At the Halfway Mark

Ratings-wise, as they say at the networks, the first half of the 1967-68 TV season has been seismographic. In one recent six-week period, the Beverly Hillbillies jounced from the No. 1 position to 27th, Ed Sullivan from 19th to third, Dean Martin from 20th to seventh. Significance-wise, say the programming vice presidents, these sharp fluctuations signal the era of the "selective viewer."

In the past, producers operated on the axiom that if viewers could be hooked in the first three weeks of a new series, they would stick with it all season. So why bother about quality? Now, says NBC's Mort Werner, "viewers are less committed. They make their selections on a program-by-program basis, and if a special seems more interesting than a series, well, the dial is just an arm's length away."

Specials. Some of the changes in viewing patterns reflect the tastes of the generation raised on TV, who, given a better choice, have made it clear that they would rather switch than watch the standard run of series. Other changes stem from the extraordinary popularity of movies. This fall, when NBC begins running feature films on Monday evenings, there will be a prime-time movie on TV every night of the week. What with the steady rise in sports coverage, television may soon be dominated by Hollywood and halfbacks.

Nevertheless, say the programmers, the selective viewer should be encouraged by the unprecedented number of specials offered this season. After all, they explain, the audience cannot be selective unless it has something better or at least different to select from. On three successive nights recently, each network pre-empted all regularly scheduled series for specials.

Plus Side. Lest anyone think that this trend heralds the demise of the dreary situation comedies, ABC's Leonard Goldberg explains that, given the voracious rate at which TV eats up material, "the series will always be the backbone of the TV industry." It hardly matters that, short of featuring a priest on a pogo stick, there are not many plots left beyond The Flying Nun. Producers of westerns have learned that a good way to save on dialogue is to let each of the "ride-bys"--the good guys chasing the bad guys--run on for an extra 20 seconds or so. Says one TV writer: "The civil rights movement has saved us temporarily. What we do now is drag out one of the old plots and add a new sociological dimension by casting a Negro in a lead role."

On the plus side of this season, TV finally showed signs of growing up in matters of censorship and salesmanship. The networks now schedule movies that deal with touchy themes--prostitution in Never on Sunday, drug addiction in Man with a Golden Arm. Both films were considered too hot to handle two years ago. Following the lead of Bell Telephone, Xerox and Hallmark, an increasing number of sponsors bunch or juggle the sequence of their commercials to suit the format of a show. And in upcoming months, the programmers are preparing the TV, debuts of such film stars as Doris Day, William Holden, Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn, as well as more specials by such writers as Paddy Chayefsky, Tad Mosel and Gore Vidal, who have returned to TV after a hiatus of several years.

What it all means, says CBS's Michael Dann, is that "for the first time TV is programming for all the audience some of the time, instead of most of the audience all of the time."

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