Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 11, 1994 TAG: 9411110024
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TOM SHALES NOTE: Part 1 of 2 parts
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
CBS is promising advertisers that the eight-hour miniseries will average a Nielsen rating of 24 over the four nights it airs, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. A rating that high would make ``Scarlett'' a blockbuster. By comparison, ABC's ``Home Improvement,'' the No. 1 primetime show on television, has averaged a 21.6 so far this season. ``60 Minutes,'' CBS's top-rated show, has averaged a 17.9.
Privately, CBS executives say that even if ``Scarlett'' averages a rating as low as 16, the network could still win the current November sweeps, one of the most competitively important ratings periods of the year. It bases its projection for a 24 rating on the 23.9 averaged by the Alex Haley miniseries ``Queen'' in February of 1993.
```Scarlett' comes in with a lot more presell than `Queen' did,'' says CBS executive vice president David F. Poltrack, ``so we're very optimistic.'' Poltrack predicts that if the miniseries does ``extremely well'' in the ratings, better even than projections, that will ``probably move us back into first place,'' ahead of current champ ABC.
It all depends on how curious viewers are about the further adventures of high-strung Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara and dashing rogue Rhett Butler, last seen going separate ways at the end of ``Gone with the Wind,'' one of the most successful and best-loved movies of all time.
You can't launch a big miniseries like this without a big party, and CBS threw its ``Scarlett'' bash at Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park. CBS Broadcast Group president Howard Stringer, the host, was ebullient, telling Timothy Dalton he was ``better than Clark Gable'' as Butler and predicting a smash hit for the network. Joanne Whalley-Kilmer plays Scarlett.
``I know how much you don't want to like it, but you will,'' Stringer told this innocent critic, who had yet to screen any of the episodes.
Nobody wanted to say how much it cost to produce the miniseries - probably between $15 million and $20 million. Executive producer Robert Halmi Sr. won't make his money back on the CBS telecast, but ``Scarlett'' will also be playing in other countries, where tales of American Southerners always seem to draw big crowds. Halmi's company co-produced the miniseries with German and Italian television. He said the Italians have an especially hot case of ``Scarlett'' fever.
No one at the party seemed eager to declare the book ``Scarlett,'' on which the miniseries is based, a masterpiece. The novel was written by Alexandra Ripley and published in 1991. Halmi paid $8 million for the rights to make the movie. ``I didn't buy the novel,'' Halmi said at the party. ``I bought the name `Scarlett.''' The miniseries uses parts of the book, discards others and adds new material, including a climactic murder trial in London.
Halmi, whose many previous TV productions include ``Gypsy'' with Bette Midler, obviously feels that ``Scarlett'' is a brand name with such a high profile that millions will tune in out of curiosity, anxious to know what happens to one of pop literature's all-time great characters. Frankly, my dears, they probably do give a damn.
As for CBS, while it is banking heavily on ``Scarlett'' to rescue it from what has so far been a crushingly disappointing season, CBS Entertainment president Peter Tortorici insisted at the party that CBS has planted many ``seeds'' in terms of new series and predicted a bumper crop of hits to come - or at least one or two. Even one would be an improvement.
And what happens if worse comes to worse, and the public doesn't care what happens to Scarlett O'Hara, and viewership is far below expected levels, and CBS ends up pie-eyed? Tomorrow, as someone once said, is another day.
MONDAY: ``SCARLETT'': IS IT WORTH THE TIME?
Washington Post Writers Group
by CNB