European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 17, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 18 the stars and stripes monday october 17, 1977 Jimmy new York the three buildings dedicated to the corporate Headquarters of the television networks stand along sixth Avenue two blocks apart and each appears different to the Eye Abc of Gray Concrete lbs of Black Glass and Abc of chocolate Glass. But they All stand on the same foundation thin air. Recently upon the Start of a Brilliant fall Day the first two buildings you looked at Abc and lbs appeared to be trembling. Upstairs somebody had just done a Nasty thing. They had delivered the copies of Broad casting Magazine whose cover line said Abc starts pulling away from which it was. After about a month of the new television season Abc had a five and a half Point Lead in the ratings Over Abc which was a 10th of a Point ahead of lbs. As far As the trailing corporate managements were concerned particularly at Abc if any of the people work ing at placing losing programs onto the air had even the least bit of True Honor they would now kill themselves. In business Power a rating Point is one step before nuclear. I never understood what rat Ings actually meant if Abc took a Point Lead i figured they kicked the extra Point. But yesterday my Friend Neil Faber of the Dellafemina Travisano advertising Agency explained it. A show like soap on Abc gets from $22,500 to $25,000 for 30 seconds he said. Now take a show a Point behind it. Take one Day at a time on lbs. That costs from $18,000 to $20,000 for 30 seconds. So add up All the 30-second spots for a whole year and one show makes a lot More Money than the other. Then you figure All the shows that Abc has on every night of the week seven nights a week for a whole year. You re dealing with millions for a the ratings Are put out by the Nielsen com Pany which places Black boxes on the television sets of 1,200 families around the country. Out of this tiny Sample is determined All of television its shows its Impact on the coun try. Nobody gainfully employed in television seems to question the Nielsen ratings today although More recent history in this country suggests that when you have this much Money and Power and such a few people involved there is a Clear Chance for larceny. If we caught a president stealing and lying who is to say that you can t put together a ring of people who sit in their living rooms and sell out we love Barney Miller but we can t watch him tonight. You see we re but the ratings Are All that anybody in Tele vision lives for so monday at Abc was a Day of shining Opportunity. At the other two places lbs and Abc contracting flu was a Fine move. At Abc for example there have been four program chiefs in the last fou years Mort Werner Marvin Antonowsky Irwin Segelstein and Paul Klein. Yesterday Abc was one tenth of a Point ahead of lbs. The Abc Man in charge of compiling All the rating figures could t be reached on the phone. The line was Busy All morning with people going Over things with him. It seems that another set of figures was to be up soon and if anything happened to the one tenth of a Point if Abc wound up last then you could bring the fire department training classes to hold Rescue drills and catch the falling Man out on the sidewalk. The Only reason they put on shows is for Money a Guy was explaining at lunch. The safest thing to do then is to put on a Lousy show. Why Gamble on something Lousy that has a better Chance to bring in All the Money so imagine How bad you feel when you deliberately pick a Lousy show and it still does t go the television season began in the first two weeks of september with the networks going for $8 million apiece on shows ranging from Abc s Washington behind closed doors to expensive movies and prizefight on the other two. It was an exhibition season at the end of which the ratings were Cloudy. Then the regular run of prime time shows began and Abc became the nation s chief purveyor of modern culture. When the first Flash from the people who handle figures came on a tuesday the people at Abc and lbs shuddered. By thursday of that week Robert Wussler the president of lbs was howling that Abc was cheating. They Are using junk Wussler said. This was like one bust out joint criticizing the other s whiskey. Wussler s complaint surprised most people in television. It was the first time anybody could recall anything like this happening name calling always has been considered bad for the game. Two blocks away Over Coffee a Guy at lbs was saying that his place was not As nervous As Abc. We be got a class act he said. Paley s a class Guy. Our problem is that Freddy Silverman at Abc has a stranglehold from 8 to 9 every night Kotter Happy Days Laverne and Shirley he gets All the kids. Now you re an hour into the night and by that time you re in a Jam. To get somebody to change you have to have him get up walk to the set and turn the dial. It s murder. But we re not worried. We started All in the family last night. It did great. We got a 50 share in new York. That s great. We weren t what time did you find out about the num Bers he was asked. At 9 32 this he finished his Coffee and went Back to his business Back to trying to catch Charlie s Angels and Donny and it is a Busi Ness of haggling with half formed ideas trying to shape them into something with the pressure of Money determining everything. On a creative level to put together a show even a bad show is work of the hardest sort. I be written everything from a paragraph to a novel and found that the Job of trying to write a script for a half hour situation comedy is work so frustrating that it pulls you out of sleep at night. What is disturbing then is Why if the work is so hard so delicate do net works set out to deliberately aim at the lowest Public taste once you ask it the answer appears immediately everything is done for the Money. And so this great instrument of our time is off on another season As they Call it with 40 to 50 million people staring at shows that come across the Public sky in disdain of us All and earn hundreds of millions of dollars for the networks. And have an effect on us that we still do not know How to measure. I was thinking of this the other night when Abc had on its Docu drama about an imaginary trial of Lee Harvey Oswald. The theme was that if Oswald had lived this was what his trial would have been like. The show took an event that Shook the nation in 1963 and now in 1977, moved the facts around and ran it with As i recall headache commercials butting in. I watched the actor portraying Oswald. He looked like Oswald which automatically make him distasteful. You wondered however what it would be like if somebody in one of three buildings on sixth Avenue decided that an Oswald character needed some help. It needed say Robert Redford in the part. On television then you would have a captivating Lee Oswald. One smile could rear Range the facts of our time in millions of minds. Any business with that kind of Power ought to be Basing itself on something More important to our lives than their Money. C new York news Chicago Tribune across 1 angered 5 makes lace 9 Spanish hero 12 word with bag or dive 13 turkish regiment 14 harem room 15 capable 17 witty saying 18 miss Earhart 19 abundant 21 upon 22 a King of Rumania 24 risque 27 Start for Iron or ism 28 mexican peasant 31 self32 name in cavan33 american humorist34 ram Down 36 border37 roman Road 38 Flower part 40 part of Forte 41 City in California 43 berates 47 favorite 48 Comrade 51 undivided 52 Dies 53 not working 54 june Bug 55 London gallery 56 Dove s Home avg. Solution time 27 min. 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