THE TV COLUMN

Here's the best news for the nation's TV viewers in a long time ...

Grant Tinker, the former chairman of NBC and architect of that network's unparalleled success in recent years, has signed an agreement in principle to form a production company in a joint venture with Gannett Co. Inc., the communications giant ...

In a brief telephone interview yesterday, Tinker said, "Today there was an auction at which we purchased the Laird International Studios in Culver City {Calif.} for $24 million." The studio occupies some 14 acres, with 12 sound stages and supporting buildings ...

"That's where the company will live," Tinker said, "but I have not put together the company itself yet." He said further details about the still-untitled production company will be revealed in January ...

"What I'm doing is the real thing. Primarily, my partners and I will be producing TV series programming and I hope that I can have the fun of repeating my experience at MTM" ...

His MTM Productions, which he sold five years ago to become chairman of NBC, produced some of TV's finest programming, including "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Bob Newhart Show," "Lou Grant" and "The White Shadow" ...

This fall, Tinker retired as chairman of NBC when General Electric completed its purchase of NBC's parent, RCA. He was succeeded by Robert Wright, a GE executive, who assumed the title of NBC president ...

Former national security adviser Robert McFarlane's 4 1/2-minute interview with Diane Sawyer on "Face the Nation" Sunday was all that remained of nearly 1 1/2 hours he'd taped here on Friday with Sawyer for Sunday night's "60 Minutes" ...

Sources say the Friday interview, although tough, had gone well, but at some point McFarlane -- a key figure in the Iran arms story -- decided he wasn't satisfied with what he was doing. Finally, as a tape was being changed, he reportedly suddenly announced to Sawyer that "I'm not angry with you but I'm not doing this very well" and ended the interview ...

"60 Minutes" executive producer Don Hewitt yesterday would not confirm details of the taping, but said that "after we took a look at it I didn't think there was much news in it, certainly not enough to make a 12-minute piece for Sunday's broadcast. So we salvaged what we could and aired it on 'Face the Nation' and what Mr. McFarlane said there was good enough to make the papers this morning" ...

Sawyer appeared live on "Face the Nation" with anchor Lesley Stahl Sunday to discuss McFarlane's taped comments ...

We understand that Herb Dudnick, who has been executive producer of NBC's "Main Street," has signed with KRON, the NBC affiliate in San Francisco. He had expressed a desire to get back into the daily news grind when his contract with NBC News expires this spring ...

Channel 4 general manager Jerry Nachman had sounded out Dudnick about the news director job at WRC ...

Channel 26's wintertime Alms Talks are going well. With just three nights to go (it ends tomorrow), the drive had raised $416,691 through Sunday night on the strength of 7,064 membership pledges ...

The 14-day goal is $425,000 ...

Sunday, with a Sesame Street special, a Pavarotti Christmas special and two episodes of "Upstairs, Downstairs," was the biggest night so far, raising $53,483 ...

Second biggest night was Thursday, Dec. 11, when Vincent Price appeared live to help a "Mystery|" night raise $47,080 ...

The biggest single fund-raising break occurred the night of Dec. 5 during the broadcast of the highly regarded "Washington Week in Review" (the staff of which is mad at Captain Airwaves for not including "Washington Week in Review" in his Friday night listings, which is why Airwaves typed "highly regarded" in this sentence, although he's betting a WETA tote bag that Won't Be Nearly Enough) ...

Also in the News

The Redskins' loss to the Denver Broncos Saturday notwithstanding, the Skins drew a 42.5 Nielsen rating and a 71 percent audience share from 4 until 7:28 p.m. on Channel 9 (each point representing about 15,000 TV homes in the Washington area) ...

Friday night, NBC's "The A-Team" bowed out of the regular schedule with an 11.4 national Nielsen rating and a 19 share at 8 p.m. At 9 p.m., ABC's new "Dads" sitcom had an 8.5/14 and at 9:30, ABC's new "Gung Ho" did a 7.4/12 against CBS' "Dallas," which had a 20.8/34, and NBC's "Miami Vice," hanging in there with a 16.7/29 (each rating point represents 874,000 homes) ...

