On the other side of the desk

By Maria Elena Fernandez and Greg Braxton

Jan. 12, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writers

When Sandy Grushow resigned as head of the network and television studio divisions at Fox last week, he landed in a place called Phase Two.

Phase Two is not a condo development; it is the name of the production company that Grushow now runs, and which Fox must finance for the first three years of its existence for at least $10 million.

In most businesses, leaving one’s job means a plunge into the unknown. But in Hollywood, where job security is tenuous but the system can also provide a kind of corporate welfare, top executives often pre-negotiate the condition of their exits, so that the departure quickly becomes a new lease on life: a production deal, on the same studio lot (but perhaps with a different parking space).

“For some people, [the move] represents a soft landing,” said Grushow, who coincidentally made the SundayStyles pages of the New York Times recently for hosting a book-signing at his home for his rabbi, Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s Steven Z. Leder, author of the new book “More Money Than God: Living a Rich Life Without Losing Your Soul.”

“That’s just been the way Hollywood has worked for decades now, both in television and the movie business. But for me, it’s a personal choice. I can’t speak to ... the other reasons people go down that road. It’s just something I personally wanted to try my hand at. I feel like my entire career has been building for this moment.”

As Fox Television Entertainment Group chairman, Grushow had been running the Fox network and 20th Century Fox TV studio since 1999; one of the side benefits of his resignation is that he won’t have to speak to the network’s struggling prime-time lineup this week before the nation’s TV reporters, who are in Hollywood for the semiannual Television Critics Assn. press tour. (That honor will go instead to Gail Berman, the Fox network’s president of entertainment, who on Friday will have to explain why “Skin” died a quick death, why “Arrested Development” hasn’t taken off, and why she’s sure the new unscripted series “My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance” will draw large audiences.)

Grushow joins any number of veteran executives who have left their network posts to strike out on their own -- or sort of on their own, given that media mergers in recent years have left broadcast networks and studios under the same corporate umbrella.

Stu Bloomberg, former president of entertainment at Disney-owned ABC, resigned two years ago and segued into a job as a producer at Disney-owned Touchstone Television. Last June, Jamie Tarses, ABC’s entertainment chief from 1996 to 1999, and her longtime friend Karey Burke, NBC’s former executive vice president for prime-time development, formed a production company called “The Untitled Burke-Tarses Project.” Their deal is at NBC Studios.

There are practical reasons for the way in which network heads leave but don’t go far. For who understands development better than the executive who formerly occupied the network chief’s chair? And yet, some writers have argued, how can network TV hope to develop innovative new shows if it keeps recycling the same executives?

“It’s harder than ever to get a scripted show on the air, and then to keep it on the air,” said 28-year industry veteran Ted Harbert. “I have some ability to navigate those difficult waters. I know what’s said behind those walls.”

In recent years, Harbert has bounced from head of entertainment at ABC, to producer at DreamWorks Television, to president of NBC Studios, to his position today -- a producer again, this time at Fox.

Both Grushow and Harbert said their experience on both sides of the development fence gives them pitching advantage at a time when the pursuit of solid material is more competitive than ever.

In addition, as networks reach out to less-experienced writer-creators from different disciplines, such as theater and film, the migration of network executives into show-runner-type roles is more vital, Harbert said.

Harbert, who is developing about a dozen projects including a half-hour comedy for ABC starring Jessica Simpson and a drama for Fox from “American Idol” creator Simon Cowell patterned after “Fame,” said his new job is both liberating and similar to the one held at NBC because of the time he spends working with writers.

“In all my years at ABC and NBC, my schedule each day was pretty much laid out. Every hour was packed, and it was basically going from meeting to meeting. This can be as intense or even more intense as what I was doing before, but if I want to go to my daughter’s soccer game, I can do that more easily.”

While network experience for a new producer can be advantageous, it can also backfire, said David Nevins, president of Imagine TV, who is a former development executive for NBC and past executive vice president for prime-time development for Fox. Eighteen months on the job, Nevins can boast of three Golden Globe nominations for “24,” “Arrested Development” and “Miss Match.”

“It’s hard to come out of a long period of time at a network where you spend 90% of all your time saying no,” Nevins said. “It’s almost impossible to have a clean slate because you inevitably [anger] people when you have to reject them. Developing things other people want to be a part of is the one way around that. I tried very hard in my years at the network to be somebody who was helpful to the creative process. Hopefully that served me well now that I’m in a position that’s more shoulder to shoulder with the writers.”

For top executives, the transition from buyer to seller does not always come easy, Nevins said.

“I had no idea how I’d be as a seller. For some, that can be sobering. But when I left, I felt a well of pent-up creativity that I didn’t know I had inside. I realize now that I can sell what I believe. Being in a small production company, I am able to work on good things that I believe in.”

Times staff writer Paul Brownfield contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Making the move

The perks may not be as great when network television executives step down, but they rarely face the unemployment lines either, as illustrated by the following examples.

Sandy Grushow

Most recent network executive position: Chairman, Fox Television Entertainment Group

Returned/transitioned to producing: Jan. 5, 2004

Projects already aired: None

Projects in development: N/A

Stu Bloomberg

Most recent network executive position: Co-chairman, ABC Entertainment Television Group

Returned/transitioned to producing: Jan. 7, 2002

Projects already aired: None

Projects in development: “Doing It,” an hourlong drama for ABC about the sex lives of teenage boys, plus five other projects.

Ted Harbert

Most recent network executive position: President, NBC Studios; before that, chairman, ABC Entertainment