ALL IN THE FAMILY ADVERTISERS PRAISE - AND FUND - SHOWS FOR EVERYONE.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

While angry viewers send e-mails and snail mails, sign petitions and carry signs objecting to language, sex and violence on the big networks, a coalition of pretty powerful advertisers is doing something to improve what's on TV.

The Family Friendly Programming Forum, an umbrella group encompassing Procter & Gamble, Hallmark, Kellogg's, General Motors, IBM, Pepsi and 38 other big brands, got together last week to hand out its eighth annual Family Television Awards honoring the best prime-time shows suitable for almost any age.

Its members also were celebrating the fact that five series shepherded by its Script Development Fund made it onto the networks' schedules this season: ``Ugly Betty,'' ``Brothers & Sisters'' and the upcoming ``Notes From the Underbelly'' on ABC, ``Friday Night Lights'' on NBC and ``Runaway'' on The CW. And they quietly recognized the five latest recipients of scholarships for students working in TV development.

``Numb3rs'' (CBS) was named best drama series, ``Everybody Hates Chris'' (The CW) was selected best comedy, and ``Ugly Betty,'' a critical and ratings success, was chosen best new series.

Tony Shalhoub claimed the best actor honor as the obsessively neat detective in ``Monk'' (USA), and Jennifer Love Hewitt won best actress for playing a woman gifted with the ability to talk to the dead in ``The Ghost Whisperer'' (CBS). ABC's ``Dancing With the Stars'' -- maybe the most widely appealing TV hit in decades -- was selected top reality show, an honor accepted by freshly crowned Emmitt Smith.

``So many people I've come in contact with said they watched it with their wives or their husbands, and they also watched it with their kids,'' the former football great said.

Howie Mandel won the game show or reality host honor for NBC's ``Deal or No Deal.''

``I had no idea it would be this family-friendly,'' Mandel said as he accepted his TV-dinner-shaped award. ``Now I've got 4-year-olds and 84-year-olds coming up to me. It's amazing. They tell me they sit on the couch, and they interact and they scream at the TV.''

As is apparent from the award for a game show that often trains its cameras on young models in curve-hugging attire, they aren't all squeaky-clean programs. Kaki Hinton of Pfizer's Consumer Healthcare Division, who is co-chair of the FFPF, says the organization has given new meaning to ``family-friendly'' that includes cross-generational appeal, relevance to a diverse audience, depicting real-life situations and responsible resolution of issues.

``Families can deal with issues like sex, drugs and teenage pregnancy, for example, as long as these issues are dealt with responsibly,'' she says. ``We are not about censorship, but creating more choices.''

Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, favors the FFPF's proactive efforts in developing such shows as ``Gilmore Girls,'' ``Commander in Chief,'' ``American Dreams'' and ``The New Adventures of Old Christine.''

``We hear so much about the Parents Television Council complaining to the FCC and ranting about this or that naughty word, or wanting to take TV back to the way it was in 1955, most of which is infuriatingly infantile,'' Thompson said. ``Here is a much more sensible approach. When you look at that list of shows they helped get on the air, they are good shows.''

FFPF member Johnson & Johnson produced the winner of the best dramatic movie, TNT's ``The Ron Clark Story,'' a biopic about an exceptional Harlem teacher, while Disney's smash movie ``High School Musical'' won best musical or comedy movie.

Although the winners of the Family Television Awards were notified in advance, some expressed surprise that their shows had such crossover appeal.

Tony Plana, who plays America Ferrera's father in ``Ugly Betty,'' said his first sign that the show was hitting home with kids, seniors and everyone in between was the feedback he got at church. He didn't expect there would be much in it to grab those who can't relate to Betty's daily grind at Mode magazine.

``I really thought the writers were going to favor the workplace because it was where the most conflict existed -- and usually the most comedy,'' Plana said. ``But they've surprised me in the way they have balanced the show in emphasizing the family as well as the workplace. And I think it's been wonderful for the show because it's been much more interesting.''

`Numb3rs'

When Cheryl Heuton developed ``Numb3rs'' for CBS, she thought the math-infused crime procedural series would draw the usual adult audience plus maybe a cult following among physics grad students. But there's something about the chemistry between co-stars Rob Morrow and David Krumholtz and all that number-

crunching that is clicking with schoolchildren. ``That's been really surprising to us,'' she said. ``We didn't plan it that way, we didn't expect it. We're really gratified with this award, with people saying, yes, this is stuff that families can watch.''

`Veronica Mars'

Not every FFPF winner is a gold-mine show. Enrico Colantoni, honored with ``Veronica Mars'' co-star Kristen Bell as best father-daughter duo, thanked ``the rabid 2.8 out of a possible 100 share of audience'' that has tuned in this season to the CW series.

But Thompson said the success of ``High School Musical,'' seen by more than 60 million viewers in multiple airings, is evidence that good shows suited to both kids and adults will find their audience.

``The networks don't have a lot of programming content with that broad appeal right now,'' Thompson said. ``This organization's use of awards and subsidies is a much more productive way to approach this. It's an enormous economic opportunity (that) the market should have discovered already.''

Valerie Kuklenski, [phone]

[e-mail]

How to air your concerns

While the Family Friendly Programming Forum includes only advertisers, here are some organizations that welcome the public's involvement in addressing concerns about broadcast content.

The Center for Media Literacy is a nonpartisan nonprofit offering professional development and education materials aimed at teaching media consumers, particularly the young, to evaluate the underlying messages they receive in programming, films, advertising and other mass culture. CML occasionally needs volunteers at its Santa Monica office. [phone] or www.medialit.org.

Children Now works on a variety of issues involving children, including media watchdogging. The Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit ``seeks a positive media environment for children,'' initiating campaigns directed to the Federal Communications Commission, networks and other media organizations about what children are exposed to. [phone] or www.childrennow.org.

The Parents Television Council sees itself as ``the conscience of the entertainment industry and corporate advertisers who sponsor broadcast content,'' according to its mission statement. The Los Angeles-based nonprofit is outspoken in Washington and Hollywood on indecency issues, and its position statements sometimes lead to public boycotts of programming it finds objectionable or the advertisers who support those programs. [phone] or www.parentstv.org.

The National Institute on Media and the Family in Minneapolis has as its goal ``to maximize the benefits and minimize the harm of media on children through research, education and advocacy.'' Its KidScore report card of TV shows is vast yet a little out of date, now that the nonprofit has turned much of its energy to video-game content and ratings. It seeks active participation of citizen members through its site. [phone] or www.mediafamily.org.

To contact the broadcast networks directly to praise or complain about a program, go to the ``feedback'' or ``contact us'' link found most often at the bottom of the Web sites: abc.go.com, cbs.com, cwtv.com, fox.com, nbc.com,mynetworktv.com, pbs.org, telemundo.yahoo.com, univision.com.

-- V.K.

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3 photos, box

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(1 -- cover -- color) FAMILY FRIENDLY

TV advertisers pushing for shows with wider appeal

(2 -- color) Emmitt Smith (with partner Cheryl Burke ``Dancing With the Stars'')

(3 -- color) ``UGLY BETTY''

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How to air your concers (see text)