.

Viewers seem to like what they see: A&E; is producing at least 140 “Biography” episodes this year and has spun off home videocassettes, a monthly magazine, books and calendars. VH1 will produce 50 “Behind the Music” shows this year and E! a total of 151 bios.

“It’ll only fade if people’s fascination with other people fades,” Cascio predicts. “And there’s no sign of that any time soon.”