Gay Group Backs NBC in Episode Flap : Entertainment: The network says its main concern about the ‘Quantum Leap’ show was the script’s negative image of a homosexual.

A gay activist group said Tuesday that it supports NBC’s decision to withhold licensing fees from producers of an upcoming episode of the TV series “Quantum Leap” dealing with a homosexual student contemplating suicide.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation initially criticized NBC based on reports last week that the network wanted the producers, Universal Television, to bear financial responsibility for any advertiser pullouts from the controversial show. Other critics said such a move would amount to “economic censorship.”

But on Tuesday, the organization issued a statement saying that NBC had persuaded it that its actual concern had not been sponsor defections but script problems.

Moreover, Richard Jennings, executive director of GLAAD’s Los Angeles chapter, said he read drafts of the script and found its portrayal of a gay ex-cadet to be “negative and unbalanced.”

“NBC’s real and, in GLAAD’s view, legitimate concern was that NBC was unwilling to pay production costs for a script that was rejected by NBC’s Broadcast Standards Department,” the group said in its statement.

NBC spokeswoman Sue Binford said Tuesday that that has been the network’s contention all along.

At a meeting last week between the producers and network officials, “there was some discussion about potential advertiser concerns,” she said, but “we never asked Universal to pay for advertiser fallout.”

Universal began pre-production of the episode before NBC had signed off on the script, Binford said. When NBC got a look at the story and had qualms, “we told them, ‘Go ahead and shoot it, but we’re not paying for it,’ ” she said.

Universal and NBC are working to “fine-tune” the script so it can be accepted for air, at which time the producers would collect their fee, Binford said. She declined to say whether the network might ask the producers to accept liability for sponsor defections in the future, calling that “speculative.”

Donald Bellisario, executive producer of “Quantum Leap,” said last week that NBC executives asked him what could be done “to reduce the liability” from possible sponsor defections, but they did not seek direct compensation. A senior NBC executive who asked not to be identified said the possibility was raised that Universal might buy time on the show to advertise one of its future film releases to compensate for possible ad defections.

Bellisario could not be reached for comment Tuesday.