OK, Here Are Her Terms . . .

Every network was salivating at the chance to land a series starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the “Seinfeld” alum who many in television feel is the most likely to succeed in her own sitcom.

They were salivating, at least, until the script by Louis-Dreyfus’ husband, writer-producer Brad Hall, showed up, featuring an unusual format and attached to a list of demands the couple was making in terms of their creative freedom pertaining to the show.

The couple and their representatives sent the current script out on Jan. 29 to the four major networks and the pay-cable channel HBO, imposing a three-day window for bidding on the show, sources said. However, that Feb. 1 deadline passed without a deal. One network reportedly said it was interested in Louis-Dreyfus but not in the script presented, which irked Hall.

The pursuit of the Louis-Dreyfus project, which is still in progress and will probably be resolved early next week, underscores the delicate guessing game networks face in the hunt for marquee talent.

Most programmers, who are in the midst of buying up pilots for the fall 2001 television season, declined to speak on the record. But the consensus of those polled is that the series--which would feature Louis-Dreyfus as a Los Angeles lounge singer and would take place in “real time”--represented a problematic vehicle for the actress, who ended her run on “Seinfeld” in 1998.

What Hall and Louis-Dreyfus are proposing, in fact, has more in common with how series are run at the pay-cable channel HBO, whose genre-busting programs--including the Mafia drama “The Sopranos” and “Seinfeld” co-creator Larry David’s improvised comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm”--have put increased pressure on the broadcast networks to be different.

13 Episodes, Commercial-Free

To that end, Louis-Dreyfus has indicated that she is only interested in doing 13 episodes a season--about half the amount of episodes that are normally produced on a network--and she and Hall would like the episodes to run free of commercials. Hall and Louis-Dreyfus also want to place a strict limit on the number of network and studio executives who can communicate input on the show, sources say--a stipulation many TV writer-producers would no doubt crave but one that nevertheless suggests the rarefied air with which the show is being shopped.

Before committing to the script by her husband, whose highest-profile credit was creating and producing the 1995-97 NBC series “The Single Guy,” Louis-Dreyfus had met with networks about returning to series television.

“They want to buy Elaine, but she’s never going to be Elaine again,” said Bryan Lourd, managing director and a partner in Creative Artists Agency, which represents Louis-Dreyfus, referring to her “Seinfeld” character.

By comparison, Lourd said, the Hall script is “risky, and that’s scary for them.”

Some network sources were less complimentary about the script but beyond that harbored misgivings about the inordinate creative latitude being sought.

Despite those concerns--as well as the failure of another “Seinfeld” co-star, Michael Richards, in his sitcom comeback on NBC this season--executives are hard-pressed to turn their backs on a personality associated with such an overwhelming hit.

Judy Hofflund, Louis-Dreyfus’ manager, termed the stipulation about limiting executive interference part of “casual conversations that we’ve had” with interested parties. She also insisted reaction to the script was not as negative as some executives have suggested.

“Frankly, more people liked it than didn’t like it,” she said.

NBC and CBS remain seriously interested, Hofflund said, which she sees as an indication of the demand for her client, particularly since what Louis-Dreyfus and Hall are proposing represents a creative departure for network television.

“We thought this probably would be a cable show,” she said. “The fact that the networks are this interested is great.”

In the pilot script, according to those who have read it, Louis-Dreyfus is on her way out to a cabaret engagement, but in the “real time” of the narrative viewers would instead see what occurs in the 23 minutes that elapse as she leaves her apartment and heads to the club. Subsequent episodes would also play in real time, though Louis-Dreyfus’ role as a lounge singer would not be the central focus of the show.

The Louis-Dreyfus project has no studio attached. The negotiations are being handled by CAA and Hall’s agents at the Endeavor Agency.

One network executive pointed out the demands are also onerous to any production company that becomes involved, because producing only 13 episodes a season means it would take nearly twice as long to reach the 100 episodes generally needed to cash in selling the reruns to local TV stations.

Since “The Single Guy,” Hall has developed several concepts, but none has seen the light of day, despite a deal with CBS that gave the network first look at his next show and a fruitless multimillion-dollar deal with Big Ticket Television to develop new series. Hall and Louis-Dreyfus previously worked together when the two were cast members in the early 1980s on “Saturday Night Live.”

Alexander Also Has a Project

The negotiations over the current project come as the third “Seinfeld” co-star, Jason Alexander, is shopping his own project, one that would cast him as a motivational speaker. That project is being produced by 20th Century Fox Television.

In May 1997, the three “Seinfeld” co-stars--asking for $1 million per episode each--settled on a two-year contract that paid them an estimated $600,000 per episode, or more than $13 million a season. However, the second year of that payday failed to materialize when the program’s star, Jerry Seinfeld, decided to call it quits.