Television Industry

It pretty much came down to "Dragnet" vs. "NYPD Blue." Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, defended the moral lessons and downplayed the sometimes steamy visuals of the latter, while Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition, waxed nostalgically about the straight-arrow style and on-screen propriety of the former. "I think 'NYPD Blue' is the finest-crafted show on television," Valenti said.

In Greg Braxton's article "NBC's Loss of Minority Roles a Gain to Independents" (Calendar, May 16), Doug Alligood, senior vice president for BBDO Worldwide Inc. (advertising), discusses the move of minority programs to independent networks and says, "Many of the black-oriented shows do not do well with the general population." What "general population" is he talking about and what does he base it on?

Actor Peter Strauss is grumbling. A lean man with muscular arms and hair the color of wet sand, he stands on the crest of a hill overlooking his citrus farm in the east Ojai valley--30 acres, 3,000 trees, 440 tons of oranges a year. The market is "very bad this year," he says. "Mr. Clinton's allowing Australia to bring its oranges into America. Florida--though I don't wish evil on anyone--did not get as cold as I hoped."

It was decades in the making. It's a dauntingly complicated piece of legislation, some of whose finer points escape even the hundreds of lobbyists and congressional aides who have been working on it full time during the final, painful lurch to the finish. Even now that it's about to become law, it is the kind of bill that makes the most devout policy wonk wince.

Sweeping aside partisan differences, Congress on Thursday overwhelmingly approved an overhaul of the nation's communications laws, freeing telephone companies, broadcasters and cable-TV operators to enter each other's markets with the aim of bringing consumers lower prices and more advanced services. President Clinton hailed the legislation Thursday as a boon to consumers. The president will sign the bill "probably within a week," Vice President Al Gore said in a telephone interview.

The nation's four television networks are in talks to establish a rating system, similar to the one used in motion pictures, in an effort to head off the threat of government regulation of programs with violent or sexual content, sources said Wednesday. Top executives from ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox have been meeting in New York and Los Angeles in an attempt to forge an agreement in advance of a White House summit later this month on television violence, the sources said.

First came the V-chip. Now comes the V-word. V for values. As President Clinton and the nation's entertainment moguls convene at the White House today to take the first tender steps toward devising a ratings system for television, they are setting the stage for an unprecedented national discussion over what images--indeed, what values--are appropriate for the airwaves. It is territory that is largely uncharted. And it is fraught with land mines. "What is violence?" asked L.

Like parties to a peace treaty ending a bitter war, President Clinton and the leading moguls of the entertainment industry will step before the cameras separately Thursday to announce the creation of a ratings system that may change forever how families use their television sets and mark a milestone in the nation's struggle over popular values.

It was deja vu among nominees for the 23rd annual Daytime Emmy Awards on Wednesday, as most of the major winners from last year found themselves in the running again--as did the event's most famous loser. "General Hospital," Oprah Winfrey, Erika Slezak, Shari Lewis, Bob Barker--all recipients of Emmys last year--were nominated again, and CBS again collected the most nominations among the networks.

Top TV Agent Enters Management Business: Gavin Polone, a top television agent who was fired earlier this week by United Talent Agency in a highly publicized feud, will join former colleague Judy Hofflund in forming Hofflund/Palone, a new management partnership.