Prime-time audiences will never know what might have been in the coming TV season now that two major networks have declined a science drama series proposed by Nobel physicist Leon Lederman, aided by nearly $100,000 in seed money from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.
But as a comedy in its own right, this bizarre scheme for employing TV drama to help create "a more scientifically literate society" merits more attention than it has received so far. SGR [Science & Government Report] has obtained relevant documents from NSF and DOE, including the Lederman group's grant application, their plot and character outlines for a two-hour pilot program, and the grant awards, which run to the end of this year. The story of the still-born TV series goes as follows:
Titled "The Dean," the series was to be built around John Kyrian, a "charismatic powerhouse of Persian-Armenian extraction" at the head of the GRALE Institute-General Research at the Leading Edge-"a powerful research venue that combines the scientific and engineering creativity of a Bell Laboratories with the pedagogical passion of an MIT." Elsewhere in the pitch, the institution is referred to as "a smaller version of MIT."
GRALE, the plot outline explains, "was created and bankrolled to an unprecedented strength by a clique of the most powerful corporate moguls in the nation-they are known as the Gates Group"-not Microsoft Bill, but Adrian, "a black man of about 40," who is "one of the wealthiest and most influential men in the world," head of a "pantheon of corporate leaders ... that thinks the intellectual capital of the nation is in danger of extinction."
There's more, of course, in plot and characters, but for a bit of enriching background it is to be noted that Lederman, former Director of the Fermilab and past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, has long been active in the cause of elevating mass scientific literacy, which he rates at deplorably low levels.
Moreover, as quoted recently in the New York Times, and reiterated in a telephone conversation last week with SGR, Lederman fears the nation is "riding a tide of anti-science," with dangerous consequences for the support of science and democracy itself. Gripped by what he describes as "a crazy, blind faith in education," Lederman has long labored to improve science education in Chicago-area schools and continues those activities as a Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
These efforts, however, have essentially been on a local level. An affable, wisecracking guy with an egalitarian manner and the Nobel halo that opens doors, Lederman has looked with envy on the mass-audience TV spectaculars linked to other professions.
Germinating in his mind was a TV series that would be "the 'LA Law' and 'NYPD Blue' of science and scientists." To carry out the project, Lederman teamed up with Gerald Wheeler, then head of Education and Human Resources at the AAAS, which agreed to serve as homebase for seeking financial support, initially from NSF. Following meetings with Lawrence Tisch, then head of CBS, and Dan Burke, a director and former CEO of ABC, Lederman and Wheeler stated in an application to NSF that the TV executives appeared interested but were non-committal. Hope, however, was drawn, they said, from the TV chiefs' invitation "to return with a full presentation."
Preparation of a "storyline" was then taken on by Adrian Malone, producer of several major TV science series, including "Ascent of Man" and "Cosmos." An advisory committee was lined up consisting of assorted luminaries from science and TV, including Nobel laureate Michael Bishop; Donald Langenberg, Chancellor of the University of Maryland; Frank Getchell, Executive Producer of Children's Television Workshop, and Alice Huang, Dean for Science at NYU.
The Lederman-Wheeler application to NSF appropriately reflected two worlds where extravagant rhetoric is the norm-TV and science. The time is ripe for the proposed TV series, the application stated, because "the broadcasting industry is at a turning point. The proliferation of cable channels has meant that more specialized audiences have become the rule, not the exception." As a result, the applicants explained, the major networks "are in the process of redefining the nature of their programming and their audience," with CBS-the Lederman group's first choice for the science series-aiming its programming "at an older audience with a higher income. The same may be said of HBO. They are after an audience that watches NFL football and 'Masterpiece Theater'," according to the analysis of TV demographics by Lederman and colleagues.
Having projected an improbably diverse assemblage of viewers, Lederman and company went wide throttle in their application to NSF: "This is precisely the type of audience that will find 'The Dean' appealing," they assured the Ballston bankroll, adding that, "The series promises to provide an intelligent and insightful look into a world where opinions and discoveries are created that become part of the marrow of our society. But its audience is not the public-television-only viewers. The target audience," the application stated, "is the 30+ million viewers captive to the sitcom-dominated prime time offerings."
