Friday, December 14, 1984

FRED ROTHENBERG

New York NY -- BY FRED ROTHENBERG NEW YORK PERHAPS nothing symbolizes ABC's lost season more than Bill Cosby. The comedian has been a Pied Piper, attracting kids and their parents to NBC.

Executives at ABC must be kicking themselves; they had a crack at The Cosby Show and turned it down.

Of course, hindsight is 20-20 and every network makes mistakes, but third-rated ABC is suffering in prime time because of poor planning, an over-reliance on producer Aaron Spelling and misjudging the strength of its new series and the Summer Olympics as a promotional vehicle.

NBC's improved position has come mostly at ABC's expense. With shows such as Cosby, NBC has pre-empted ABC as the favored network with young viewers.

When the Cosby deal was still tentative at NBC, the show's producers approached ABC. Now ABC is frantically searching for mid- season hits and has ordered a realistic black- family comedy of its own, Full House.

Actually, ABC's series have been declining for several years. ''Formula shows, no matter what they are, will run out of steam,'' said Bob Igiel, executive vice-president of the NW Ayer ad agency.

But in the past, ABC had blockbusters to boost the ratings, such as 18 hours of The Winds of War, or the Thorn Birds mini-series, or a major film, such as The Day After.

ABC had nothing of that magnitude this fall. ''There was no logical reason why the mini-series weren't ready,'' said Igiel. ''They felt the Olympics would carry them, but they were wrong.'' Marvin Mord, ABC's vice-president for marketing and research, said the Olympics came too early to benefit ABC's new programs. He said ABC would rebound early next year with the mini-series, Hollywood Wives and Lace II, and the Super Bowl, a guaranteed ratings bonanza that will be used to promote the network's replacement shows, including whatever series is introduced in the enviable timeslot following the game. Two years ago, NBC's post-Super Bowl program was The A-Team. ''ABC's program strategy for the fall was to go heavy on action- adventure because that was hot last year,'' said Rich MacDonald, a broadcast analyst for the First Boston Corp. ''I think ABC has relied too much on reactive programming,'' said Michael Zinberg, an independent producer. ''They got too comfortable.'' The first program cancelled this season was People Do the Craziest Things, ABC's clone of NBC's Bloopers and Practical Jokes. None of ABC's eight new shows are successful.

Of ABC's 22 prime-time hours, seven are from exclusive supplier Spelling's sugar-coated program factory: The Love Boat, the high- rated Dynasty and Hotel, T. J. Hooker, Matt Houston, and the low-rated new shows, Glitter and Finder of Lost Loves.

ABC's commitment to Spelling for series and favored time slots effectively freezes out new blood. ''What Spelling does, he does better than anybody. His shows get watched,'' said Zinberg. ''But ABC does have a lot of it on the air, and the odds are that many producers with 9 or 10 o'clock shows might not go to ABC first because of its relationship with Mr. Spelling.'' Some producers have criticized ABC for arrogance and tampering. The failure of the now-cancelled Jessie, which went through several producers, is a lesson in how not to create a show.

Jessie was supposed to be a cerebral series about a police psychiatrist (Lindsay Wagner). ABC felt the show lacked excitement, so the network demanded one action sequence per quarter-hour, changing the series' tone in midstream.

Lew Erlicht, president of ABC Entertainment, also wanted Wagner to have a more glamorous look and not wear sexless, high- necked outfits. ''Burn the Nehru outfit,'' he is reported to have told the producers.

Some Wall Street analysts have lowered their forecasts for ABC's 1985 earnings, but television is more than just prime time. ''I'm confident that ABC is doing well with Good Morning America, the evening news and daytime, even with its recent slippage (in daytime),'' said MacDonald. ''To some extent, prime time is a limited problem. But they've got to turn it around. You could say I'm real concerned, but not hysterical.'' - AP