Shuffle of CPB staff makes room for literary series project
Originally published in Current, Oct. 28, 1996
By Steve Behrens
CPB is creating a new dramatic series, The American Literary Tradition, that will present movie-length adaptations of classic and new American novels on public TV starting in 1998.
The project is a major initiative of Senior Vice President Carolynn Reid-Wallace, a onetime literature professor and university vice chancellor who for the past year has headed both education and programming at CPB.
The new organization chart of her Office of Education and Programming, distributed to staffers this month, includes to-be-filled positions that will be assigned in part to the project, including "chief, script unit."
If it proceeds to air, the series will help fill a gaping hole in public TV's schedule that was left with the phase-out of American Playhouse over the past two years.
"CPB has never given up on drama," says Don Marbury, CPB v.p. of programming. "We have several dramatic miniseries in development that we are very hopeful about. American Literary Tradition is going to be the jewel in the crown of our efforts."
The literature series will be a smaller effort than Playhouse, at least initially--aiming to produce three dramas per year, 90 to 120 minutes each, the first to be commissioned in January for broadcast in fall 1998. The host will be "an elegant person who will be able to set the historical and literary context--an American, obviously," says Reid-Wallace. She isn't sure yet what CPB will spend on the series, but she has been talking with prospective co-funders, including a book publisher.
The project will also foster a separate series of radio dramas--the first reaching air by spring 1998.
Reid-Wallace aims to engage a prominent novelist or actor as chief of the script unit to set criteria for the series and later review proposals and scripts, as well as a top-flight producer to act in a role "similar to an executive producer," she says.
"Let's say for a moment that John Updike agrees to serve as chief of the script unit," she says, using the novelist's name only as an example. "Part of his responsibility would be to work with a panel of distinguished artists, producers and academicians to talk through some criteria as part of the commissioning process."
A brief prospectus for the series lists writers from Henry James to Alice Walker as examples of authors whose works might be adapted.
The series will commission programs from producers rather than following the usual request-for-proposals process, which CPB will still use for other projects. The producers will propose the books to be adapted, and the script unit would review that proposal.
The "executive producer-type" staffer will be a professional "who knows as much about television as anyone in the country," Reid-Wallace predicts.
After broadcast, the series will continue to reach out through books and audio tapes, among other media.
Lights went on
Reid-Wallace says she was inspired to propose the series during a conversation with British producer Richard Somerset-Ward. He was pleased that Americans can sample British literature through Masterpiece Theatre, she recalls, but said it was "unthinkable" that CPB could not do something to promote the American literary tradition on the air.
"Lights went on in my head," Reid-Wallace says.
She sees the series as a way to broaden public TV's audience share, attracting high school and college students who will be reading the novels for class, while drawing more viewers from other segments of the population.
"Can you imagine what might happen if a novel by Toni Morrison were aired on PBS?" Reid-Wallace asks. "If we did something by Sandra Cisneros ... there might be a whole generation of Hispanic viewers coming to the audience."
During part of the long run of American Playhouse, Reid-Wallace was a professor of literature at Bowie State College near Baltimore. "I loved what I saw [on Playhouse], and felt blessed that I caught it," she says, but "I wasn't always certain of what it was going to be on."
She wants to make sure nobody misses the new series for lack of warning. "It's not good enough to have a diamond that no one ever sees," she says. "From the moment [the production] decision is made, our job is to ... get the word out." She believes that doing so three times a year will be much easier than than on a weekly basis, as American Playhouse did in its early seasons.
Reid-Wallace plans to learn what needs to be done, and to do it. "If we commission something, we'll have done our homework to be certain that the outcome will be as anticipated," she says.
"We're not thinking about what won't work," she says. "Our emphasis is to think about why it must work."
Education: not an afterthought
This month's new organization chart reflects changes that have been underway in Reid-Wallace's domain for the past year. A former vice chancellor of the City University of New York and former assistant secretary of education in the Bush Administration, she came to CPB in 1993 as senior v.p. for education. CPB President Richard Carlson merged her Office of Education with the Office of Programming in October 1995, after the summer departure of 24-year veteran Eugene Katt, who had been senior v.p. for programming.
Peggy O'Brien remains as v.p., education, and Don Marbury, the former director of the Television Program Fund, as v.p., programming. (Marbury is on leave for health reasons related to a serious fall he suffered in December. His recent trip to the MIPCOM market in France "took a bit out of me," he says, but he expects to return to work within several weeks.)
Marbury's associate directors, Sandie Pedlow and Josh Darsa remain as senior program officers, along with James McElveen, who was director of program administration. Their colleague Mary Sceiford, a specialist in children's programming, was among the 19 staffers who accepted a CPB buy-out offer this fall. The buy-out, which freed up budget money for new staffers, also swept away longtime programmers Meg Villarreal and Eloise Payne. CPB dismantled its Office of International Activities; other staffers will be responsible for handling international aspects of their projects. Rick Madden will continue to run the Radio Program Fund.
Besides the new script unit with a chief and two program officers, CPB will hire three new senior program officers, including a chief for a "new artists unit."
Maria Borges, former executive assistant to Reid-Wallace, was promoted to head a new unit, as director of education and programming administration.
CPB aims to not only streamline the administration but also to make education an integral part of program decision-making, Reid-Wallace says, "so you don't have education as an afterthought that comes to someone when they're looking for a little extra money."
She predicts that new funding guidelines, to be issued in mid-November, will clearly delineate CPB's program priorities and provide specific budget instructions, phone contacts and answers to other "frequently asked questions."
CPB developed a new team approach during its planning for the reorganization. Staffers will share expertise and responsibility. "When anything comes into this office, it is not an individual who will handle it, but a team as small as two or as large as five people," Reid-Wallace predicts. "And it will handle it faster and more efficiently and creatively."
Web page created Nov. 2, 1996
Current
The newspaper about public television and radio
in the United States
A service of Current Publishing Committee, Takoma Park, Md.
E-mail: webcurrent.org
301-270-7240
Copyright 1996
To Current's home page
Earlier news: American Playhouse crumbled in 1995 with the collapse
of Samuel Goldwyn Co., its partner in a privatization plan after PBS withdrew its part of
series funding.