Wit and intelligence are such rare qualities on TV-maybe anywhere-that the networks never knew quite what to do with Linda Ellerbee. Maybe PBS doesn`t, either.
She spent 11 years at NBC anchoring a series of highly praised but unsuccessful shows, including ”Weekend” and ”NBC News Overnight.” In 1986 she moved to ABC to do the equally admired-and equally unsuccessful-”Our World.”
When ”Our World” was canceled after one season, Ellerbee signed a deal with New York`s WNET to bring the show to PBS. We`re still waiting.
”PBS still very much wants to put it on the air,” says Ellerbee. But the show is expensive, $4 million for 13 episodes, and fund-raising efforts were stymied by corporate skittishness after the stock market crash.
A year later, Ellerbee and her Lucky Duck production company have moved the show to Boston`s WGBH, ”and now we`re back really pushing to get the underwriting . . . It just sort of got, although I hate this phrase, put on the back burner.”
Of course, PBS is not exactly known for its speed. Asked to compare PBS executives with commercial network executives, Ellerbee smiles and says,
” They`re very nice people, but they have a lot of meetings.”
If the show returns, it will return with a new name, ”Our Time.”
Despite the delays, Ellerbee says she hasn`t lost interest in the project. ”I really believe in this show. It ought to be on the air, whether I do it or not. . . . It`s a perfect, easy way to bring a student into the history of his nation, of his people, of his family.”
The new version will be co-hosted by Lloyd Dobbins, her former co-host from ”Overnight.”
