HOLLYWOOD MEGA-DEAL : What Price Glory? : Some Foresee Studio Woes if Leaders Move On

The expected seismic shift of MCA from the hands of a giant Japanese corporation to the hands of a giant Canadian one sent shock waves on Friday through the entertainment industry.

With so many questions still in the air about Seagram Co.’s planned purchase of an 80% stake in MCA from Matsushita Electric Industrial, there was mostly uncertainty over what the sale means. But the general consensus was that the immediate future will be hurt without the longtime MCA leadership team of Chairman Lew Wasserman and President Sidney Sheinberg.

“This isn’t the Montreal Expos (baseball team) getting rid of Ken Hill and Marquis Grissom,” said David Foster, who produced “The River Wild” for Universal Pictures last fall. “Wasserman and Sheinberg are the franchise.”

*

In a business built on relationships, what hangs in the balance for MCA is nothing less than a continued association with Steven Spielberg, who has produced his biggest hits for Sheinberg, his close friend and mentor.

“While I’ve been at Universal in the past three years, it’s been the Steven Spielberg company,” said David Burke, executive producer of NBC’s “seaQuest DSV,” produced by Universal Television and Spielberg’s Amblin Television. “The health and well being of that company seems to be connected to how involved Steven is and what he does there.”

Indeed, the two highest-grossing movies in history, “E.T.” and “Jurassic Park,” were directed by Spielberg for Universal Pictures, in addition to “Schindler’s List.” Universal Studios’ theme-park attractions are based on Spielberg films, including the upcoming, $80-million “Jurassic Park” ride. And in addition to “seaQuest,” Universal and Amblin produce “Earth 2,” NBC’s other big-budget, science-fiction series.

When Spielberg formed DreamWorks SKG last November with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, he initially wanted the new studio to distribute its product through MCA. According to one source, Spielberg sent a personal letter to Matsushita executives in Osaka late last year, expressing his interest in a MCA distribution deal, but only if Sheinberg and Wasserman were involved in the company.

“Obviously, everyone here has great respect and affection for Sid and Lew,” said Gary David Goldberg, who is the executive producing DreamWorks’ first project for the fall, an ABC series called “Champs,” starring Timothy Busfield. “If they remained, then MCA is a logical distribution outlet. If Sid and Lew are removed from the picture, then it just becomes another place where DreamWorks may or may not hook up.”

Spielberg would not comment, but sources say that Amblin, located on the Universal lot, has quietly ceased production on any new TV projects or films that weren’t already in development. All his future projects will be produced in conjunction with DreamWorks.

Sheinberg and Wasserman, whose contracts run out at the end of the year, were promised autonomy when they sold MCA to Matsushita for $6.6 billion in 1990. They have since had a public falling out with Matsushita over fiscal freedom and Japanese styles of management that prevented MCA from continued expansion.

*

“I feel very badly for Sid,” said one longtime Universal producer and a friend of both men. “Lew is in his 80s, but Sid spent all this time trying to become Lew, and now his company’s gone. I think he’s really freaked out and in a serious state of depression--because if he leaves MCA, what’s he going to do?”

On the television side, producers for the studio’s TV division reacted to the sale slightly differently. Several interviewed for this story said they had no interaction with the Japanese management and professed to knowing Sheinberg and Wasserman only in passing .

If anything, they believe a shake up in the TV divisions might be in order. Long before the Seagram deal, there have been rumblings among Universal Television producers, many of whom are unhappy with the way the division is being run.

“It’s an incredibly, poorly run division, probably the worst run division in town,” said one executive producer at Universal.

One producer said he has heard several of his peers talk of leaving the studio in the near future. Executive producer David Burke has already said that he won’t return if “seaQuest” is renewed. A published report Friday in the trade newspaper Variety suggesting that the TV division has lost its luster--and is losing money--prompted an angry response from Tom Thayer, president of Universal Television.

“To some extent, I think we’ve been an easy target at Universal because of our volume,” Thayer said. “We have produced an extraordinary volume of television, and people forget the business is cyclical.”

Dick Wolf is executive producer of three Universal Television series: NBC’s “Law & Order,” CBS’ “The Wright Verdicts” and Fox’s “New York Undercover.”

“I have no idea what (the sale) means,” Wolf said. “I can’t imagine that Seagram is buying MCA to dismantle it. I was here when Matsushita bought the place. I didn’t see any huge differences in the way it has been run since.

*

There were indications that business would continue as usual once everything dies down. John Landis produces several shows for Universal, including HBO’s “Dream On” and Fox’s new science-fiction series “Sliders.” He received a call Friday from Rod Perth, head of programming for USA Network, jointly owned by MCA and Paramount.

“He told me two things,” Landis said. “One, he picked up a show of mine for USA called ‘Campus Cop.’ Two, he said, ‘Have a Scotch on the rocks. You’re owned by a liquor company.’ ”

Freelance writer Richard Natale contributed to this article.