Talking Heads: A Triptych of Network Chiefs on Thrust, Appeal, Consensus, Risks, Holes, Fun, Meaning and . . .

Fred Pierce

This is the golden age of television. For the creative person the world is his oyster. There are no bounds of time; there are no bounds of physical presentation. During the '50s, Playhouse 90 was on every week, and the image of that stands out in everybody's mind. There were great things done then, but there are also enormously great things done now. Television is much better now than it was in the '50s. It's a healthier medium.

I grew up with television, and my family grew up with television. I've been at ABC for 22 years, so I've been training in the bullpen. I came up through all the areas for like 17 or 18 years, and I've come through every part of ABC. I knew all the players, I knew how things worked, I knew how things could get done, and I had an appreciation and a respect for the medium and what it can do and should do. I had a respect for the viewer. Basically ABC has been my occupation in my adult life. When I took my job 4 1/2 years ago, I had the backing of top management, and even when times weren't good, we were doing the necessary development and investment spending. We operated out of a coordinated organizational thrust, and, very frankly, we just took the fear out of decision making and did what we thought was right. We planned what we were going to do. I think it is very important that we have a consistency in our management, a consistency in our attitude, a consistency in our programming and a consistency in our scheduling.

We planned what kinds of programs we were going to put on and the amount of lead time we were going to allow to develop things of broader significance. We began several innovations: we created a whole new form of novel for television that broke the traditional time barrier, things you can't do in theater or in motion pictures. QB VII was the first major novel. It ran seven or eight hours. It's interesting to watch how we have moved into areas of social significance. There is a television movie coming up called The Cracker Factory; it is a story about a person who goes through a breakdown. And one called Child Stealing, which is about couples getting divorced and stealing the children from their mates.

Nothing is very precise in this business, but I think we've directed the center of our shows attitudinally at a younger marketplace. Younger is a very broad definition, by the way. We try to direct the main thrust to adults who are under a certain age bracket. But we also want to interrelate characters within those shows that appeal to segments on both ends. If you want to have a program, for example, whose heartbeat is to teenagers and adults under 50, you try to have elements within those shows that appeal to under-teenagers and people over 50 at the same time. So you cover the spectrum. It's a very subtle but significant thing in terms of broadening your audience base.

A lot of the shows we have on encourage family viewing together. What we have tried to do, particularly in the initial hour of the evening, is to put on shows that encourage people to sit down and watch with their kids and have a dialogue. Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley really reinforce certain things within a family as they watch together. One of the most pleasing things is that not only is Mork & Mindy an enormous success, but that the social comment and the moral point made at the end of that show every week are just overwhelming. It is a message about our society. The last time I happened to watch it, it was about Mork's own emotions coming out and how he felt freed.

The focus, unfortunately, is always on the rating battle and on what are the top ten shows. I mean, it's like a crime if you're not in the top ten these days, which is mind boggling. You can have a show that reaches 14 million or 15 million households, and it may be ranked in the top 40. Somehow or other, it's written up as a potential miss, which is something I find rather extraordinary. But television is like a lightning rod; I don't think it's any more competitive than it's been. It just may appear that way outwardly.sb

William Paley

What you try to reach for in television is that show that will play to all audiences, and once in a while you hit it. All in the Family was one. We all appreciate that the younger audience has almost complete control of the set, and since you want to get the set on and tuned to your station, you make a special effort to get shows on in the early evening that appeal to a younger audience.

There's sort of a feeling now that the younger generation--and I'm talking about the very young--is almost irresponsible in the way it looks upon life. I don't say it is irresponsible, but it looks irresponsible to those of us who are older. People like myself have to keep their mouths shut when they see certain things that represent what the much younger generation wants. But, in this business at least, one always has to remember that he's not scheduling a network to please himself. He has to know his own limitations as well as his strengths.

When another network has got that younger audience, you say to yourself: "Well, now, there are a lot of adults around who don't like this, and if we get all of them, we'll have a hell of an audience. So let's put in something that's completely contrary." We did that with 60 Minutes, which is on from 7 to 8 o'clock Sunday night. If there's ever an hour for children, that's it. But by God, our strategy worked! We tried the same thing with Paper Chase, and it didn't work, or hasn't worked yet.

If you take one trend that has gone faster than anything else in the past ten years or so, it's the emphasis on reality, and I think that came about because of the success of All in the Family. We put that show on with great reservations. We thought we'd be in deep trouble, not only because of objections to that kind of show but because [we feared] it just wouldn't develop a large audience. We were wrong on both counts, thank God.

