Programming With an Eye to Candor

Unless CBS gets cold feet, one of the most memorable lines of dialogue in the fall TV season will come in a new sitcom from “Murphy Brown” creator Diane English.

“Your condom or mine?” the lead male character (Jay Thomas) asks the female lead (Susan Dey) during their first date in the pilot of the much-awaited series “Love and War.”

Clearly, Vice President Dan Quayle hasn’t cowed English with his criticism of the central character of “Murphy Brown” (Candice Bergen) having a baby out of wedlock. The season’s first episode of “Murphy Brown” plans to reply to that criticism.

And now, in “Love and War,” which stars Thomas as an acerbic newspaper columnist and Dey as a wealthy, divorced woman who buys his favorite bar, English presses on.

On the one hand, the frank dialogue exchange about condoms is supremely ironic because the networks have been nothing if not cowardly in fleeing, in general, from condom commercials. The subject has been dealt with much more openly in entertainment series and, of course, in news broadcasts and public-service announcements.

In fact, the Dey and Thomas characters decide not to have sex--in the pilot, anyway. But the dialogue, as constituted thus far, is definitely direct in its comic thrust, which emphasizes the need to be careful in the age of AIDS.

At one point, Dey asks Thomas: “So, have you had a lot of partners?”

“Well, it depends on how you define ‘a lot,’ ” says Thomas. “Average, I would say. More than the Pope. Less than Jimmy Swaggart.”

“Obviously, we need protection,” says Dey. “So, do you have any condoms?”

“Condoms?”

“Yeah. Right. Those.”

“I do.”

“Good. Because if you didn’t, I have some in my purse.”

Two seasons ago, CBS caused a flap with its pilot of the sitcom version of the film “Uncle Buck,” when a little girl used the expression, “You suck.”

Although the expression is common among children and adults--and turns up on several pilots for the new season--it simply seemed tasteless and gratuitous coming from the innocent-looking child in “Uncle Buck.”

But in “Murphy Brown” and “Love and War,” we are dealing with the adult world. And while this fact will not deter those who disagree with the content of both series, English’s approach is significant for a variety of reasons that go to the heart of the future not only of CBS but also of traditional TV overall.

For CBS, the future is tied closely to the fortunes of the Monday night lineup that carried it to the No. 1 position in the ratings last season and resuscitated the network, to some degree, in profits and the stock market. And no show has been more important to CBS’ Monday night lineup than “Murphy Brown.”

But what CBS now apparently is doing is taking Monday nights, which it has retooled and retooled for several years, and attempting to give it a cohesive, upscale network sheen.

There have been some good Monday CBS shows in recent years, from “Newhart” to “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill.” And CBS knew it had the makings of something big when the night finally began to jell with the pairing of “Designing Women” and “Murphy Brown.”

But what really brought a special flavor and elegance to CBS’ Mondays was the flowering of “Northern Exposure” last season. Come fall, the network, gambling further to build the kind of full-night franchise that could be a jewel for years, is risking its success by juggling its prized lineup some more.

“Designing Women” and “Major Dad,” both ratings winners, have been switched to Fridays. In their place will come “Love and War” and “Hearts Afire,” a new series from CBS’ other hugely successful, outspoken and unabashedly liberal sitcom creator, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who has been deeply involved in Gov. Bill Clinton’s campaign for the White House.

“Hearts Afire” will star John Ritter and Markie Post as assistants to a conservative Southern senator.

With English’s two series and Bloodworth-Thomason guiding “Evening Shade” as well as “Hearts Afire,” four of the five shows of CBS’ Monday lineup thus are the creations of two women producers who are clearly not afraid to put their views on the line. Bloodworth-Thomason, who also created “Designing Women,” last season used that series to take a whack at Clarence Thomas after his Senate hearings.

CBS’ Monday lineup is also significant to the network for a separate, intriguing reason. As the only major network that still openly courts the over-50 audience in trying for the broadest possible appeal, the Monday schedule is crucial in showing that CBS is as hip, young and contemporary as any of its competitors in its social views.

English’s bold comedy ventures are significant, in a strong sense, for competitors ABC and NBC as well as for CBS. It’s not that the subject matter of “Murphy Brown” and “Love and War”--whether it succeeds or not--hasn’t been treated openly on TV before. You can catch slimy frankness on entries such as “Studs.” The important thing is to handle contemporary social matters in a grown-up manner, hopefully with a touch of class.

Thus, with the networks still unable to go to the adult limits of such sophisticated HBO series as “Dream On” and “Sessions”--or pay-cable films, motion pictures, rented videos, stage productions and pop music--any major breakthrough in prime time is a victory for all of the traditional television outlets.

Even creator Steven Bochco, who helped break TV taboos with the frankness of “L.A. Law,” was slapped down by ABC not long ago when he suggested that there might be a touch of nudity in his next series.

The way things are going in TV, the flap over a little girl saying “you suck” may have been reasonable but now seems almost quaint. As always, everything depends on the execution--and, therefore, on the quality of the people involved in a production and at the networks.

In NBC’s new fall sitcom “Mad About You,” for instance, the pilot--at least for now--contains a wildly farcical scene in which a young husband and wife (Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt) have intercourse on a table in their kitchen while unknowing friends outside the room wait for them. We don’t see the sexual act--just a shot of the table shaking up and down. But “Mad About You” is regarded on Madison Avenue as one of the best pilots of the season and the two leads have been widely praised.

“Mad About You” will follow the very smart comedy “Seinfeld” on NBC in the fall as TV tries to build another program block that comes to terms with the ‘90s--and the future of networks. Will the networks succeed?

Dream on.