‘NYPD Blue’s’ Caruso Leaves a Sure Thing on TV for . . . ? : Television: The bias of tiered status for film and TV actors is breaking down. The real issue is material. Whether David Caruso finds it remains to be seen.

When David Caruso returned this week in the season premiere of “NYPD Blue,” there was a quick, vivid reminder of the big gamble he’s taking in leaving the hit drama series to shoot for motion picture stardom.

The ratings for the premiere of the ABC cop drama were potent. Caruso, despite his upfront movie money, could easily have had a sure-thing annuity by sticking out the run of the series. Instead, he’s departing after the show’s first four episodes, to be replaced by Jimmy Smits.

Once again, the siren call of the movies has lured a successful TV star into films.

It was not so long ago, for instance, that Bruce Willis, who came to fame as David Addison in TV’s “Moonlighting,” turned to the big screen in a gamble that paid off--as witness his new movie “Pulp Fiction.”

Another onetime TV star in “Pulp Fiction,” of course, is John Travolta, who first really drew attention as the character Vinnie Barbarino in the series “Welcome Back, Kotter.”

And, hey, isn’t that huge movie star Tom Hanks, now headlining the film “Forrest Gump,” the same guy we remember from the television comedy series “Bosom Buddies”?

When folks like Hanks and Willis make it big-time in the movies, you can bet it has an impact on budding TV actors. The money can be enormous, and there is still snobbery in certain motion picture quarters toward the folks in television.

The truth is, of course, there can be tremendous money in TV as well. Producer Aaron Spelling, who is primarily identified with TV, can buy and sell most movie producers in town. As another example, “The Cosby Show” earned more than $500 million on just its initial rerun cycle in syndication.

Yet the snobbery is still there, but it’s not as pronounced as it used to be. Steven Spielberg’s company has a piece of the new NBC medical series smash, “ER,” and also produces two other weekly dramas on the network.

With good dramatic parts not always in strong supply in films, serious actors such as Sam Waterston have no qualms about going to TV or wherever they can find them. Example:

Waterston, who has starred in such films as “The Killing Fields,” became a regular this season on NBC’s “Law & Order.” And not long ago, he headlined another admired NBC series, “I’ll Fly Away.”

The general rule of thumb in TV’s early days, when most home-screen stars were definitely regarded as second-rung personalities compared to their film counterparts, was to get out of a weekly series fast if you wanted to avoid being strongly identified with the tube.

The late 1950s offered an excellent example, when an array of young TV stars who would go on to become major film personalities had their own weekly series: Steve McQueen played a bounty hunter in the Western “Wanted: Dead or Alive,” Lee Marvin was a cop in “M Squad” and Charles Bronson portrayed a photographer in “Man With a Camera.”

None of their series were on very long. But just to show that the movies’ attitude toward TV stars was shortsighted and that talent eventually would out, there was another young comer who ran for seven years, from 1959 to 1966, in a TV Western. The series was called “Rawhide,” and the actor was Clint Eastwood.

Eastwood, of course, made a real impression on TV. But only truly dedicated couch potatoes may recall that for one season, from 1959 to 1960, the sitcom “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” featured another young comer named Warren Beatty. If you want to prepare for “Jeopardy!,” just remember that the character he played was Milton Armitage.

The snobbery has also been reduced by some other pro-television turns. Once upon a time, TV stars were often cast as second leads in movies, as studios figured their fans would simply add to box-office returns. But as the recent spate of films based on old TV shows--”The Addams Family,” “The Beverly Hillbillies”--has illustrated, the movie industry now has been taken over by the television generation, which is less hostile to the tube.

Nowadays, we have Ted Danson of “Cheers” as a movie idol. And Dana Delany of “China Beach” and Dan Aykroyd of “Saturday Night Live” are starring in the film “Exit to Eden.” The “Saturday Night Live” cast broke through the film barrier like no other group in TV history, with such performers as Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Aykroyd and John Belushi going on to movie fame.

Caruso, who reportedly wanted a hefty raise after just one season to remain with “NYPD Blue”--and was rejected by producer Steven Bochco--is still a question mark when it comes to major film stardom.

But TV, it turns out, can still be a return haven for some headliners whose movie careers are not exactly skyrocketing. This season alone, for instance, Dudley Moore, Martin Short and Gene Wilder have network sitcoms. None has done very well in the ratings--a reminder that movie stardom rarely counts for much on television, which generally creates its own icons, such as Alan Alda in “MASH.”

One notable exception, of course, is Candice Bergen, who came to TV after such films as “Carnal Knowledge” and “Rich and Famous” and struck it rich in “Murphy Brown.” Another movie name, karate whiz Chuck Norris of the “Delta Force” films, is doing fine in the ratings in “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

Caruso may, of course, return to TV some day in one of the various common forms--on all fours, hoping for acceptance again, or as a movie star who wisely has no prejudice about accepting good roles wherever they are, the way Holly Hunter does.

Stars like Dean Martin, who had an NBC variety series as well as a movie career, helped dilute the snobbery attached to shuttling between the big and small screens. Angela Lansbury, one of the grand performers of stage and screen, also made it perfectly respectable to move on to TV, in “Murder, She Wrote.”

And in the 1970s and ‘80s, when TV was often turning out the kind of important social dramas that movies had abandoned in their pursuit of the teen-age audience, performers such as Vanessa Redgrave--who appeared in notable home-screen films like “Playing for Time”--often gave the tube the upper hand and added immeasurably to its respectability for serious artists.

Caruso is leaving a great series for a question mark. Nothing is certain in Hollywood. Roseanne is big in “Roseanne” but hasn’t had much impact in films; on the other hand, her co-star on TV, John Goodman, has made it in motion pictures. And Rob Morrow of “Northern Exposure” is in a movie hit, “Quiz Show.”

The smartest actors just keep looking for the bread and butter. Dabney Coleman, once a hit in such motion pictures as “9 to 5,” has become a cult TV personality (“Buffalo Bill”) and now seems to have a winner, “Madman of the People,” because it follows “Seinfeld.”

Dick Van Dyke, a TV legend, has had a movie and stage career and now is back on the tube in “Diagnosis Murder.” John Ritter has also made the show-biz rounds and has returned to TV in “Hearts Afire.” The great actress Cicely Tyson is also back on TV in “Sweet Justice.”

There is no best medium. There is only good material. Bette Midler proved it again by bringing “Gypsy” to TV. And now Caruso, who left a good thing in “NYPD Blue,” can only hope that he finds something better.