Corday Ready to Help CBS Out of Ratings Cellar

Until three months ago, the building housing the business offices at CBS Television City could be divided into two distinct parts. On one side were the writers and producers of the network’s entertainment shows; on the other, the network executives who approved their product.

That arrangement changed when Barbara Corday, former president of Columbia/Embassy Television, became CBS’ executive vice president of prime-time programs. Corday put her office on the creative side.

“When I told Kim (Corday’s boss, network entertainment president Kim LeMasters) that I would take the job, I told him it was important to be on the other side of the building, that I didn’t want to be back there where he is,” Corday said in a recent interview.

“There was something about going through those doors (to the management side), no matter who was in the job (of entertainment president), where it felt as though you were going to the principal’s office. I needed an office where it didn’t feel that way.

“I think there is a bit of, I dare say, team spirit going on here that is making it a lot of fun. People are telling me that when they get off the elevator, there is a lighter atmosphere here than there has been for a long time.”

Corday, 43, knows firsthand what it feels like to be on both sides of those doors. In her extensive creative and administrative experiences, Corday was co-creator of “Cagney & Lacey” and was president of Columbia/Embassy Television.

One reason for the new team spirit that Corday describes is that now there is a team. After nine months of overseeing the troubled network’s prime-time schedule--during which LeMasters said “the bags got longer and deeper under my eyes”--he decided he needed someone to fill the second-in-command slot when he was promoted to entertainment president last year.

“She has superb relationships in this town, she has unique credentials as a writer, producer and director of a major studio,” LeMasters said. “Now, together, we are aggressively attracting people back to CBS.”

Corday made a move in that direction by bringing with her a longtime colleague, Tim Flack, formerly vice president of talent and casting at Columbia, as the network’s vice president of comedy development. A casting director may seem an unusual choice for the post, but Corday believes Flack’s connections can give the third-place network a boost in attracting development deals in comedy, the network’s weak area.

Corday came in too late to influence this season’s shows, but she is working at changing Hollywood’s perception of CBS.

“In the entertainment industry, I think perception is often more important than reality,” Corday said. “What has happened is, a lot of producers think of CBS as a lot older and a lot more rural than it actually is. But CBS has begun to turn around a little bit in the areas of slightly younger, slightly more upscale, more female-oriented shows. The perception has not turned as quickly as the reality.”

Corday said current projects are intended to broaden CBS’ audience base. That means following ABC’s lead in developing youth-appeal shows. That’s why “Murphy Brown,” “TV 101” and “Almost Grown” are on this season’s list.

“CBS is never going to knowingly give up its core audience, the people who watch ‘Dallas’ and ‘Knots Landing,’ but what we have to build to survive is the young, affluent viewer,” she said.

New projects include a series based on the hit movie “Big” developed by Jim Brooks for 20th Century Fox Television; another series from Hugh Wilson; a show starring Dweezil and Moon Zappa; a series with Carol Burnett, produced by Robert Altman; projects with writers from other successful series (Georgia Jeffries, award-winning former writer of “Cagney & Lacey,” and Michael Weithorn, former writer/producer of NBC’s “Family Ties”), and contributions from author Pat Conroy and playwright David Mamet.

Corday describes the attempt to get CBS out of the ratings cellar as “fun.”

“I believe that the challenge of being No. 3 is more fun,” she said happily. “I don’t know if corporately that’s an intelligent thing to say, but creatively, it’s more fun. I think you have to be willing to take more chances. You are more apt to be willing to fail with something more innovative, a project with a writer you love, an actor you love. Why not? Why not give it a shot?”

Former NBC chairman Grant Tinker, whose GTG Productions has a multiseries development deal with CBS (“TV 101,” the “Van Dyke Show” and “Raising Miranda”), sees a new attitude in a number of management changes at CBS. “Their problems aren’t solved yet,” he said, “but they’re attacking them with all the right energy and constructive work with producers that will ultimately pay off.

“Now it’s a pleasure to go over there, where it used to be like a trip to the dentist.”

Though Corday may not be solely responsible for the upward mood swing, she is certainly part of it. Both Corday and many CBS producers believe the network in 1988-89 is a kinder, gentler CBS.

Zev Braun, executive producer of CBS’ Vietnam drama “Tour of Duty,” thinks that Corday’s tastes and executive style complement LeMasters’. “Kim is a tough, two-fisted guy; he’s very competitive and aggressive and wants to be No. 1. He’s in the trenches. She has an entirely different attitude. Hers is, she’ll catch more flies with honey . . . She likes to nurture things, she has a kind of nurturing way about her.”