Network Shake-Up Sends Pilot Picture Into a Spin

On Monday, Susan Lyne attended a rehearsal for “News to Me,” a sitcom pilot loosely based on the life and work of Time magazine writer Joel Stein. Lyne, president of ABC Entertainment, made some suggestions after the actors read the script aloud. Lyne and the attendees did not discuss the management turmoil roiling the network for the last two weeks.

Twenty-four hours later, Lyne was out of a job at Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC. And just as suddenly, the producers who make ABC’s shows were adjusting to yet another shake-up at the struggling network.

Although the reshuffle brought a range of reactions in Hollywood, several producers of new pilots were struck mostly by the timing: In less than a month, ABC will unveil its fall schedule for advertisers in New York. Producers who expected Lyne to decide the fate of their pilots will deal instead with her successor, Touchstone Television President Stephen McPherson.

“It’s an odd time as the town is preparing to deliver 30 pilots to ABC,” one producer said. “I’m sure it has everyone a little flipped out.”

Some question how much the moves will affect programming at ABC, which under Lyne and her former boss, ABC Entertainment Television Group Chairman Lloyd Braun, has struggled to rekindle the network’s successes of the 1970s and 1980s as a purveyor of suburban, middle-of-the-road fare such as “Happy Days,” “Fantasy Island” and “Home Improvement.”

It was unclear whether McPherson would continue that strategy. He was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Several agents and rival executives said ABC was unlikely to undergo fundamental change as long as Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner and his longtime lieutenant, Robert Iger, were still pulling the strings at the Burbank-based entertainment giant. One significant factor: McPherson and other executives in key posts under the new structure all come from other jobs within Disney.

“I find it odd at this moment of crisis that they’re not casting a wider net looking for replacements” for Lyne and Braun, one studio chief said.

The producer of one ABC pilot said the writer-producers who oversee shows have seldom known what to expect from the network’s leadership in recent years, so the latest executive shuffle does not necessarily mean more anxiety in the short term. Producers said they were often told that Eisner made all final decisions, which rendered moot whatever opinion Braun or Lyne may have expressed.

“Do the guys who develop the shows get to pick the shows?” said Jay Sures, a partner and TV literary agent at United Talent Agency. “That’s the $100-million question.”

Spring always tends to be a nervous time for producers and studios with shows in contention for the networks’ fall lineups. Executives at all six broadcast networks are making their final decisions on which of the nearly 100 pilots to pick up. Those decisions will be announced when each network presents its lineup next month, with the new programs turning up as early as August.

Against that backdrop, the ABC upheaval looms as just another big unknown.

“The job of any executive producer is to make the best pilot you can and not worry about the rest,” said Greg Berlanti, creator of “Everwood” on the WB.

He’s hoping that ABC next month will pick up “Kat+1,” a one-hour series.

“Every pilot is always a longshot,” Berlanti said. “In television, the odds are never in your favor. So you control the things you can control. A great show always finds its way on the air.”