THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250038
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
DATELINE: PASADENA, CALIF. LENGTH: 99 lines
THE BIG NEWS at CBS isn't that Lily Tomlin is joining the ``Murphy Brown'' cast as Candice Bergen's new boss. Nor is it that David Letterman has signed to do the ``Late Show'' through 2002.
Nor is it that Larry Hagman will star in the ``Dallas'' reunion, ``J.R. Returns,'' and a midseason drama called ``Orleans.''
The big news at CBS is that a CBS megastar, Bill Cosby, is clashing with a famous CBS producer, Steven Bochco, about the raunchy dialogue in Bochco's new sitcom, ``Public Morals.''
Cosby hates it.
He said so when he appeared before the nation's TV writers here earlier this week to talk up his new sitcom in which he again co-stars with Phylicia Rashad. Cosby questioned the maturity of writers and producers who go for a laugh by using gutter slang.
``I've always had a problem with that,'' said Cosby.
Bochco and co-executive producer Jay Tarses have delivered to CBS a pilot episode of ``Public Morals'' in which female undercover officers show plenty of cleavage. The word ``whore'' is tossed about 14 times, a female officer is referred to as a dike and vice cops use a slang phrase (``p---y posse'') that has offended some affiliate station managers.
``I don't understand how nine people who call themselves writers can sit around in a room all day and come up with an adolescent phrase such as `p---y posse' and think it's funny. That is no punch line,'' said Cosby.
On his old NBC show, when Cosby and Rashad were the upscale Huxtables, Cosby chewed out writers who wanted to use the phrase ``kick butt'' in a script.
Work clean has always been Cosby's advice to young comedians.
As the CBS schedule would have it during the Television Critics Association press tour, Bochco and Tarses appeared not long after the casual Cosby (straw hat, T-shirt, shorts and tongs) left the stage.
Tarses immediately set the record straight.
Nine people did not produce the pilot script for ``Public Morals,'' which is about life among the members of a vice squad who work in New York City. Tarses alone did the script.
He put the strong language in not for shock value.
``The words are there to enhance the scenes,'' Tarses said.
As for Cosby objecting to the dialogue of ``Public Morals,'' Bochco commented, ``We don't think the dialogue is particularly shocking. It's the language of the profession we are depicting. I consider the language of `NYPD Blue' to be a thousand times more shocking.
``Bill Cosby has done well what he does on television. I've done well with what I do. I've made a career of swimming upstream. There's plenty of room for both of us on the television landscape.''
On ``Cosby,'' the lead character is Hilton Lucas, 60, who was among 10,000 employees whose jobs were cut by an airline. That gives him plenty of time to hang around the house and drive his wife, Ruth, crazy.
The Huxtables are gone, replaced by blue-collar Hilton and Ruth in a bargain-basement wardrobe. Gone, too, is the Huxtables' fancy Brooklyn brownstone. The Lucases' digs look like Roseanne was the interior decorator.
How goes the reunion of Cosby and Rashad? It's not a slam-bam breakthrough sitcom that I want to rave about, but you get vintage Cosby, which should be enough to keep the show afloat.
CBS says it is committed to two full seasons of ``Cosby.'' But if the show that leads off the Monday schedule at 8 fades and flops, you can bet ``Cosby'' won't be around for 44 weeks.
Moonves indicated that Cosby's contract has a trap door in it - an escape clause. Contract or no contract, if the show tanks, Cosby says he won't hang around and accept blame for the collapse of the CBS Monday night schedule.
There will be plenty of blame to go around. ``Cosby'' has seven executive producers.
In contrast to Cosby's high-profile timeslot, ``Public Morals'' is tucked in at 9:30 on Wednesday night, where it will face a pretty good new NBC sitcom, ``Men Behaving Badly.''
Will the CBS bosses order the raw language purged from ``Public Morals''?
Peter Lund, president and chief executive officer of CBS, and CBS Entertainment president Les Moonves said they have some reservations about the script, but didn't say if they will ask that it be revised.
``We stand behind the show, but the dialogue is of concern,'' said Moonves.
Bochco, when he launched ``NYPD Blue'' on ABC three seasons ago, faced a similar outrage from affiliates and the conservative-minded, such as Cosby. The difference here is that Bochco is defending a sitcom that isn't worth defending.
``NYPD Blue'' is breakthrough drama, a show of high quality. ``Public Morals'' is a mess - a failed attempt to bring ``Barney Miller'' into the 1990s, a station-house comedy with characters you wouldn't want to spend two minutes with, much less a half-hour.
``It's a family show,'' joked Tarses. ``If your family includes tranvestites, pimps and hookers.''
Is that what you want to see on broadcast TV, Hampton Roads?
Even Tarses and Bochco admitted that they saw things in the pilot episode which did not please them. ``We'll make some adjustments,'' said Bochco.
Does that mean the rough language will go? ``We don't have to make that decision today.''
You get the feeling while listening to Bochco that he will go to the mat with CBS to keep the street talk in. You'll have to wait until the fall to see who wins this verbal wrestling match.
``Public Morals'' isn't worth the fuss. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
AP
Bill Cosby wants sitcom dialogue cleaned up. by CNB