Beth McCarthy was named director of NBC's battered "Saturday Night Live" yesterday as executive producer Lorne Michaels continued his overhaul of the once-popular show . . .
McCarthy's previous credits include the syndicated "Jon Stewart Show" and several episodes of "MTV Unplugged," among which were the celebrated appearances of Nirvana and Tony Bennett. McCarthy replaces Dave Wilson, who retired in May, in part because stringent new rules at NBC wouldn't let him smoke in the control room during broadcasts . . .
Rep. Mel Reynolds (D-Ill.), convicted last week of sexual misconduct and obstruction of justice by a Cook County jury, will be interviewed along with his wife, Marisol, for the full hour of Friday night's "Larry King Live" (CNN at 9) . . .
Reynolds, who faces a minimum four-year jail sentence, pending an appeal, said over the weekend that on Saturday he will announce whether he intends to resign from Congress now that he is a convicted felon . . .
When "Home Improvement" begins its syndication run on UPN's Channel 20 the night of Sept. 11, the premiere half-hour will be a brand-new episode. This fall WDCA is airing two episodes of the hit ABC show between 7 and 8 on weeknights. On opening night, the second half-hour will be just a plain old rerun, however. Needless to say, "Home Improvement" continues in first-run on ABC again this season . . .
"Tanks for the Memories," in which Tim (played by Tim Allen) and his wife, Jill (Patricia Richardson), are invited to participate in a tank-driving competition, was shot on location at the Marine Corps Air/Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif. . . .
The president of Buena Vista Television, which is distributing the show, said the "unparalleled syndicated sales success of Home Improvement' demanded that we do something equally spectacular for the launch" . . .
Speaking of UPN, the Paramount network announced last week that it had added four primary affiliates and 13 secondary affiliates (on which another network is also distributed) around the country, boosting the network's coverage to 91 percent of the country . . . Slurs & Obscenities From the O.J. Simpson trial yesterday viewers heard (and saw printed) dozens of racial slurs and more than a few four-, eight- and even 12-letter obscenities as Judge Lance Ito heard arguments on whether to admit into evidence excerpts from the tapes retired L.A. detective Mark Fuhrman recorded for a North Carolina screenwriter between 1985 and last year . . .
Cable News Network, Court TV, Channel 50 (the Warner Bros. affiliate here) and E! Entertainment Television all carried the hearing, some with viewer advisories . . .
By late afternoon, all four outlets reported they had yet to receive any serious viewer complaints regarding the language . . .
A transcript of the 41 excerpts, supplied by the pool in L.A., was seen on TV as each was heard, racial epithets and other raw language included . . .
Earlier in the Simpson trial Fuhrman testified that he found a bloody glove at Simpson's home sometime after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. He also testified he had not used the word "nigger" in 10 years; the defense views the tapes heard yesterday as vital to its contention that he had perjured himself . . . Howard Polskin, CNN vice president for public relations, said yesterday that the network "aired most, if not all, of the excerpts." He speculated that viewers may have missed a bit during commercial breaks . . .
And in Washington, spokeswoman Maggie Simpson said that in the highlight packages prepared for client over-the-air TV stations and for CNN broadcasts later in the evening, "the N-word will be seen in the graphics and heard in the audio of the tapes, while the raw language will be edited out." She added that none of the CNN correspondents will use the racial slur in their descriptions of the tapes . . .
A spokeswoman for Court TV, which also carries the trial daily, said the channel's switchboard had yet to register a viewer complaint by late afternoon . . .
As for the offensive words, Lynn Rosenstrach said Court TV policy is that "if it's central to the case, we leave them in. We are on {seven-second} tape delay, so if the language gets too excessive we would immediately evaluate" . . .
E! Entertainment Television was also broadcasting the tape contents uncensored and had also registered no viewer complaints by late afternoon. John Rieber, E! vice president of special projects, said in a statement: "From day one of the Simpson trial, we committed ourselves to comprehensive, gavel-to-gavel coverage. It is our position that we will air whatever arguments, evidence and testimony Judge Ito makes available to the media" . . .
Channel 50 here, whose feed of the trial is relayed from KTLA in Los Angeles, is also running it uncensored but is including an apology to viewers that airs on KTLA periodically . . .
WFTY received one call from a viewer, who complained that the WB50 logo that's seen constantly in the lower right corner of the TV screen was blocking parts of the transcript . . .
"Picket Fences" has added Amy Aquino to the cast. She'll play Joey Diamond, "the fast-talking, shoot-from-the-hip doctor" and talk show host who becomes the partner of Jill Brock (Kathy Baker) . . .
