The Sorry State of Network TV : Brandon Tartikoff is jumping ship, leaving NBC for Paramount. He’s convinced that the networks must take ‘a more visionary shot. Do something that’s totally different, that’s not on cable, not on your competitors. Really take chances. Take a 40-1 shot.’

It is late morning in the NBC office of Brandon Tartikoff, and he is deep in thought.

“I’m worried about network television,” says the outgoing chairman of the NBC Entertainment Group and new chairman of Paramount Pictures. “I’m leaving the party, so is it my right to say what people should do? It may not be my right, but I feel very strongly.”

How strongly?

“The end of network television will come if all it is is an endless sea of sitcoms and reality shows,” Tartikoff said in a 1 1/2-hour interview with The Times on Friday, two days after being named to the Paramount post.

Tartikoff, who assumes his new job July 1, said he is also “petrified” by the growing number of multiple-series commitments to big-name TV producers because, he feels, it prevents the “diversity of viewpoint” and fresh thinking that a new generation of creators can bring to audiences.

On New Year’s Day, Tartikoff and his daughter Calla, 8, were injured in a serious auto accident near the family’s vacation home at Lake Tahoe, Nev.

And in a detailed discussion of the aftermath of the accident, Tartikoff said his recovery period in a Reno hotel that received only the major network channels gave him an eye-opening experience as a TV viewer: “It was amazing how little I looked forward to. When you’re down to just the three- or four-network universe, there really isn’t a lot of stuff.”

In a wide-ranging conversation, Tartikoff, 42, did not entirely rule out the possibility that Paramount might eventually buy a TV network. In addition, he suggested that General Electric might take a hard look at its association with NBC, which it bought in 1986, if the broadcast organization fails to perform financially.

Tartikoff also defended his input to NBC News since 1988 as chairman of the network’s Program Development Group, saying his main concern is strictly the promotability of news programs and that “I am not dictating storylines.”

The possibility that Paramount might at some point consider buying a network was not wholly dismissed at a news conference for Tartikoff at the studio last Thursday.

“Right,” said Tartikoff in the Friday interview. “But I had to honestly evaluate the (new) job assuming that that would not happen. But if it happens, it’s like gravy. If that ever were to come about, it would provide a great outlet for creativity and take some of the great ideas I didn’t get to here at NBC.”

Asked about recurring talk that G.E. might sell off NBC, which has won the ratings crown for the last six seasons but is slipping, Tartikoff said:

“If you look at their (G.E.’s) past corporate history, they want to be in the games that they can win. And if they can’t come in first, they want to be a pronounced second. I would say that they’re probably going to be looking at next year very carefully.

“I’m sure that Larry Tisch (chairman of CBS), the people at G.E. and maybe even the people at Capital Cities/ABC are looking at the bottom line of these huge corporations and the revenues coming in and the profitability and saying, ‘How can we make the bottom line better? And is there a way ever to start getting the numbers back to where they used to be?’ ”

Tartikoff’s dismaying experience as a prisoner of network TV during his recuperation in Reno made him wonder the same things. He was suddenly in the same boat as many viewers--trapped. His reaction is a devastating indictment of the medium he helped shape. And Tartikoff’s memories of that experience have left a lasting impression on him.

“Because of Calla being in the hospital and because of my condition,” he said, “I wasn’t going to go out. If I wanted entertainment, it was my television set. I was reading (scripts) so much during the day that I wasn’t going to sit down and read and tax myself any further.

“There wasn’t anything but the three networks, a Fox affiliate and PBS (at the hotel). So I was pretty much a captive of television, and it was amazing how little I looked forward to.

“You delude yourself into thinking, well, we’re really in the golden age now, that there’s really a lot of great stuff because you’ve got 20 channels so there’s always something for you to watch--on Showtime or HBO or whatever. There’s always a basketball game or baseball game, so you delude yourself into thinking there’s a wealth of choices.

“One night, I found myself watching a documentary on Coney Island on PBS. So you say, ‘What am I looking forward to?’ I’m in the 18-to-49 demographic group. It wasn’t like the halcyon days of NBC when ‘St. Elsewhere’ was on Wednesday, ‘Hill Street Blues’ was on Thursday, or ‘L.A. Law.’ It seemed like what we had been reduced to was just endless variations of basic standard sitcoms. Even in the ones that were slightly better made, it’s like the rhythms were all the same.

“So you say, geez, if we’re going to dig ourselves out of these holes, why would anybody go out of their way to stop watching the shows that they love, just to watch something that’s just like a lot of other shows?”

Tartikoff, of course, known for his great success in bringing such series as “L.A. Law” and “Cheers” to the screen, was also responsible for contributing some of these clinkers--including such past lemons as “Manimal” and “Misfits of Science.”

And his statement that viewers think they have a wealth of choices is an extraordinary acknowledgement of the depth and fullness that the better cable channels--not the networks--are bringing to television.

While advertising agencies think that the new fall schedules, including NBC’s, will again be conservative, Tartikoff is convinced that the networks must take “a more visionary shot” in the future: “Do something that’s totally different, that’s not on cable, not on your competitors. You get a nucleus of viewers that you can build on. Really take chances. Take a 40-1 shot.”

As he prepares to take over Paramount studios, Tartikoff says that the recovery of Calla, who suffered head injuries, was pivotal to his ability to consider a career change.