NSF took the bait and in May 1995, awarded the AAAS a $49,500 "Planning Grant for a 'Prime-Time' TV Science Drama." In March of this year, an additional $45,320 was provided by the Department of Energy, which funneled the money through NSF. Lederman told SGR that the TV project has also received $50,000 from the Garfield Foundation, endowed by Eugene Garfield, founder of the Institute for Scientific Information and editor and publisher of The Scientist.
Most of the money was budgeted for writer Malone and a researcher/writer assistant, with Lederman and Wheeler taking part on an "in kind" basis, according to the letter of application to NSF.
The sums involved were minuscule in terms of full-scale TV production costs-estimated by the two applicants at "$1 million per episode." But the money would suffice for preparing a "storyline" for a two-hour pilot. Optimism apparently was high, because even before work began on the story line, Lederman and Wheeler stated in their application that "it will be beneficial to also test the enthusiasm of potential sponsors," adding that they "will meet with corporations identified by the AAAS development office once the written material is completed."
In the story line that finally emerged, the Dean, newly arrived at GRALE within a mini-MIT, "must deal with department heads who are constantly clamoring for his time and influence, not to mention more money. The Dean is a man of charisma and a terrific fund raiser. He has a Persian background-his grandparents were rug merchants, " the story line continues, adding, without explanation, that this genealogy gives him "a no-nonsense approach to even the most academic questions. He can feel comfortable at a luncheon of english [sic] professors, and yet also trade ideas about new DNA sampling techniques in a back stairwell."
The story line states that the Dean's interactions with a variety of issues and people "will be symbolized by the desk in his office-twenty feet long and four feet wide, it is covered with up to 40 files, neatly arranged. The Dean spends half an hour each day circling his desk, thinking about each issue, and how they relate to each other."
The issues facing the Dean were initially outlined in "possible story ideas," as distinct from the pilot program, including one under the heading of "Genetic engineering," in which the "Dean must preside over the furor produced when the biology department tries to patent certain genes. These patents would allow the department to collect money any time any researcher anywhere tried to manipulate a few specific human genes."
Another story possibility concerned military contracts, which the mythical mini-MIT needs "to maintain its edge and its budget"-the largess of moneybag Gates apparently not sufficing. "The Dean becomes aware that his new job will mean supervising departments that are working on spy satellites and some forms of 'defensive' biological warfare weapons."
And then there are "Conflicts with Christian fundamentalists who attack the university for its high level science, conducted in opposition to the sacred truth as they see it."
The pilot episode which ultimately evolved from this preliminary jousting focused on "three plots about altered states of matter, of body, and of mind." The first, "The Brain Plot," tells of a researcher whose "self-experimentation into his own sleeping brain ... has landed him onto a slippery slope toward madness and suicide."
Then there's "The Longevity Plot," in which rivalrous researchers in GRALE's "Cy-Phi" Department "may have discovered the fountain of youth." As they battle over their findings and their implications, "The audience watches as demographic, political, sociological and other trends evolve in time, all of this demonstrating the awesome power of the Cy-Phi Department."
"The Cosmology Plot," the final entry in the tripartite pilot program, "centers on the most audacious alteration of matter that is conceivable"-raising the possibilities of the destruction of this universe or the creation of another. The Dean asks the principal investigator: "Do we buy a ticket? Is the experiment to proceed?" Answer not stated in the outline.
But then there's an extra, an "Infowar Subplot," concerning "a story from Dean Kyrian's past-of a woman who haunts him, of faith turned to dogma, of love turned to hate and of Holy War." Descriptions of the characters populating the mythical mini-MIT describe Dean Kyrian as "built like a barrel-short, powerful, explosive, scheming and infinitely compassionate."
