Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 13, 1994 TAG: 9405130073
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Amid the last crucial showdown of the 1993-94 season - the May rating sweeps - the networks are unveiling their prime-time schedules for next fall. It's quite a show, but don't stay tuned. It's a show you can't see. A show that isn't even on television.
The other networks will follow with similar pageantry in the next couple of weeks, but it was ABC that staged the season's first ``upfront'' shindig. Its audience was 2,500 or so of the network's closest friends from the advertising community. Its goal: To remind them that ABC is a great place to spend their ad dollars.
Where did ABC host its little show-and-tell? At the undisputed shrine of excellence and taste, Carnegie Hall.
This was the place where none other than Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky presided over opening ceremonies a century ago, when benefactor Andrew Carnegie deemed it a forum for ``aims that end not with the miserable self; here an idea may be promulgated which will affect the world.''
Since then, every wag has come to know how to get to Carnegie Hall (practice, practice, practice), and officiating Tuesday was the much-practiced Ted Harbert, president of ABC entertainment.
A handsome young man who could surely find success on a home shopping channel if his programming skills were to sour, Harbert was proud to give the crowd Margaret Cho, a young Korean-American comic who will star in a Wednesday night sitcom called ``All American Girl.''
``This is so exciting,'' she cracked. ``Carnegie Hall is so far from `Star Search.' ''
Granted, Harbert had played emcee on this same stage a year ago, introducing such ABC personalities as Paula Poundstone (whose comedy-variety show lasted two weeks) and what's-his-name, the rising star of this season's romantic drama ``Do the Strand,'' which was later renamed ``Moon Over Miami,'' and not much later vanished.
But who recalled those programming missteps in the presence of a booming, rousing video professing that this season ABC has ``entertained ... excited ... and informed more Americans than any other network'' (presumably more than even CBS, self-proclaimed as ``America's most-watched network'').
In any case, ABC had plenty to crow about. Of 11 new shows this season, a hefty four (``Lois & Clark,'' ``NYPD Blue,'' ``Grace Under Fire'' and ``Boy Meets World'') will return in the fall.Three-quarters of the schedule will remain intact, a feat ``unprecedented in the history of this network,'' Harbert said.
``In Los Angeles these days,'' he went on, indulging in a little earthquake humor, ``we don't like it too much when things move around. So we are keeping our schedule as stable as possible.''
This he would demonstrate, night by night, show by show, and personality by personality, with whom he engaged in genial if sometimes strained repartee.
He brought on Brett Butler (``Grace Under Fire'') and Edward Asner (``Thunder Alley'') and Ben Savage (``Boy Meets World''), all from successful sophomore shows on the fall lineup.
The hall yelped with approval at the sight of Dennis Franz, whose ``NYPD Blue'' a year ago was TV's most-talked-about show, sight unseen. After a much-praised and highly rated first season, it still is.
Harbert thanked those advertisers who had bucked pressure groups and bought time on the show. Then, he appealed to the remaining faint-of-heart.
``As we go into our second season,'' he said, ``I'm pleading with you to argue some more, to agonize some more, to find a way to participate in this, the rarest of television experiences.''
Later, a freshly bobbed Ellen DeGeneres, star of ``These Friends of Mine''-renamed-``Ellen,'' spoke on behalf of her own show.
``I cut my hair,'' the winsome comic acknowledged. ``I hope that's OK, that nobody's gonna pull out [their advertising].''
That wasn't the only talk about hair.
``John Stamos' hair says hello,'' reported Stamos' ``Full House'' co-star, terminally glib Bob Saget, who razzed Harbert by asking, ``How does your hair look so damn good all the time?''
And observing that ``Family Matters'' would be starting its sixth season, star Reginald VelJohnson marvelled how, when his sitcom began, ``My chest hairs weren't gray.''
Keep practicing.
by CNB