“She’s doing fabulous,” he said. “Everything’s responding. Her mind is her mind. She’s going to be home from the hospital here on June 1. If she wasn’t so incredible, then I wouldn’t have been able to consider the Paramount situation. She’s the key for me.

“It was a very emotionally trying time for me after the accident. My daughter was in the state that she was in. But by the time I regained consciousness--which was about four days after the fact--Calla was out of the woods. It was kind of touch and go prior to that.”

Tartikoff and his daughter were injured when their 1988 Jeep collided at an intersection with another Jeep driven by an 18-year-old man, who was not injured. No charges were filed.

While Tartikoff, who suffered a broken rib and pelvis, was upgraded within a day to satisfactory condition, the status of Calla caused deep concern among the family’s friends and associates as she remained in intensive care at Washoe Medical Center before being transferred to a Los Angeles hospital.

The Tartikoff family--his wife, Lilly, is a former ballet dancer--is warmly regarded in Los Angeles social circles.

On Friday in the hospital, Tartikoff and his daughter watched together as he made a brief appearance on NBC’s “Today” show, recorded earlier that morning.

“I’m usually there with her at 7:30,” he said, “but this time I came earlier. So I was there when she woke up, and we played for an hour, she took a bath, I read the newspapers and then there was the ‘Today’ show piece, and she saw her daddy on television talking about her, and she thought it was great.”

During their recovery period in Reno, Tartikoff was, naturally, removed at first from NBC’s development plans for the fall schedule, although he became heavily involved upon his return.

“The first couple of weeks” in Reno, said Tartikoff, “Calla and I were right down the hall from each other at this hospital. Then, when I became ambulatory, all I wanted to do was get out of the hospital. I didn’t want to be in a room where nurses were taking your temperature and drawing your blood every six hours. The hotel was annexed to the hospital. You can actually go from the hospital through a tunnel into the hotel.

“I would spend a huge portion of my day with Calla, but I was also still doing physical therapy. There was a gym. And I was using the phone to try to get back in touch with NBC. But I was really out of it for two weeks because of my concussion.

“Meanwhile, decisions had to be made at NBC. The scripts were coming in. I was in Reno, but I might as well have been in Madagascar, for all the input I could have. When I moved to the hotel, I called Warren (Littlefield, president of NBC Entertainment), and I said, ‘When you get scripts, send them to me. Just get a box and put them in there. I’ve got nothing but time on my hands.’

“My daughter would be asleep most of the time. I would sit in her room. I just wanted to be with her. And instead of reading Vanity Fair, I figured that I might as well be reading the scripts we were considering.”

At the same time, says Tartikoff, he was thinking increasingly about what he felt were the networks’ major mistakes.

“Oh yes,” he says emphatically. And what bothered him was that “all of the defined A-players (the top producers) are getting so many multiple series commitments that the next Gary Goldbergs (‘Family Ties’), the next Steven Bochcos (‘Hill Street Blues’), the next Carsey-Werner group (‘The Cosby Show’) are not going to have room to get on schedules--because somebody gave Jim Brooks (‘The Simpsons’) five of these and Bochco six of those and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (‘Designing Women’) five.

“The reason somebody gets five series commitments is that somebody else is willing to give them four. If nobody else was willing to give them more than one, then they’d do one for one person, one for another. It’s like everybody wants to be assured that they’re in business with the people they can brag about to advertisers and affiliates.

“What worries me is that you’ve got to leave room for the next people to come up because they are going to do it differently. You want the next generation of (program) suppliers just as much as you want the next generation of hits, and sometimes they can be simultaneous.”

Above all, says Tartikoff, networks “have to back up and start with the viewer. If the viewer wants to watch ‘L.A. Law,’ then you damn well better figure out a way to pay for it.” As an example, he says that CBS may have erred in canceling “Dallas”--which ended Friday--and might have gotten a lot more mileage out of it with some ingenuity. To wit:

“ ‘Dallas’ was getting a 21% audience share. Now why is CBS, which averaged a 21 share, taking it off? Because the costs have gone up, the demographics aren’t great and they can only play it once (soap operas do poorly in reruns). You could reduce the cost by cutting loose some expensive cast members and treating it like they do in daytime when somebody gets too big: Start giving storylines to new characters and grow another generation of characters, like we’re doing on ‘L.A. Law.’

“Also, the audience would watch ‘Dallas’ all year long, but every year ‘Dallas’ and ‘Knots Landing’ have stopped in May and not come back until September. The habit is broken. And you know from daytime serials, that habit should be nurtured. If you can make 265 episodes each year of ‘Days of Our Lives,’ I’ve got to believe you can make 40 to 45 episodes of ‘Knots Landing.’ It’s not that hard. Give the audience what they want. They want to watch it every week.

“Maybe some of the cast doesn’t want to work that hard. So start some of your newer storylines and newer characters when you hit the month of June and build them up. You’ve got to be thinking that way.”

As for NBC, Tartikoff knows it had an off-year even though it won its sixth consecutive ratings title. “But,” he says, “a win is a win. It’s the equivalent of a guy winning a batting championship with a .309 average. Years from now, no one’s going to remember it was a .309. They’ll just say, ‘Oh, there goes the guy that was the batting champ back in 1991.’ ”

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