Thadeus [sic] Polk, the head of the Cy-Phi Department, is known as "The Colonel." He is "from the 'black world,' a silent and deliberate spook."
Andrus Potemkin, "Formerly a top-notch Russian physicist," is described as "a man of appetite and heart. In another time, he would have led a Cossack charge."
Then there's Melissa Gebbe, who is not only "statuesque and graceful," but who "can virtually single-handedly design and build a massive accelerator."
The cast includes Anthony Beresford, "a haughty Brit" who "dresses with nauseating precision" and "professes to care about the world, but abuses those closest to him."
Beyond their profession of no interest, nothing is known about the response of the network TV executives to the pilot outline of Lederman and company. SGR, however, has been provided with assessments by several academic colleagues to whom Lederman sent an outline late last year.
"I think it is marvelous," wrote Walter Massey, President of Morehouse College and former Director of the National Science Foundation. Massey, however, said he found "the plot episodes very difficult to read," which may be due, he said, to his unfamiliarity with TV outlines. But, proceeding with the critique, Massey wrote, "The idea of having Mr. Gates being black is imaginative, and I like it very much, but I noticed there are no black scientists among the very brilliant group who are central to the innovative, intellectual guts of the program."
Noting that the GRALE staff "is brilliant beyond the pale of most ordinary people," Massey added: "I thought that one of the messages we wanted to convey is that science is a welcoming community where the major breakthroughs require a level of extraordinary brilliance and commitment, but that there is room for people of above-average intelligence and commitment who are not necessarily in the genius category." Massey advised Lederman to test the pilot program "on a few college-age or even high-school age groups to get a better reading."
"Gripping" was NYU Dean Alice Huang's term for the GRALE outline, but she, too, had reservations, stating that the Longevity Plot wouldn't pass muster with some molecular biologists. She also commented that "I like all the different Brits and Armenians; but if you walk into any university these days there are many Orientals. Will they be in the background?"
An "engrossing set of stories," is how Linda Wilson, President of Radcliffe College, described the TV pilot outline. But her expressions of enthusiasm waned. "I don't think it would be as good as Masterpiece Theater," she wrote to Lederman, adding that "I do worry that if it doesn't get tamed fairly soon, the 'Frankenstein' character of the scientific content could begin to do more harm than good to science and scientists."
Warren Washington, a research administrator at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, described the outline as "a fantastic script and a great job of writing." Washington reported, however, that he had discussed the TV project with Neal Lane, Director of NSF. Lane's "only concern," Washington wrote, "was the portrayal of scientists as real people may tarnish our image with the public." (SGR has not confirmed that account of Lane's response.)
Lederman told SGR that he's not giving up. "I'm ever hopeful," he said. "We'll interest some TV network or some deep pockets," he said, "or we won't."
He said he's "networking" to gain the interest of Steven Spielberg. "I've got a second cousin related to Spielberg's cleaning lady. I'm working on it."
"The chances of a bunch of amateurs like us breaking into prime time were poor from the start," he continued, but the prospects have improved, he said, rising from "half a percent to three percent."
Asked what he thought the TV series might accomplish on prime time, Lederman said, "It's not physics one." The hope, he said, is to "teach something in each program." He emphasized "skepticism" as an important quality of scientists that he would like to convey to the public. "In 40-50 one-hour shows, you could teach a lot," he said.
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"So far the project is in the talking stage, Lederman says, sounding like someone whith a script in his pocket at a cocktail party. 'We do have possibilities,' he says. 'We had a crack at Steven Bochco. The word wasm he thought it was great but he doesn't do scientists.'
"To put this in scientific terms, Lederman and Malone have a working hypothesis, but they haven't persuaded anybody to finance the experiment. It's not often you get to point our a potential problem in the experimental protocol of a Nobel laureate, but this is one of those times. Leon and Adrian (get used to being addressed by your first names), you picked the wrong model for the television show. It should be a sitcom."
--From an article by James Gorman in the May 19, 1996 issue of The New York Times.