Biography Television Program

Producer Peter Jones reaches for something in his West Los Angeles office and picks it up with tender care. Small wonder, for it turns out to be an extremely personal family scrapbook of the Nelson family ("Here's Ozzie, here's Harriet . . . "). When Jones first approached David Nelson, the remaining member of the core family, and his Uncle Don, they were extremely reluctant to cooperate in a probing look at his family, whose TV series came close to being "The Truman Show" of the 1950s.

A large framed poster hangs over the desk of Nick Davatzes, the boss of cable's Arts & Entertainment Network. And every time he enters his Manhattan office, it serves to remind him who the real boss of A&E is. On this poster is the word "Biography," printed in elaborate and elegant script. Above it hovers the likenesses of people--Queen Elizabeth, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D.