ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 20, 1996 TAG: 9608200008
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD
SOURCE: SHERYL STOLBERG LOS ANGELES TIMES
On a bluff in Pacific Palisades, in a cottage overlooking the jagged coast on Los Angeles' western edge, lives a TV producer named Kenneth Wales. He is not rich and famous, but he has more fan mail than he can answer.
Thousands of letters are crammed into box after box in Wales' garage. Some are typewritten. Others are crayon notes from children.
The postmarks are pure heartland - Three Forks, Mont.; Brentwood, Tenn.; New Harmony, Ind. And the sentiments are the same: ``The finest and most wholesome TV program that I know of,'' says one. ``At last, a program I can let my children watch that has value.''
The praise was for CBS' ``Christy,'' which Wales created. The story of a young teacher who traipses off to Appalachia to educate poor mountain folk, ``Christy'' was regarded as revolutionary, breaking a Hollywood taboo by treating religion as an ordinary part of life. For Wales, it was the culmination of an 18-year dream.
But ``Christy'' didn't make it. A CBS management change, ratings that were stunning at the outset but drifted downward, and a Hollywood culture that rewards raciness and instant hits pushed it off the air.
At a time when the nation is immersed in a discussion of values, the story of ``Christy'' speaks volumes about the mercurial nature of network TV and why family shows have such a difficult time surviving despite an intense outcry from some politicians and parents.
Of all the fingers being pointed in the values debate, the longest may be the one directed at the media and its perpetuation of what New Yorker writer David Denby calls ``the avalanche of crud.''
The backlash against Hollywood is sweeping, and it is driving real change.
The V-chip, which will allow parents to block certain TV programming, is becoming a reality. A TV rating system is on the way.
Families who abandoned the networks in favor of such cable outlets as the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon are slowly returning, drawn back by shows like ABC's ``Second Noah,'' and CBS' ``Touched by an Angel.''
The success of these shows has been a surprise, and CBS, for one, is making changes as a result: It will recast itself in the fall as ``the family network,'' devoting the 8 o'clock hour nightly to what Leslie Moonves, entertainment division head, calls ``feel-good shows.''
It may not have happened soon enough to save "Christy."
In the slicked-back world of Hollywood, Wales, 58, sticks out like an oasis in the desert. He is gracious to a fault, a true believer in turning the other cheek - a liability in his business.
``I don't know that I'd put Ken Wales in Hollywood,'' said Barney Rosenzweig, who co-produced ``Christy'' with Wales. ``Ken is a minister's son. He is the kind of guy who, when you scratch the surface because you think this is too good to believe, the more you scratch, the deeper you go, you find out it's just him.''
Wales has done a lot of thinking electronic media, and he believes that movies and TV can and should be used to impart values. Common values, Wales says, like honesty, integrity, responsibility and faith. ``That is how I approached `Christy,''' he said.
It took 18 years and $300,000 of Wales' own money to bring ``Christy'' to the screen. The man ultimately responsible was Jeff Sagansky, past president of CBS Entertainment.
Sagansky's wife had loved the book, and Sagansky was convinced there was an unmet TV need. ``I felt very strongly about it,'' he said. ``We do a lot of studies, and whenever you see what's important to people's lives, they'll tell you family No. 1, and No. 2, relationship with church and God. And yet it was missing from television.''
In the lexicon of TV, there is a derogatory term for family shows: ``soft.'' Shows that are hip, racy and bound to become instant hits and sell ads, those shows have ``edge.''
It is an axiom of Hollywood that soft shows take a long time to build audience. But once the audience is developed, they can last for years - witness ``The Waltons'' and ``Little House on the Prairie.''
Thus it was a risk for Sagansky to give ``Christy'' the 8 p.m. slot on Thursdays against NBC's ``Mad About You'' and ``Wings'' and Fox's ``The Simpsons.''
The show did reasonably well, often ranking second in its time slot. But when ratings were scrutinized, a striking trend was clear: ``Christy's'' fans were in small cities and towns. This was a considerable problem. Shows live and die on ad sales. Shows that survive are those that draw the most ``eyeballs,'' in TV parlance. Moreover, city eyeballs are better than rural eyeballs; they spend more.
All this might not have had an impact on ``Christy'' had Sagansky not left CBS. But in the spring of 1994, he went to Sony Corp. Successor Peter Tortorici was told to turn around the network, which was lagging in the ratings.
``There was tremendous pressure from the corporate side to do something about the demographic profile of the network,'' Tortorici says. He needed to make CBS younger, hipper, more urban, targeting 18- to 49-year-old men. This was not a ``Christy'' crowd.
Wales, sensing danger, launched a PR campaign. Letters from fans began pouring in to CBS, nearly 100,000 of them.
``Christy'' barely survived, returning in the spring of 1995 as a ``midseason replacement.'' The last episode of ``Christy'' aired on Aug. 2, 1995. Wales hopes he can revive his show, though the cast and crew have moved on. ``Anything that is worthwhile is going to take a struggle,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 99 linesby CNB