Rating TV’s New Order

Dick Wolf is the creator and executive producer of “Law & Order,” now in its seventh season on NBC, and “New York Undercover,” in its third season on Fox. “FEDS,” his drama series about the U.S. attorney’s office, is expected to premiere on CBS later this year.

Wolf, 50, has been in television for 25 years. One of the industry’s most outspoken foes of the federally mandated V-chip for TV sets and the newly released content ratings for programs, he divides his time between the West Coast and New York, where he was reached by phone for this interview.

*

Question: Was it harder or easier to produce good TV in 1996 than in 1995, and will it be harder or easier in 1997?

Answer: It has been hard. It will continue to be hard, and I don’t see any way of it getting easier. It all comes down to one thing: It’s the writing, stupid. This season’s crop of new sitcoms provides proof that you can’t expect to have 12 new comedies, with all the demands on writers, without a diminution of the quality of new shows.

*

Q: In 1996, we saw TV interwoven into the national political dialogue, with well-known conservatives, the president, vice president and liberal Democrats all publicly lobbying for a kindler, gentler TV. Wasn’t this a positive step?

A: I’d say it’s politics as usual. TV has been a national whipping boy since I was a boy. I think this is a very convenient sort of way to detract attention from much more serious problems. What I’m most afraid of with these ratings and the V-chip is that it will kill the thing that TV does the best, the 10 o’clock drama. Now advertisers have permission to be scared if there is a label on a program. Procter & Gamble does not gamble $950 million on broadcast advertising to be controversial.

*

Q: But wouldn’t you agree that some restrictions should be imposed on TV regarding what it makes available to kids? For example, this year we’ve seen the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States lift its voluntary ban on broadcast advertising, potentially opening the airwaves to Scotch and bourbon ads, as they are now to beer ads. Even though most broadcasters say they wouldn’t accept these ads, don’t you think ending the ban is a bad thing?

A: I honestly don’t. For 50 years, it has been a market-driven industry, and the audience has been the arbiter of what is bad taste.

*

Q: In criticizing the V-chip, you evoke the specter of censorship. How can giving parents more information about the TV that their kids watch conflict with your 1st Amendment rights?

A: When you get into devising ways to keep advertisers out of shows, you risk setting up an infrastructure of what material can and cannot come into the home. I don’t know why people are willing to abrogate so much parental control to a third party. I think a great problem is that parenting has become way too passive.

*

Q: The recently announced content ratings are modeled on labels used by the Motion Picture Assn. of America. Are they specific enough for parents who want detailed information about programs?

A: The least rating, in terms of restrictiveness, the better. When you’re trying to rate levels of violence and sexual activity, whose octave board are you going to use?

*

Q: Given your opinions on the topic, can we expect in 1997 to see a murder on “Law & Order” or “New York Undercover” tied to the V-chip?

A: [laughs] We’ll see. Look, all I’m saying is that this is hardly a system that’s broken, with advertisers paying trillions of dollars to get on television. Television is less violent now than at any time in history. When they say “Walker, Texas Ranger” is the most violent show on television, I say, yes--and he kicks people.

*

Q: If you had the power, how would you change TV in 1997 so that it enhances the lives of children?

A: What I would love to see is the next “Sesame Street” come along. I don’t know what it will be. Thank God it wasn’t Barney.

*

Q: How do you view the performances of the infant WB and UPN networks in 1996, and do you envision them ever making dramatic gains in audience along the lines of Fox?

A: UPN is already up, what, 30% or 45%? What I have a problem with are minority comedies. I don’t know what the real difference is between “Amos and Andy” and [the UPN comedy] “Homeboys in Outer Space.” What I have chosen to do quite deliberately in my shows is to incorporate minorities in strong ensemble roles. But it hurts when people get the idea there are programs for us here and for them over there. I think Fox has learned a healthy lesson, that it may be a way to start your network, but that it isn’t a place where you want to stay.

*

Q: Is there a breakout TV series you want to do in the coming years but have not been able to do?

A: Only one: a kids’ show that I’ve wanted to do for years. But any time I mention it, people’s eyes go back in their heads. Basically it’s third grade, eightsomething. Just follow them and then go up a grade every year.

*

Q: On TV, much of 1996 was the year of O.J. As someone who’s built a successful career on crime-related series, how do you feel about this emphasis on real-life crime all across TV?

A: I think that O.J. has finally peaked. I don’t get the same sense of urgency from the civil trial. They seem to be flogging a dead horse. As a producer of shows that try to be topically sensitive, though, I don’t see any real negatives. I don’t think anyone can have too much exposure to real events.

*

Q: What about this continued trend in 1996 that has put more and more lawyers on TV as pundits? Don’t you think that if “Law & Order” were truly realistic, your veteran prosecutor, McCoy, would resign to go to work for one of the networks or Court TV?

A: That’s actually not a bad point. What an interesting way to bring Michael Moriarty back.

*

Q: Are you at all troubled by the continuing trend in 1996 toward largeness and concentrated control, with media companies such as Disney, Time Warner Inc. and Rupert Murdoch’s empire sprawling larger and larger?

A: Nobody knows whether it’s good or bad. I’ve been through three different owners at Universal. The problems are still the same. How do you make a show on budget?

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

CROSSROADS

Through Saturday, the daily Calendar section will continue its series of interviews conducted by Times critics. The series follows Sunday Calendar’s comprehensive look at 1996.

TODAY

TELEVISION: Dick Wolf.

SATURDAY

ARCHITECTURE:

Richard Meier.