Fulfilling Television’s Uplifting Potential

Is television inspiring you?

TV producer Ted Steinberg was attending a program-buying convention recently when he witnessed a sales presentation for a proposed syndicated series called “Caught.” The concept had private investigators bringing along TV cameras as they stalked and barged in on philanderers cheating on their spouses.

“You had to see the pride of the people pitching it,” Steinberg said. “And the buyers seemed to be liking it.”

Steinberg was appalled, meaning he is out of step with the peepster frenzy sweeping much of television. “Way out of step,” he said. “I still think a show can succeed by trying to elevate people.”

Get outta here.

Steinberg has extended his cutting-edge hypothesis to “Seize Your Day,” his own proposed half-hour series featuring big achievers and dynamic motivators who he believes will uplift and inspire viewers instead of enticing them with cheap titillation.

It remains to be seen whether anyone is wise enough to grant “Seize the Day” the air time it deserves. Steinberg’s pilot reel profiles University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt, for example, and features comments from such motivation rockets as Zig Ziglar, who could sell bark to a tree.

On the screen, the twangy Ziglar is repeating a favorite story about a ticket agent at an airport telling him his flight to Dallas had been canceled.

“I said, ‘Fantastic!’ ” The ticket agent regarded him suspiciously. “I said, ‘Ma’am, there are only three reasons on earth why anybody would cancel a flight to Dallas, Texas.’ I said, ‘No. 1, somethin’ must be wrong with the airplane. Or No. 2, somethin’ must be wrong with the person gonna fly that airplane. Or No. 3, somethin’ must be wrong with that weather up there that the person’s gonna be flyin’ that airplane in. Now if either one of those situations exists, I don’t wanna be up there. I wanna be right . . . down . . . there.’ ”

Unknown is how fantastic Ziglar felt after waiting hours in the airport for the next flight to Big D. In any case, positivism is, indeed, in short supply on TV. “There has to be someplace on television where you can cultivate higher human possibilities,” said Steinberg, whose wife, Ellen Brown, is director for Jay Leno’s late-night show on NBC.

There’s a strong link here to the positive tone of a pair of unevenly distinguished series that are on the air, the new weekly “Courage” on the Fox Family Channel and “Influences” on Bravo.

Hosted by co-executive producer Danny Glover, each hourlong episode of “Courage” profiles ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. The strong emphasis is on physical courage, unfortunately, but coming later is a segment about a successful businessman who decided to publicize illiteracy by bravely acknowledging his inability to read. And another about the compassion of a couple who donated their 7-year-old son’s organs to Italians in need after he was killed in a drive-by shooting when the family was vacationing in Italy.

“Courage” premieres tonight, though, with a moving story about 11-year-old Rudy Garcia becoming a long-distance runner and championship swimmer despite artificial limbs. His legs were amputated below the thigh due to a rare disease.

When Rudy declares, “I’m just unstoppable,” you believe him.

Equally affecting is the second segment, about Al Rascon, who performed heroically as an 18-year-old Army medic when his platoon was ambushed in Vietnam in 1966. Only last February, though, was he awarded the Medal of Honor for his amazing bravery under fire.

Less successful are the last two segments, one on the valiant action of a boy after an air crash and the other about a 66-year-old crossing guard who sacrificed her own body to save two children from an oncoming car. The latter is marred by repeated unlabeled reenactments of the incident from several angles--as if gore were the point of the piece--just as the segment on Garcia is weakened when unlabeled reenactments of his Vietnam firefight are mingled with actual combat footage.

Speaking of that war, the host of the just-premiered “Influences” is Alan Alda, who rose to superstardom as wisecracking Hawkeye Pierce in “MASH,” that wonderful CBS comedy within a tragedy whose Korean setting was a stand-in for Vietnam.

Produced in conjunction with the Museum of Television & Radio, “Influences” has prominent television folk declaring who and what had the greatest impact on them, with Ted Danson mentioning Dick Van Dyke, for example, and Tracey Ullman citing Lily Tomlin, Gilda Radner and Imogene Coca.

Sunday’s episode features versatile “3rd Rock From the Sun” star John Lithgow (citing Sid Caesar among others) and writer Larry Gelbart, still funny after all these years, recalling his formative period on “The Red Buttons Show” and “Caesar’s Hour” in the 1950s.

At its best, the series is a homage to good TV, at its worst a tribute that’s thin.

These influences, obviously, contrast with those of “Seize the Day,” where the high-achieving, high-emoting Summitt exhorts her players (“You deserve the championship, go get it!”) and stresses taking control of one’s life. By the time she’s through, you’re halfway off your chair and ready to run onto the court.

After trying to sell “Seize the Day” for years, Steinberg recently signed a distribution deal with American Public Television and is now seeking underwriters to fund the series. There’s been resistance. “Some people see it as an infomercial, and they think it’s hucksterism,” said Steinberg. “Some people see it as televangelism, which doesn’t have a good image in the mind of the entertainment-buying community. And some people see it as new age.”

None of which it is. “I just believe there’s a hunger in all of us for those qualities that make us become more fulfilled human beings,” said Steinberg. And his show is just the ticket? “Yes,” he said.

Fantastic!

Howard Rosenberg’s column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He can be contacted at howard.rosenberg@latimes.com.

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“Courage” airs Monday nights at 9 on Fox Family Channel. The network has rated it TV-PG.

* “Influences” airs Sunday nights at 8:30 on Bravo. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).