Variety says former CBS Entertainment president Peter Tortorici is under consideration for the job of chairman of the MCA TV Group, now that Tom Wertheimer has resigned. And that ABC Entertainment president Ted Harbert has already turned down the job. Also being considered for the post: Greg Meidel, president of Twentieth Television. MCA was recently bought by Seagram and acquired a new president, Ron Meyer, former president of CAA, the powerful talent agency . . .
Network news ratings continue at low levels this summer. Last week, "ABC World News Tonight Without Peter Jennings" still won with an 8.5 rating and an 18 share for the week as Forrest and Diane Sawyer (no relation) shared anchor duties. Second was "NBC Nightly News Without Tom Brokaw" but with Brian Williams, which averaged a 7.5/16, followed by "CBS Evening News Without Dan Rather" but with John Roberts, at 7.2/16 . . .
More Ratingzzz Fun from Monday night, when the second-season premiere of "Star Trek: Voyager" averaged an 8.7 rating and a 14 share in 31 big-city markets. The 90-minute debut of the drama "Nowhere Man," which followed, averaged a strong 7.0/11 in 30 major markets . . .
The UPN lineup not only scored its best average since Jan. 23 but, claims UPN, actually defeated the Fox lineup over the two hours. Moreover, "Voyager" beat programming on NBC and ABC in the first hour of prime time, at least in the overnights . . .
Over at Fox, "Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction" averaged an 8.1/14, while "NFL Prime Time" did a 4.1/7 . . .
In Washington, on Channel 20, the return of "Star Trek: Voyager" averaged a 10.0/16, finishing first in this market over the first hour, while "Nowhere Man" did a 7.1/11. WDCA's late-starting UPN News at 10 mustered a 2.6/5 . . .
On WTTG, the "Alien" special scored a 9.4/15, while the NFL roundup did a 7.2/11 . . .
Fox Broadcasting said late yesterday that the relatively big summer numbers for the Roswell, N.M., UFO hour Monday night, complete with autopsy of an alien, has prompted a repeat of the special next Monday night at 9 . . . TV Ratingzzzz Following are the tip network primetime shows last weed, ranked according to the percentage of the nation's 95.4 million TV households that watched, as measured by the A.C. Neilsen Co. A share represents the percentage of actural sets-in-use tuned to a particular program when it aired.
Rating
Share Network
1 17.0 .. Seinfeld ............... 29 ..... NBC
2 16.6 .. Friends (9:30) ......... 28 ..... NBC
3 14.3 .. ER ..................... 26 ..... NBC
. 14.3 .. Mad About You .......... 26 ..... NBC
5 13.3 .. Home Improvement ....... 22 ..... ABC
6 12.8 .. Friends (8 p.m.) ....... 25 ..... NBC
. 12.8 .. PrimeTime Live ......... 23 ..... ABC
. 12.5 .. Grace Under Fire ....... 22 ..... ABC
9 12.4 .. 20/20 .................. 24 ..... ABC
10 12.0 .. NFL Dallas vs. Denver .. 21 ..... ABC
11 11.6 .. Cybill ................. 19 ..... CBS
. 11.6 .. Murphy Brown ........... 19 ..... CBS
13 11.3 .. Coach .................. 19 ..... ABC
14 11.2 .. Dateline (Tues.) ....... 20 ..... NBC
15 11.1 .. 60 Minutes ............. 23 ..... CBS
16 11.0 .. Frasier ................ 18 ..... NBC
17 10.9 .. Last Mafia Marriage I .. 19 ..... CBS
18 10.7 .. Dave's World ........... 19 ..... CBS
.. 10.7 .. All-American Girl ...... 18 ..... ABC
20 10.6 .. John Larroquette Show .. 18 ..... NBC
Despite the fact that NBC's Thursday night lineup produced five of the six most-watched shows last week, ABC won the weekly ratingzzz race . . .
ABC averaged a 9.2 rating for the week ending Aug. 27, compared with an 8.6/16 for NBC, an 8.0/15 for CBS and a 5.2/10 for Fox . . .
Although NBC ran away, as usual, with Thursday night, that was the only evening that went to the Peacock network. ABC won Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, with 15 of its shows finishing in the Top 31 . . .
The best CBS could do was the 11th-place tie between its "Cybill" and "Murphy Brown" . . .
Among the Little Fellas, the WB Television Network averaged a 2.5/5 for its two hours of programming during the week, while Paramount's UPN did a 2.7/5 over four hours . . .
A preview of WB's "Kirk," the first of the fall's new sitcoms, ranked 87th out of 92 shows seen last week, averaging a 2.6/5 . . .