Paramount Television

So, who owns the rights to a famous TV character: the actor who made the character famous or the studio that created the character in the first place? It's a good question for a barroom debate but a hard question of law. For nearly seven years, two actors in the 1980s TV series "Cheers" have been fighting Paramount Pictures over control of their barroom characters, with both sides maintaining that they have the right to speak for "Norm" and "Cliff."

Production has been temporarily halted on "Dr. Laura," the controversial new daytime talk show being distributed by Paramount's syndication division. A spokeswoman said "Dr.

Paramount Television officials have maintained a low profile regarding "Dr. Laura," the TV talk show hosted by radio personality Laura Schlessinger. Indeed, the hope seems to be that those outraged by the show are doing the studio's promotional work for it. After roughly nine months of protests, which have steadily gained momentum since the National Assn.

In the most significant realignment yet to result from the Viacom-CBS merger, the company said Wednesday that the 19 Viacom television stations and the 16 CBS stations would be put together into a new unit within CBS Television. The unit will report to CBS Television President and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves. To the surprise of many in the television industry, CBS' recently installed station head, John Severino, will run the unit.

The Paramount Television Group and representatives of the gay and lesbian community have reached a tentative accord regarding Laura Schlessinger's new television show, including some reassurance from the studio that the program will feature a variety of viewpoints regarding the hot-button issue of homosexuality.

Steven Bochco, producer of such Emmy-winning programs as "NYPD Blue" and "L.A. Law," has entered into a joint venture to produce television series with Viacom's Paramount Television Group. Sources say the deal, which becomes effective in January, involves a financial commitment by the studio of as much as $50 million over its five-year term. Paramount will finance production of Bochco's series, and the parties will split the profits.

When a door on the set of the NBC television show "Wings" won't close, a director bellows for a production assistant to stand behind it and hold it shut. Chris Wayne leaps into action. He braces the door until the final take, literally propping up the props. But that's OK with Wayne. As a PA, it's his job to hold things on the show together and to not mind if no one thanks him for fetching a doughnut, copying a script or taking a phone message.

It took seven heavyweights--NBC entertainment President Warren Littlefield, comic Jon Stewart, writer Al Franken, TV talk show host Leeza Gibbons, "Frasier's" David Hyde Pierce, Viacom Entertainment Chairman Jonathan Dolgen and MTM Television President Michael Ogiens--to introduce Kerry McCluggage, chairman of the Paramount Television Group, on Monday evening at the Beverly Wilshire. There was an original comedy video starring Kelsey Grammer and Kate Mulgrew.

Faced with a snowballing celebrity boycott of "Entertainment Tonight," Paramount Television announced Tuesday that its sister program "Hard Copy" will no longer buy "video paparazzi" footage that unduly intrudes on celebrity privacy. The studio's announced policy change breaks a weeklong silence during which a widely publicized boycott by "ER" star George Clooney grew to include Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, Whoopi Goldberg, director Steven Spielberg and other celebrities.