On View : ABC’s Winning ‘Coach’

“Coach” didn’t seem to have much going for it three years ago. ABC didn’t want Craig T. Nelson to star in the sitcom. And the network was contemplating changing the title to draw more female viewers.

Then, when the series premiered in the spring of 1989, it received poor ratings.

But ABC did something networks don’t usually do. It allowed “Coach” creator and executive producer Barry Kemp to stick to his original plan and to keep the series in production.

The result: a show on the brink of cancellation has become a certified hit. At last look, “Coach” was eighth in the season-long ratings race. Last season, it was the top-rated show among viewers in the 18 to 49 age bracket.

“Coach” is guaranteed to have at least two more seasons of original episodes and is selling well enough in syndication, beginning in the fall of 1993, that its reruns figure to air well into the next century.

After an absence of four weeks (while Linda Lavin’s new sitcom “Room for Two” tried out in its times lot), “Coach” returns this week to the network’s Tuesday night lineup.

Speaking of time slot: Some of the credit for “Coach’s” success, must go to its lead-in, the top-rated “Roseanne.” But not every series that follows a mega-hit can hold onto the huge audience. “Coach’s” predecessor, “Chicken Soup,” was canceled after it ratings showed that millions of viewers tuned off ABC after “Roseanne.”

The show’s star acknowledges that following “Roseanne” brings “Coach” viewers, but Nelson says the time slot has cost the show respect.

“I think this show has been taken for granted,” Nelson said during a break in rehearsal recently. “But then again, so what. I gave up a long time ago (caring) about that. I wish that people saw the show and gave us a break. Amen and on to bigger and better things.”

Other factors Nelson points to for the ratings jump is that viewers have grown increasingly fond of Hayden Fox (Nelson’s character), while the writers and cast (Jerry Van Dyke, Shelley Fabares, Clare Carey and Bill Fagerbakke) have all improved.

“This show took a very long time to develop, not only in terms of an audience, but in our understanding of it,” Nelson said. “It was a very long time for me in developing what an audience would find lovable or acceptable, where (Fox) stood on issues, how he related to his players. What was his attitude? Was he a roughneck? Was he totally gruff? Did he have no intelligence?

“It was a mixture of a lot of different things. When we were finally able to do a show about a gay football player, Hayden’s reactions were understood by the audience and I didn’t have to do much at all because the character was understood. It made the show better.”

Kemp created the series out of his own interest “in a male character who is ambitious and had begun to question whether or not his priorities were straight.”

The character became a coach, Kemp said, because coaches tend to be “by design fairly obsessive” and have had a “higher profile” on sports telecasts in the past decade.

Another element Kemp wanted to explore was the fish-bowl type of existence of a coach in a small Midwestern town where the college, in many cases, was the only game in the state.

As a graduate of the University of Iowa, Kemp is personally familiar with that environment.

“Coach’s” exteriors were shot on that campus. But any similarity between Hawkeye football, Coach Hayden Fry and Hayden Fox “is purely coincidental,” Nelson said.

Kemp came up with the character’s last name first and then added Hayden because, “I really liked the rhythm of the name.”

Kemp recalled the modest beginnings of the series.

Because women are more likely to watch situation comedies than men, ABC feared the series would be hurt because female viewers would shun a series called “Coach.” At the same time, the network thought men would not tune in because it was a comedy, Kemp said.

“While I agreed with all of that, upon seeing the show, it’s really impossible to imagine it being called anything but ‘Coach,’ ” Kemp said. “I felt if we could get enough word of mouth we could overcome that initial stigma.”

Other proposed titles were “My Dad the Coach” and “The Fox.”

ABC had questioned casting Nelson because most of his work had been in dramas (“Poltergeist,” “Call to Glory,” “Action Jackson”) .

Nelson didn’t do his own cause any good by giving what he called an “absolutely unfunny” reading for ABC executives. But because Kemp wanted him, he got the role.

“Coach” went into production in the summer of 1988 and was projected as a replacement series for that fall. It didn’t make its debut until Feb. 28, 1989.

“It was exactly the opposite of what we wanted to do,” Kemp said. “It’s hard enough to get people to watch a show called ‘Coach,’ much less have it be a football show that takes place in the spring. People are ready for spring training and want to talk about baseball. We thought we were dead coming out.”

Neither the ratings nor reviews were favorable; ABC did not include “Coach” on its 1989-90 fall schedule. But it rejoined the lineup after “Chicken Soup’s” quick demise.

In “Coach’s” case, familiarity has bred success rather than contempt, according to Nelson.

“Once people got into what he was about and what the show was about, it became more accessible,” Nelson said.

“Coach” airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on ABC.