CBS Leans on Film Figures for Ratings

TV or not TV. . . .

COMING ATTRACTIONS: CBS is looking to film figures Spike Lee, Rob Reiner and Leslie Nielsen to enliven its summer prime-time lineup.

Lee’s film “Do the Right Thing” airs Saturday. Peter Tortorici, senior vice president of program planning for CBS, says that despite editing for language, “I think we’re giving a broader audience than ever before a chance to see the work of a very significant filmmaker.”

CBS, which has predicted that it will take the ratings crown away from NBC next season, is clearly looking for momentum for its new fall schedule. And it is depending on Nielsen’s 1982 “Police Squad!” series, which inspired “The Naked Gun” films and will be rerun starting July 24.

The same night, CBS also offers Reiner’s new “Morton & Hayes” series, about a fictional old comedy team. Reiner is the host.

CBS’ strategy is simple, says Tortorici: “Police Squad!” and “Morton & Hayes” are paired because they’re both “wacky. We get comedy on Wednesday for six straight weeks and make people realize CBS has comedy there. Then Redd Foxx comes in right there on Wednesdays in the fall with his new comedy, ‘The Royal Family.’ ”

As for “Do the Right Thing,” Tortorici says, “Spike used the language he used in the picture for a reason. But we’re not a cable service. Our affiliate stations are much more sensitive to community standards. But he was extremely cooperative.

“I watched the picture after it was cut. I wouldn’t have wanted to put it on the air if it wasn’t treated with respect. We could have said we didn’t want the picture, but we wanted to try to find a way to make it work on CBS. It’s a chance for people who don’t have VCRs or go to movies to see Spike’s unique vision.

“There are many different reasons why networks exist, and one of them is to present points of diversity.”

AT BAT: Pete Rose visits NBC’s “Real Life With Jane Pauley” Sunday and discusses his banishment from baseball and his gambling addiction.

Rose tells Pauley that he has his “gambling disorder” under control, “but there’s a possibility that it can come back, so I have to be on guard against that.” He adds, “If I’m looking for anything from people, it’s understanding.”

Best thing for the Pauley show is for the agreeable host to deal with more and more meaty subjects like this one to prove that she’s a prime-time heavyweight.

CLOUT: Just how potent was “Bonanza,” the NBC series that starred Michael Landon, who died last week? Well, the late President Lyndon B. Johnson respected its audience pull so much that he reportedly wouldn’t schedule a TV speech at the hour of the show, 9 p.m. Sundays, for fear of offending viewers--and voters.

TRIBUTE: Barbara Stanwyck, whose extraordinary career ranged from the films “Sorry, Wrong Number” and “Double Indemnity” to TV’s “The Big Valley” and “The Thorn Birds,” is the subject of an hour profile on TNT cable Monday at 5 and 8 p.m. Title: “Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire.” Fire is right--even at an advanced age, she put some pretty convincing moves on Richard Chamberlain in “The Thorn Birds.” She also loved doing Westerns.

DOUBLE FAULT: How come Dick Enberg’s post-Wimbledon wrap-up on NBC was less favorable to the emotional John McEnroe than to Jimmy Connors, who was virtually canonized even though he’s also had a tantrum or two in his time? Could it have been because Connors had just been sitting with Enberg, doing analysis for NBC? Nahhhh. Listen, nobody’s ever seen greater tennis than McEnroe battling Bjorn Borg.

HAIL AND FAREWELL: Guess ABC just wasn’t moved by the improved recent ratings of “China Beach” when it finally got a decent time slot on Tuesdays. More accurately, ABC obviously just didn’t want to be impressed and is letting a great series slip away. The two-hour finale airs July 22, and the word is that it’s terrific.

PROS: Listened to an audio tape of Ed Murrow’s World War II broadcasts while driving last weekend, and it made me realize, even more than before, just how brilliant CNN’s Peter Arnett was during the Gulf War. Murrow’s voice, prose and authority were unmatchable, but Arnett’s eye and ear for detail during the chaos of war have rarely been surpassed on the airwaves.

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: How clever of People magazine to name Frances Bergen, but not daughter Candice (“Murphy Brown”), as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world. Others on the list include Dana Delany of “China Beach” and Sherilyn Fenn, who played the languid temptress Audrey Horne in “Twin Peaks.” Someone should remake “Pandora’s Box” with Fenn in the Louise Brooks role of Lulu.

CENTRAL CASTING: For seven years, Ray Stricklyn has given an extraordinary one-man stage performance as Tennessee Williams in “Confessions of a Nightingale.” Now he’s joining “Days of Our Lives,” as of July 19, in a mysterious dual role. Steady work is nice, so “Nightingale” goes on the shelf--temporarily, Stricklyn assures us.

THIRD WORLD: The influx of Latinos into heavily black Compton is the subject Friday of “By the Year 2000” on KCET Channel 28. And on July 19, the same series examines the “changing ethnic diversity on college campuses,” noting: “In 1990, Anglos made up only 36% of the entering UCLA freshman class.”

THE PAYOFF: Emmy nominations are announced July 18. The Emmy Awards will be televised on Fox Aug. 25. And wouldn’t it be nice if Blair Brown finally got that prize as best actress in a comedy series for “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd”?

MARATHON: Of course you remember the science-fiction series “The Outer Limits” (1963-65). Well, so does TNT, and it’s running nine one-hour episodes of the series, back-to-back, July 27. Stars include Cliff Robertson, Robert Culp, William Shatner, Martin Landau, Bruce Dern and Warren Oates.

BEING THERE: “There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical.”--The Control Voice opening each episode of “The Outer Limits.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .