The Networks Get Their Brooms Out

Though it may seem as if the November sweeps just ended, TV watchers should brace themselves for the February ratings survey, which begins Thursday. The networks once again offer novel casting stunts (the “sweathogs” from “Welcome Back, Kotter” appear on NBC’s “Mr. Rhodes”--except for the guy who played Vinnie Barbarino, who’s doing something else these days), series milestones (would you believe “Married . . . With Children’s” 250th episode?), specials, miniseries and promotional gimmicks such as Fox’s Valentine’s Day-inspired “Love Week.” Yet while the networks jockey for viewers, they’re also seeking to end sweeps, the periods that local stations use to determine advertising rates. Network officials maintain they could spread better programming throughout the year--and thus garner bigger ratings--if they weren’t throwing so much of their best stuff against one another during those surveys in November, February and May. On Feb. 16, for example, ABC’s movie “ . . . first do no harm”--featuring Meryl Streep’s first TV role since “Holocaust” nearly 20 years ago--finds itself on a collision course with NBC’s heavily promoted miniseries “Asteroid.” Fox, meanwhile, hopes all the eyeballs tuned in for Sunday’s Super Bowl will leave behind a ratings hangover, having used the game as a showcase to promote its February lineup.

The Best Drama on or Off Broadway

The principal players in a heated theater-world debate will walk onto the stage of Town Hall in New York tonight for a one-on-one titled “On Cultural Power: The August Wilson/Robert Brustein Discussion.” Wilson, the Pulitzer-winning playwright, will no doubt recap the highlights of his speech “The Ground on Which I Stand,” in which he blasted “colorblind” casting and the lack of support for black-specific theaters and also questioned the value of subscription theaters. In the other corner, American Repertory Theatre artistic director Robert Brustein--one of the few people Wilson criticized by name--will probably charge Wilson with advocating “Subsidized Separatism,” the title of a response that Brustein wrote last year for the New Republic. (American Theatre magazine, which is sponsoring tonight’s debate, reprinted both Wilson’s speech and Brustein’s response last fall.) Anna Deavere Smith, who has embodied people of many ethnic groups in her solo shows such as “Fires in the Mirror” and “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” will moderate. All 1,500 tickets to the event, priced at $10 and $20, sold out as of Tuesday.

How Many of the 5,173 Ballots Are Still Out?

Virtually overnight, studio promotional campaigns incorporated the latest critical kudos “Golden Globe Winner, Best Picture (Musical or Comedy)” emblazoned in red in the “Evita” print ad; a full-page spread for “The People vs. Larry Flynt” boasts of two Golden Globe Awards--best director and best screenplay; “DGA nominee Joel Coen” and “SAG nominee Frances McDormand” are now selling points for “Fargo.” The distributors are hoping not just to bring in the crowds, but also to jostle the minds of the 5,173 eligible Oscar voters whose ballots must be received by the accounting firm Price Waterhouse by 5 p.m. Friday. “While our voters don’t mimic the nominations of other entities, neither are they oblivious to them,” said Leslie Unger, publicity coordinator for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “If they haven’t already seen some of these movies, such recognition reminds them to catch up at a theater or on video. And though our members are highly individual with minds of their own, in some cases, no doubt, it can bolster one’s instincts.” The nominations will be announced Feb. 11.

They’re Just Looking for a Few Good Fans

To the record executives who are eager for any sign that the album sales slump of the last two years is behind them, the big thing about tonight’s American Music Awards telecast on ABC won’t be how many trips Mariah Carey or Celine Dion make to the podium, but how many people watch the show. The ratings may serve as a clue to the level of public interest in today’s pop hit-makers. Nielsen ratings for the show have dipped sharply from a 1993 high of 21.6 to last year’s 13.8. But Dick Clark, who produces the show, doesn’t believe the record industry is in dire straits. “The business will organize an attack and promote its goods better than it has been,” he says. “They’ve been living pretty high on the hog, looking for double-digit increases every year, but like everybody else, they’ve got to adjust.” Awards will be presented tonight in 20 categories. Three records released in 1995 are among the favorite pop-rock album nominees: Alanis Morissette’s Grammy-winning “Jagged Little Pill,” released in June 1995, is up against Carey’s 15-month-old “Daydream” and the combined entry of the Beatles’ “Anthology 1,” released in November 1995, and “Anthology 2,” the only nominee released in 1996.

Compiled by Times Staff Writers and Contributors