When we were programming, we always had what we called this "goal for consensus," and I used to encourage everybody to talk out. There was a free-for-all. I think maybe my voice was a little stronger than other voices--it had greater authority--and to some extent I did dominate the discussions. I do less of that now. It is time now for other people to start taking responsibility, so I will hold back more than I used to. I don't know who the next fellow with the loudest voice is going to be, but they're around. It takes a person a little time before he has the courage not only to speak up, but also to be wrong. If you're not prepared to be wrong from time to time, you're not going to be a great programmer, because that means you're not prepared to take risks. And you have to take risks if you want newer and more exciting things.

I don't like all CBS's shows, but I watch them all. You're always looking for ways whereby a show can be improved, and I'm fairly good at that. I can see holes that sometimes other people don't see. The details are terribly important, terribly important. I might get excited about the way a person is dressed, or a character who is emphasizing one particular thing too much, or getting laughs just for the sake of getting laughs and not advancing the story line. A lot of people will do anything just to get a laugh. But that laugh can have a very bad effect on everything else in the program.

Shows have got a life like everything else. We've had shows that were so popular you would have thought they'd be on for 50 years. But they die out, little by little. You can almost smell it happening. We're looking for that in [ABC's shows], but they were smart enough to produce a lot of things while they were so successful. Which is where we'll be again, I think, next fall. That's when the real battle is going to begin.

Starting this month we will have pilots to look at for the 1979-80 season, and we will put our schedule to bed in April. Those are the anxious days. Those are the days we sit around, and we look and look and look, and discuss and discuss and discuss, and weed and weed and weed. Suddenly a lot of things disappear, and there are certain ones left. It's just sort of magical. Putting together a schedule is the greatest fun in the world. sb

Fred Silverman

In a very short period of time the television business turned upside down. All of a sudden an upstart network dominated prime time, and there was a shattering effect on the business. Five or ten years ago, there were only 2 1/2 networks, and there used to be jokes about ABC. Now ABC is very much a factor. The moment they upset that balance it was an entirely different situation. CBS had enjoyed a leadership position for 20 years. They were just not accustomed to being second to anyone. And NBC, which for years was content with being a good solid second, all of a sudden was in third place.

Now I think it's old news that ABC is No. 1. I look at things from a historical perspective. There's an inevitability that just the way it came up, that network is going to go down. It may be this year. It may be next year, but it's going to happen. Now I believe it's going to be our turn. The trick will be making the right moves. To me the biggest challenge of the first year at NBC is to make sure the top management represents the absolute cream in the broadcast business. Without it I just can't succeed.

A good executive starts out with a point of view, and in the next few years, I would like NBC to be perceived as the best network and the most successful network. Notice that I didn't say No. 1. I said the best and most successful. Because if you're the best and most successful, you are automatically No. 1. And I don't mean the best just in prime time, but the best news operation, the best sports operation, and the best radio and television stations. We'd like to do more in public affairs than anybody else.

In the meantime, you have to keep the ship afloat. You have to get on the air every day. You have to think about today while you're making plans for next year and the year after that. But you hope that everything you do on a day-to-day basis brings you closer to the long-term goal. I can guarantee that the schedule we'll announce for the fall will be much different from the schedule we've announced at midseason. There will be more time to work on the material, and it will fit much more closely into the long term.

I have a very simple point of view about prime-time television. We should have a schedule that consists primarily of weekly television series, and we should do as much as we can not to disrupt this schedule. My feeling is that there's a place for special programming. But if you're going to schedule special programs, they've got to meet one of two criteria: number one, they have to be important enough to do better in circulation than the shows you're preempting; number two is that they should really be good shows. If you're going to put a special on the air, put one on that has some meaning. I don't care what ABC does [during the sweeps]. If they want to stunt themselves to death, fine. We are just not going to be a party to that.

ABC is vulnerable everywhere in the long run. History will repeat itself. The one problem they've always had is that they don't know when to move on to something new. If 77 Sunset Strip works, do five other shows like it. They kill off the whole cycle. My belief is that when people start to tire of these shows--as inevitably they will--it won't be one show, it will be the total schedule.

My feeling is that the print media has created a lot of the frenzy [over ratings] by overcovering them. When I see the New York Times print the top ten shows every week, I kind of chuckle. Right next to the list is [Critic] John O'Connor asking why can't we be more like the BBC and public television. I chuckle because I think it's very hypocritical. If they honestly stand by their television critic and want better shows, why are they on the very same page printing a list of the top ten? The problem is that we have to get back to the way the business used to be. The moment we start getting back, everybody is going to be a lot happier.

You have to learn to be very, very cool. You just can't lose sight of what it is you want to do. I liken it to being a prizefighter. You get knocked down, but at the count of eight you get up, and you go right in and start again. That's all you can do. sb

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