ABC THANKS NEBRASKA, THE LAND OF ‘AMERIKA’

LINCOLN, Neb. —  Normally, the most important envoy ABC sends here is Keith Jackson.

But Brandon Stoddard himself led a delegation of emissaries to Lincoln on Monday. Stoddard, president of ABC Entertainment, journeyed to Middle America for the world premiere of “Amerika,” the network’s much-discussed miniseries.

The boys from Capital Cities were in Nebraska’s Capital City to show the first four hours of the 14 1/2-hour miniseries, half of which was filmed in Nebraska. The show, which involves a Soviet takeover of this country 10 years from now, will air Feb. 15-22. It stars Kris Kristofferson, Robert Urich, Christine Lahti and Cindy Pickett.

None of the stars traveled to Lincoln for the premiere. The show was, however, represented by Donald Wrye, its writer, director and executive producer.

The people of Nebraska didn’t seem upset by the absence of Kristofferson, Urich or even Mary Hart. They were quite content with Wrye, who signed his autograph many times throughout the day.

The purpose of the world premiere, Wrye said at a press conference, was to “show some kind of expression of gratitude to the people of Nebraska.” The event was also designed to serve as part of the show’s publicity buildup.

“Amerika” was screened twice Monday at Lincoln’s Stuart Theater--once for residents of Tecumseh, the small town that served as the show’s primary Nebraska location, and later for other Nebraskans.

All seemed quite impressed with the $35-million miniseries: ABC’s “The Day After” might have obliterated Lawrence, Kan., but “Amerika” is a hit in Lincoln.

The people of Tecumseh turned out in full force for the event. “Boy, if they wanted to take over Johnson County, this’d be the day to do it,” noted one onlooker.

Tecumseh Mayor Lavern Bartels said that “Amerika” has been “fantastic” for the people of Tecumseh. The series, he said, gave many residents of the agricultural community some “much-needed cash.”

Bartels also enjoyed more personal benefits. The mayor, who works as a carpenter, spent five months working on set construction.

At a ceremony between screenings, Bartels thanked Wrye for bringing some excitement to his town of 1,900. “The city of Tecumseh sometimes has a shortage of entertainment, being a small town,” he said. “This was one thing that really livened the town up. We really had some entertainment.”

At the ceremony, Wrye received a variety of mementos and invitations to return from Gov. Bob Kerrey, Bartels and Lincoln Mayor Roland Luedtke. Wrye was similarly honored by Luedtke last May, after local filming had been completed.

By the end of February, Wrye probably will have been called everything from a dangerous reactionary to a puppet of Moscow. But in Lincoln, he’s honorary mayor.

Representatives of Nebraskans for Peace handed out leaflets at Monday’s screenings and members of the Lincoln-based Youth for Nuclear Freeze held placards and lit candles. But other than that, ABC’s takeover of the city was peaceful.

The premiere did attract a host of reporters, whose eagerness to record the small-town viewpoint seemed to alarm the people of Tecumseh. “Entertainment Tonight,” USA Today and People magazine were among those represented. Also on hand was a reporter from Novosti, a Soviet press agency.

At the press conference, Wrye and Stoddard discussed the criticism that the series has received from both the left and the right. Both men maintained that “Amerika” is a 14 1/2-hour lesson in democracy and civic responsibility. The series, Wrye says, “only indirectly has anything to do with the Soviets.”

Stoddard, who maintained that he has “no expectations about what the ratings would be on this at all,” said the network doesn’t expect “Amerika” to provide a miracle cure for its weak prime-time ratings.

“To get out of the ratings problem that we’re in, ‘Amerika’s’ not the answer,” he said. “Getting successful series on the air is the answer to that. The reason for ‘Amerika’ is because we believe very strongly in the idea of this show, that we thought it was provocative and interesting and different and fresh and all those kinds of words that one can rarely say about anything in television.”

Discussing the United Nations’ concerns about how it is depicted in the film, Stoddard emphasized that the miniseries is fiction. “I didn’t see too many Russian tanks out at the airport when we came in, and I don’t think we’ll see them when we leave,” he said.

He also talked about the attention that’s been devoted to the show, which seems already to have been featured in every American magazine. Well, almost every magazine. “I saw a Popular Mechanics the other day, and it had no mention of the film at all,” Stoddard said, smiling.

Newsweek, however, hasn’t joined Popular Mechanics in boycotting “Amerika.” The magazine recently reported that the miniseries is filled with “Nazi-bondage porn,” an assertion that Wrye and Stoddard both aggressively denied.

“The (film) editors are very upset because none of them has gotten to cut the Nazi porn,” Wrye said.

“They keep looking,” Stoddard said.

Stoddard and Wrye admitted that, because of the nature of the program, they had expected “Amerika” to generate controversy. “I didn’t think it was going to go exactly like ‘Me and the Chimp,’ ” Stoddard said. “But I certainly didn’t think, on the other side, that it was going to get as heated as it did.”

Both men were pleased with Nebraska’s contributions to “Amerika.” The faces of the state’s people and the land itself, Wrye said, give the film “a kind of strength and credibility it otherwise might not have had.”

“It would have been hard to shoot this in Malibu,” Stoddard said.

The “Amerika” screenings were held at the same theater that hosted the premiere of “Terms of Endearment” in 1983. Much of that film was also shot in Lincoln, which has since established its own film and television commission in hopes of attracting additional productions.

The city apparently didn’t suitably impress Shirley MacLaine, or maybe it just wasn’t existential enough to lure her back for “Out on a Limb,” her two-part, autobiographical miniseries that will air on ABC Jan. 18-19. Kerrey’s experience was more memorable: The governor, who leaves office this week, had a lengthy relationship with Debra Winger, only to see it end shortly before the actress married Timothy Hutton.

Kerrey touched on that turn of events when he presented Wrye with a certificate Monday, awarding him an admiralty in Nebraska’s mythical Navy. “On one other occasion I presented an admiralship to someone in the entertainment industry,” Kerrey said. “Donald, I hope this one doesn’t end the way the last one did.”

The “Amerika” premiere was, fortunately, held after the conclusion of the University of Nebraska football season. Had ABC officials heard the sound of 76,000 people chanting “Go Big Red” in the nearby football stadium, they might have wondered what kind of fervor they’d created.