NBC's "Crime Story" at 10 did a 14.0/24, off from CBS' "Falcon Crest" at 16.7/29 but ahead of ABC's "Starman" with an 11.0/19 ...

On Sunday, according to Nielsen overnights in 13 major cities, CBS' Hallmark Hall of Fame movie "Promise" recorded a 21.6/31, compared with a 19.4/28 for the Dolly Parton Christmas special on ABC and a 17.4/25 for the very un-Christmasy rerun of "48 Hrs." on NBC ...

Tom Doerr, executive news director of Channel 7, has been named a vice president by the board of Allbritton Communications, which owns WJLA ...

The board also named Jane Cohen, who has been an assistant to the president, as vice president for station affairs ...

Also at Seven: the winner of the Magnum House Hunt contest held during November is Sharon Dendy, a medical technician at Capitol Hill Hospital. Sharon and a guest will spend a week on Oahu starting the week of Jan. 4 after guessing the address of the dream house in Hawaii -- 376 Dune Circle in Kailua, Oahu -- where she'll stay, taking time out for a real life "Magnum, P.I." cast party| A total of 20,200 entries were submitted ...

Dionne Warwick was honored as "Entertainer of the Year" at the 19th Image Awards ceremony sponsored by the NAACP to honor black artists and entertainment industry personalities in Hollywood Sunday ...

Warwick was named for both her extensive musical talents and her service to the community. All proceeds from the video and single of "Friends," her current release, go to the American Foundation for AIDS Research ...

Among TV winners, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" was named best TV news/information or special. "Miami Vice's" Philip Michael Thomas was named best actor in a dramatic TV series while Cicely Tyson was named best actress for her role in CBS' "Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story" ...

The top-rated "The Cosby Show" on NBC took four awards. Its "Happy Anniversary" segment was named best episode in a comedy series; Phylicia Rashad was named best actress in a comedy series; Roscoe Lee Browne was named best actor in a comedy series or special for his appearance in "The Card Game" episode; and Keshia Knight Pulliam won best performance by a young actor or actress ...

"The Sitter," a segment of NBC's "Amazing Stories," was named best episode in a dramatic series, miniseries or television movie while "An All-Star Celebration Honoring Martin Luther King Jr." was named best variety show or special ...

Channel 20 has picked up Dr. Ruth Westheimer's syndicated "Ask Dr. Ruth" series, which will air at noon starting Jan. 5 ...

As she did on her Lifetime cable show, Dr. Ruth will have celebrity guests during the five-day-a-week half-hour series ...

Local Ratingzzz III To wind up the November sweeps in the Washington market, TV Column fans, here are the rankings for primetime, Monday through Sundays:

In Nielsen, Channel 4 (NBC) won by a whisker with a 16 rating and a 25 percent audience share, compared with a 16/24 for Nine (CBS), a 15/23 for Seven (ABC), an 8/12 for independent Five and a 3/5 for independent Twenty ...

In Arbitron, Four won by another whisker with a 14/24, followed by Seven at 14/23, Nine with 13/22, Five at 8/14 and Twenty at 3/5 ...

From Sign-On to Sign-Off (7 a.m. to 1 a.m.), Mondays through Sundays, Nielsen had Nine in front with a 10/24, followed by Seven at 8/21, Four at 7/18, Five at 6/14, Twenty at 2/6 and Fifty at 1/2 ...

In ARB, Seven and Nine tied for first with 7/21, followed by Four and Five, which tied at 6/17, Twenty at 2/6 and Fifty at 1/2 ...

Glancing at both books (Nielsen reportedly made adjustments in its sample to include younger demographics), Nine continues as the top news station but Seven is getting closer (WJLA even wins at 5 p.m. in ARB), while Four is flat and fails to mount a challenge ...

Channel 5's 10 o'clock news, despite the departure of anchor Maury Povich, is also gaining viewers, while its Joan Rivers show is very competitive in this market, although "Nightline" on Seven prevails in late night ...

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.