NBC Outlines Disturbing Trends in Network Finances : Television: The recession hit the Big Three early. ‘Dynasty’ mentality a thing of the past, says a producer.

It should come as no surprise that these are not experimental times for TV. Even President Bush now concedes that there is a recession going on in some parts of the country.

So the nation’s television critics, gathered for their semiannual tryst with the networks this week in Marina del Rey, appeared unfazed that a recession in programming appears to have hit that part of the country known as Hollywood.

Stars may still have arrived in limousines and lunches were still catered at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where the winter press tours are being staged by the networks, but economic hard times seemed to be reflected--both creatively and in terms of production values--in upcoming prime-time schedules.

Less expensive reality-based programming, such as NBC’s weekly investigative series “Expose” and Fox’s camera-on-campus series “The Last Hurrah,” will be joining retreads that include NBC’s “Dark Shadows” on prime time. Fox’s newest sitcom, “Top of the Heap,” will feature a blue-collar father and son who try scheming their way into the upper middle class. Their economic status will be much the same as their spin-off neighbors, Al and Peg Bundy, who have weathered economic hard times for several successful seasons, even when there was no recession.

And NBC’s miniseries “Changes” will be operating with a recessionary spin. Cheryl Ladd, who will star as a love-struck broadcast journalist in the latest from romance novelist Danielle Steele, told critics during a question-and-answer session on Saturday that she’ll act in blue jeans rather than Chanel suits as a recession concession.

Steele herself urged NBC to take heed that harder times are here by having the Ladd character live in a borrowed beach house rather than a Malibu home that the character owned, “Changes” producer Douglas S. Cramer said.

“I think they want to see there’s a better life out there, but it doesn’t have to be a home in Bel Air and a Rolls Royce,” said Cramer.

Best known for producing “The Love Boat” and “Dynasty,” Cramer said the miniseries would be shot entirely in Los Angeles, rather than New York and Aspen, where much of the Steele novel takes place. This is due in part to a tighter production budget.

Declaring an end to the “Dynasty” mentality on TV, he said, “John (Forsythe) and Joan (Collins) are out of the mansion and the Reagans are out of the White House.”

Ironically, Cramer confirmed that he is currently negotiating with ABC to shoot a finale for “Dynasty” to probably air early next year, with most of the regular cast returning.

NBC also announced that it will introduce a new dramatic series this spring about four rival siblings tentatively titled “Sisters.”

The top-rated network did not devote all of its screenings and interview sessions to the usual star turns, however. In what may have been yet another reflection of tougher times, NBC executives used the press tour as an opportunity to lobby TV critics on the network’s hope of toppling the Federal Communications Commission’s tough 20-year-old financial-interest-and-syndication, or “fin-syn,” rule.

Pleading a fiscal squeeze brought on by declining audiences and advertising revenues, the Big Three networks have complained that the fin-syn rule is driving them to the poorhouse while enriching the Hollywood studio system. The rule forbids networks from sharing in the profits from off-network syndication of their programs--often the most lucrative phase of a series’ video life.

NBC Enterprises President John Agoglia and NBC General Counsel Richard Cotton argued that a total of 52 independent production companies supplied the networks with 61% of their programming in 1970. Today, the total number of independents is down to 11, and 72% of network programming now emanates from the eight Hollywood studios, not from independent companies.

The networks’ share of advertising revenue has also declined and will continue to shrink from its present 35% share (the rest goes to stations and cable operations) to only 31% by 1995, according to NBC’s projections.

And, in an appeal to jingoism, NBC’s executives pointed out that four of the seven largest Hollywood studios are now owned by foreign companies. Unlike those studios, which can produce and sell programs anywhere, the three networks are forbidden under fin-syn to compete.

“Given today’s global economy and the growing importance of U.S. communications and entertainment exports, it makes no sense to keep 20-year-old rules which deprive three logical U.S. competitors of a level playing field both at home and abroad,” said the official NBC position paper.

NBC finishes its presentation at the critics’ press tour Monday with ABC’s and CBS’ still to come later this week.